Picture a Week

I sneaked a little jacket work in last night before going home. I realised that I’m not going to be in on Friday so realistically need to finish this picture by Thursday!

Today though I’ve detailed the hair, eyes, glasses and a bit of wierdy beardy. Gotta laught seeing as I’ve got a face full of it myself.

Had to force myself to get on with it today. I know once I get started I realy enjoy it, but like most things getting that motivation to start is sometimes the hardest part.

Dotted some liquid latex on the areas I want to keep bright white, and a few places where I’ll blend in a lighter colour smack bang inside a darker one.

He’s looking a bit blue and orange today, but these are the base shading coats for his face (today I’m starting with the shadows in blue) and his coat (starting with the highlights in orange).

This is my first beared. Think I might need a little luck with that!

So as promised, this week is a picture of Jonathan Coulton (the inspiration of painting fifty two pictures this year). I had a quick smurf of the tinterwebs and found a picture of him not on stage, looking rather casual. I liked the pose and lighting so have gone with a zoomed in portrait from this pic.

So it’s Monday and the sketch is done. For portraits I like to follow the techniques from a cool book I think was called “Watercolour People”. That means my sketch is full of small areas of tone, and looks a little bit like a paint by numbers kit!

Anyhow, here is progress for day one.

So week one has commenced, and finished. I said I needed to do a quick one and here it is. The start of a very long year I feel.

In order to keep this one quick the subject matter has come straight from one of my (many) Art Books on water colour techniques (better attribute it – Readers Digest How to Paint Watercolour Landscapes, photographs by Joe Cornish, Written by Hazel Harrison).
I also chose a 6 inch by 4 inch (15cm x 10cm) water colour paper. It’s the last small sheet in my box so I rubbed the sketch that was on it out and started fresh. It’s a Windsor & Newton postcard paper and there is a spot on the back for an address and stamp! I don’t think I’ll be sending these through the post though, not with our wet weather.

Started at 12 noon and was finished by 1.30pm so an hour and half for this week, and I’m happy with the choice.

Enjoy!

Full image:

With ruler for size:

Framed:

I’m changing the blog. Now I’m getting old and inspired by Mr Jonathan Coulton, I’m going to paint one picture a week in my lunch hour. I’m then going to post it on here, with a creative commons licences.

If it does nothing more than add 52 pictures to my growing collection then so be it. Who knows though, someone might actually like them.

I was going to start with a painting of the inspiring man himself (Mr Coulton) but this is a half week for me as, well, it’s New Years Day and the weeks most of the way over. He’ll come next, and I’ll start this week off with something quick and easy.

Be warned, I’m fond of barely dressed ladies (I went to an all boys school, which has a lot to blame for), so expect at least one of the 52 to be Not Safe For Work.

Lets see how far I get.