Natasha painting all finished

 

Well I've finally finished the Natasha painting this week. I'll order the materials for frame tomorrow then it should all be ready for delivery next weekend. Posting this from the pub, so I'm going back to my pint now...will post a new experiment I'm working on very soon. :-)

 

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My Painting Day...

I haven’t told you about my painting day at the SOTA Gallery a few weeks ago…

All went well, Jen and Andrew the gallery owners were great and all the visitors seemed to enjoy seeing how I go about painting a portrait. The Prime Minister, David Cameron visited to officially open the gallery and we had a bit of a chat about some of the portraits in the House of Commons and the portrait Jonathan Yeo had done of him. He then invited me up for a tour of the House of Commons, which should be fun :)

I didn’t make that much progress on Natasha’s portrait while I was there…too many interesting people to talk to. But I did manage to get all the outlines done and I started on some of the shadow colour in the afternoon. Lots more to do :)

Natasha sketch

 

This is the initial sketch for the painting of Natasha, the design is all approved, so I need to get some stretcher bars to make up the canvas and then off we go :-)

 

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Portrait commission - Natasha

We've had a visit from Natasha this morning, she was sitting for some photos and discussing her painting commission. I'll be doing some sketches from the photos we've taken over the next week or so and then work on the painting can begin in mid November. It's going to be in the black, white and gold style of the other 'girl' paintings I've done this year. I'll be posting photos of the piece as it develops, so watch this space :-)

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Sketch of Lucy

I wanted to have a small pencil portrait to show alongside the portrait of Chloe & Ruby during my winter exhibition, so I’ve done this little sketch of Lucy. Next I need to get some prints done of the main paintings I’ve done this year & then order lots of framing things so I can get them all framed up nicely…I’m going to work on the portrait of Matthew & Meagan during the exhibition, as that will hopefully get people asking ‘oh, do you do portraits then?’… there’s the experiment for the book project to get back to…and some sort of Christmas print to think up and produce…lots to do :)

Framing Chloe & Ruby

I’ve been working on the framing side of things so far this week. Lots of moulding samples arrived so I’m building some boards to display them on. I’ve framed the portrait of Chloe & Ruby, the main frame is oak which I’ve sealed and waxed, this is over a dark wood floater frame, a sort of contemporary take on a traditional framing material. I’m really pleased with the way it’s come out, the oak is gorgeous and really suits the painting, and the furniture in the room where the painting will eventually hang :) I had a little of the floater moulding left over, so I’ve used that to frame the picture of Bex, I’ve left a much larger gap around that which sets the painting off very nicely, I’ll do some more like this :)

Mr & Mrs Rice

I’ve been working on the portrait of Matthew & Meagan today. Again working from dark to light. Also varnished the portrait of Chloe & Ruby and Gesso’ed the canvas I made yesterday…time for a beer now I think :)

Chloe & Ruby portrait finished

Chloe & Ruby all finished & a photo of the wood all cut for the frame :)

Stripes

More work on the clothes today, Chloe’s top is pretty much done. Ruby’s stripy top is much more complex so that’ll take a couple of passes to get right. I’m working from light to dark on it initially, mainly to work out where all the stripes go, once that’s done I’ll go back over it from dark to light to get the folds correct.

Graham's Dog Kennels...

The main pass on the faces is now done & I’ve started on the clothing, this is going to be painted more fully than the recent paintings and will (fingers crossed) be the style of the next set of paintings…and as you can see from the other photo, if the painting doesn’t work out, I can always open a kennel ;)

today...

Todays progress...

some mid tones...

Building up the mid tones today…

Dark to Light

I’ve been working on the painting of Chloe & Ruby today, I’m working from dark to light, nearly finished the shadowed areas, more tomorrow…

My furry assistant…

I've finished the ‘surprise’ commission this week, so everything will be blogable next week.

Chloe and Ruby were in modelling for their portraits yesterday and as you can see from the photo, Bryn was a great help… Also did a little work on Matthew & Meagans painting, finished drawing the hands and started building up some of the main outlines…more on that next week…:)