This blog post continues on from the previous one where I have writing about my working methods, how I started my career as an artist and my artistic influences. 11. I use a limited palette with watercolours, Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Rose Madder, Vandyke Brown, Payne’s Grey, Manganese Blue, French Ultramarine, […]
Tag: John Singer Sargent
Time Lapse Portrait Sketches
Portrait Drawing There are no short cuts to achieving sound drawing skills. Regular practise at drawing from observation will pay off in most visual disciplines in art, whether it’s painting, sculpture, graphic design or even photography. Before working on a commission or a painting for exhibition I will often warm up for 10 to 20 minutes […]
Portrait Sketches
As I mentioned in my previous post, I will often start my painting days with a warming up exercise. My usual practise is one or two portrait sketches of John Singer Sargent portraits in my Moleskine sketchbook. Last year I did a few time lapse videos of these portrait sketches to show the process of […]
Time Lapse Sketches
When I have a painting day ahead of me I like to spend a few moments warming up in my Moleskine Sketchbook. The link on this post to Time Lapse Sketches shows my process. Usually, I’ll have a quick flick through my John Singer Sargent books and choose a portrait to draw. I’ll sharpen up […]
Commission a Portrait
On our Painting Holiday in Italy in May 2015, one of the guests asked me to paint a portrait of her husband Arthur for his birthday present in August. It was to be a surprise so she asked if I could work from photographs. I said that I could, but if possible I would prefer […]
Drawing
A few weeks ago I was asked to write an article for the website of a new initiative here in the North East called Drawing. Drawing? is a 6 month long, region wide programme of exhibitions and events. It aims to explore drawing in art and culture and also in other areas such as science, […]
John Singer Sargent
National Portrait Gallery One of the “must see” exhibitions of 2015 has to be the John Singer Sargent, Portraits of Artists and Friends. It’s on show at the National Portrait Gallery, London. It is accompanied by a terrific new book by Richard Ormond. He is the co-author (with Elaine Kilmurray) of the Complete Paintings of […]
Portraits
Time of Reflection At the start of 2011 I was approaching the grand age of 50. It was a period of my life where I began to take a longer, more reflective and honest look at my life on a number of different levels, personally, spiritually, my family life and my career as an artist. […]
Watercolour Tips
I’m currently running a 6 week watercolour painting course at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland. One of my top Watercolour Tips is to study the work of some of the great watercolourists. There are a some terrific books available which are a “must buy” for anyone wishing to develop their watercolour skills. Rowland Hilder […]
Sargent Studies – A Daily Sketch
For the last few weeks I have been continuing with my daily discipline of a sketch a day. I try to do this for 20 minutes to an hour, 5 or 6 days a week, usually in my Moleskine Sketchbook. Gouache Painting Most of my studies have been made with a charcoal pencil. However today […]