Through His Dark Paradise...process

This is another piece for what I aim will be part of an exhibition idea I have. This is the 4th one in the theme, although they don't necessarily run in sequence. This was fairly slow work at times, but it's satisfying to see it finally come to fruition. As always I've included the various stages to illustrate its progress. It's graphite and coloured pencil on toned paper.

Figure study...process

This is the first time I've used charcoal powder, which is messy, but wonderful for blocking in large areas of tone, and building up the layers. This is one of my models, Paul, from the life drawing course. He always does superb poses; always considered and interesting. This one is based on a reference photo. I always start my life drawing studies with gesture, then I add more refinement to the contours, before blocking in tone, and finally adding more depth to the values. Definitely looking to do more of these in the not too distant future.

Autumn Landscape...process

I actually finished this piece before Christmas, I just didn't get round to posting it on the blog. It began as a class demo, but as is my way, if I'm into it, I'll finish it off in my own time. I'm pretty happy with the depth I've managed to convey, which is something that remained elusive to me for a long time. It ended up being my mothers Christmas present in the end.

Still Life with Skull...process

I finished this still life study recently, which began as a demonstration for my oil class students. As I've said before, I don't always finish these, but it feels good to have done so. I didn't do an underlying pencil sketch to start this off, instead I oultined the basic shapes/forms with Raw Umber thinned down with mineral spirit. However, every painting I do, whether personal or for a demo, starts out as a thumbnail drawing in my sketchbook. I've included those sketches as well to give an insight into the advent of the process. This is oil on paper.

Behind Beauties Darkness....process

This is another personal piece to go with 'Gnarled' and 'Master of Carrion'. They're all part of a series I'm working on, and I should be adding to that soon, as I've got another one lined up. Yet again, I always had a pretty clear idea of how I wanted this to turn out. The initial sketchbook drawing is very close to the final image. Although you could argue the hand crushing the butterfly is a significant addition to the narrative.

Gnarled process...

This is another personal piece, loosely based on a prose poem. I enjoyed this, as it's so refreshing to do work unrelated to a commission sometimes. Another piece that was clear in my mind right from the start.

Waterfall study process...

Last semester I did a demo of me painting a waterfall in oil, here is the method I followed. I was very careful to include each stage of the process for my students; initial thumbnail sketches to figure out composition, design, values, etc. These drawings are probably the most important stage of the whole process, not to sound hyperbolic. After that I like to do a couple of colour studies to establish the basic colour world of my image before I dive in (which is what I used to do with my work in university, much to the distress of my tutors). After those steps, I feel better prepared for the main event, and have more confidence in general about how I'm going to go about it all. Now, I tone my surface with a neutral like Raw Umber or Burnt Sienna. You can tone your 'ground' with whatever you like, but make sure it makes sense for the specific painting you're working on (for example, I wouldn't use bright red for something like a naturalistic waterfall). Then it's time to paint, outlining my basic shapes first, then blocking in my most obvious values, from dark to light usually...

Master of Carrion process...

Sometimes ideas just come into your head and you've got to get them out and onto paper. This was one of those. It's graphite and white charcoal on toned paper. Nice birdies....

Horse Head study process....

I'm not entirely sure what inspired me to do a horse head study in the first place, but I'm glad I did. It was a great challenge and working on the toned paper lent itself perfectly to capturing that added sense of depth in the values, particularly when applying the layers of graphite powder. I worked from a photo of course, but added my own subtle embellishments so as not to just 'copy' it directly, which would be no fun at all.

Portrait study process part III...and portrait of a girl

These are the last of the student portrait demo's I did during the last semester. I wanted to see how I'd tackle a beard, but also try and get some sense of form and depth in the wrinkles. The portrait of the girl is another study where I limited my palette. It isn't quite the Zorn palette, as I did use Ultramarine, but it's the next closest thing. My aim was to capture some atmosphere and mystery with that one.