Usk, 26. 11. 2010.

Working on a cheap canvas, I decided to draw with diluted white spirit. The paint sinks into the surface to start which I quite like. I had less than an hour and a half so I worked fast. I was working on a white background which means even the lightest tone looks dark. I used the same three colours plus white that I have favoured recently ( sap green, magenta and yellow ochre )but towards the end added alizarin and viridian to create some blues.

Ocean, Brockweir, 23. 11. 2010.

I decided to do the warm ups in thinned oil and then rub them back and work on top. The view I had was difficult and I seemed to spend ages on the initial drawing. The feet were hard and I just couldn't get her left knee right. The paint wasn't going on as I like it to, it was sliding too much possibly because of the cheap white spirit I had used for the warm up drawings. In the end I made up her right foot up and added a shadow to suggested it was lifted off the surface. I am disappointed that today it didn't go as well as recent efforts and will start another one next week possibly on a white canvas.

Usk, 19. 11. 2010.

I decided to do an oil sketch on a cheap canvas. We had to do a 20 minute warm up so I did it on the canvas and then rubbed it back so I could do the main pose on top. Using a palette of just sap green , magenta , yellow ochre and white I did the drawing with mostly Magenta . I then added the mid tones and highlights. I only had about 90 minutes to work and I am quite pleased with the outcome. I will try a similar approach at Brockweir but I won't be working on a white background and I will use a mixture of magenta and sap green for the initial drawing.

Gladys, week 2

I went with the intention of leaving some of the painting unfinished and at lunchtime it was looking quite good, but as usual I worked on and lost some of the freshness. It was a nice surface to work on this week and I started by glazing into the darker areas. I am finding it easier and more suited to my technique to keep the palette limited to just Sap Green, Magenta, Yellow Ochre and White.

Gladys. 09. 11. 2010.

Totoman, 2010.

Some recent work.

Dave, Brockweir, 28. 10. 2010

A commissioned portrait painted from a very good photograph. I was given the choice as to how I wanted to recreate the image. I considered coloured pencil , pastel and watercolour but decided on oil. I went bigger than originally planned approx. A2. I drew straight onto a white background using Raw sienna. I then added cobalt violet for the darker areas before mixing under painting white , Raw sienna and a touch of magenta for the lighter areas. That's all I used in the early stages, no blue as I found the Raw sienna and white was giving me cool enough mixtures. I did use Yellow ochre and cadmium red as the painting progressed and I needed more opaqueness. I needed to redraw the lower part of the face as it was all wrong. I used a variety of mixtures for the hair and found a mixture of Alizarin and Viridian very effective for the darker areas.

Justin, Brockweir, 01. 06. 2010.

More conte' drawings, but I have enjoyed the last few so much I couldn't resist another go. I will use colour next time.

Justine was a new model which is always good as it throws up different challenges. The drawing was hard again especially as the position would change slightly after every break. In a way I think this worked in my favour because when I started to block in the colours I began by applying them in a looser more relaxed manner. It was as if the frustration at not being able to get the drawing right relaxed me for the next bit. I had decided today to use just three primary colours cadmium red , cadmium yellow light and ultramarine. I also used a bristle brush rather than the acrylic ones I have favoured lately. I did the drawing using the red and blue first and then added the yellow. Into this I added titanium white to get a grey and then just added colours to get the shades I was after. This mixture can get a little muddy and I needed to mix fresh colours. I felt more in control than of late and I liked the marks I was making and the fact I was working all over the canvas at once. Not all the areas worked but some do. I don't like the orangy colour I have used but I like the blues and purples. I added alizarin to the palette to get a better purple but felt I was losing some of the harmony and so stopped using it. The face was a problem as it kept changing and she even fell asleep at one point. I am not making excuses because as I have said earlier I think it helped in some ways.

I am pleased with the finished result but could have done with a bit more time to resolve the hands, but then I would have probably started tightening it all up and spoilt it . Angela referred to some of the brush strokes and mark making as joyous which was encouranging because I think she picked up on a more relaxed attitude today and certainly an approach I intend to repeat.

Below I have put the last three which I feel points to some progress.

Marcia, Brockweir, 25. 05. 2010.

I made the initial drawing using a mixture of vermillion , cadmium yellow , ultramarine and white. The first marks were mid tone and I darkened them as I went on. I struggled with the drawing again especially getting the proportions of the head right. I spent a long time on the drawing and then blocked in the background with the above mixture. The lighter areas were put in using a cool mix of lemon yellow, ultramarine, a touch of vermillion and titanium white. I felt the shadowed areas were too blue so I made them greener. I wasn't happy with the cool mixture so I added yellow ochre to the palette which I mixed with cerulean white and a touch of vermillion. I tried to liven it up by adding stronger colours which I put on with one of my flat synthetic brushes. I added a blue mixture over the brownish background letting it show through in places. I am quite pleased with the face which has stopped just short of being too detailed. the painting as a whole is an improvement on last weeks but it still too tight around the edges and still seems to lack a bit of oomph.

Jane, Usk, 21. 05. 2010.

Started very loosely as if I was doing a quickie. Used a black to start which was a mistake as I then went on to use colour.

Penny, Brockweir, 18. 05. 2010.

The two warm up drawings in the morning were done by attaching a pastel to a long piece of willow.

For the two afternoon ones I used a black conte' pastel but not attached to a stick. I am really pleased with these drawings particularly the second one.

I am very disappointed with this painting and was tempted not to put it on the blog , but the whole point of blogging for me is to record both progress and lack of it and hope to learn from it.
Last weeks effort was much better ( I have put them together below ) and I hoped to build on it this week. Up until lunchtime things were going reasonably well. but after the break I seemed to lose direction and started making poor decisions. The whole thing started to tighten up and it ended up looking very wooden. There are some areas that I like and that is what I must take encouragement from. I quite like the hair, her right hand, the shadow across her chest and her left knee. An artist whose blog I follow referred to the bits you like as ' baby steps 'and that is exactly what it feels like at times.

Things I will do differently next time include not using the thinned down mixture of vermillion and ultramarine to under paint the lighter areas as it made everything look dirty,not use the light red as much as it is too opaque and try not to lose the element of loose drawing that exists in the earlier stages . I also need to check the measurements more carefully as I can now see that the shoulders and legs are wrong.

Jane, Usk, 21. 05. 2010

We were asked to concentrate on a portrait, feet or hands. I struggled with the basic drawing all the way through and had to draw back into it quite a bit.

Penny, Brockweir, 11. 05. 2010

The day started with the usual ten minute quickies. As usual the afternoon ones were stronger

I worked on an oil primed canvas board. The ground colour was made from light red , ultramarine and white primer which makes a nice grey that can be as warm or as cool as you like.
The drawing using a thin mixture of the two colours mentioned above was really difficult and I took a long time to get it as I wanted it. I blocked in the darker areas and then started to put in the middle tones using varying mixtures of only light red , ultramarine and under painting white. I did this because I had recently tried it as an exercise in mixing up warm and cool flesh tones. The idea was to add other colours as the painting developed without losing the sense of harmony I was trying to achieve. I wish I had added more darker areas in the early stages as I liked the way the lighter tones looked when they were scumbled over them.

I added a mixture of alizarin and ultramarine to the shadows and introduced vermilion to warm things up a bit. I also used some lemon yellow to add a bit more variety to the colours.

I am more pleased with the top half of the painting. I like the way I have not been tempted into overworking the face and really like the shadowed area across the upper chest where most of the brush marks are the original ones that have not been worked into. I will try this approach again remembering to put in more dark areas early on including the background and delay using white for as long as possible.

Penny dancing.

Still messing about on my new laptop. I really like the way these two gestural drawings work together.

Alison, Usk 06. 05. 2010.

Gladys, 04. 05. 2010

We only did three quickies today, one in the morning and two in the afternoon. All three were done with a conte pastel.

I decided to do a portrait today and had to do it from where I was positioned last week . It was probably too far away. I drew it in with a thinned down mixture of vermilion and ultramarine which I also used to block in some of the darker areas. I also tried to use some recently acquired light red, but it was too opaque at this stage. I mixed in some white and started to add the middle tones trying to match the warm and cool colors. Adjustments to the drawing were needed particularly to the eyes. I got bogged down with the drawing a bit and the painting started getting tighter. I was only using vermilion ,ultramarine, lemon yellow and white at this stage. To get her hair dark enough I made up a black using cadmium yellow ultramarine and alizarin. I started to use ultramarine and alizarin to darken certain areas on the face. The problem with Brockweir is that the light changes a lot in the afternoon and you have to make adjustments. It might be a better idea to do one in the morning and a different one in the afternoon and then work on them both the following week. Towards the end I started to use varying mixtures of light red, ultramarine and white as it was easier to get the warm and cool mixtures I wanted.