Penny

Three 10 to 15 minute gestural drawings using black and white pastels

Three more in the afternoon this time using coloured pastels to reinforce the ideas I had been working on with the painting. Alex's studio is much smaller than the hall at Brockweir and you have the model much closer.

It was decided to try and approach the painting in the same way I do my drawings. I don't find this such a problem in the early stages as I am simply drawing with paint. I drew it with a mid tone orangy brown colour made up of white, cad yellow deep, cad red and purple ( mixed ).

When I was happy with the drawing I started to add the colours. The idea was to apply the paint like I do pastels with strokes of colour put on with gaps between rather than in blocks. I was encouraged to look at a colour mix it and put it on. As time went on I became tentative with the colours and needed to be bolder. The colours needed to be cleaner and slightly exaggerated as they can be refined if needed later on. It was difficult to stand back from where I was but this would have helped as the colours mix optically and look better. The paint became thicker making it more difficult to avoid muddiness. Hopefully I will go back next week when the paint is dry and continue with the approach.