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.