'Babes in the Woods' - process 3

The under painting is finished ... I think? What I do know is that it feels tired and not exciting so time to turn it to the wall for a week. Then with fresh eyes, having put all the photos away, will work solely from my previous drawings and added imagination. I have always kept the photos around so this will be scary but may be liberating?

'Babes in the Woods' - process 2

Got the Babes drawn in charcoal on the canvas. This stage is where the drawing acts as a map for the painting ... everything is on and more or less in the right place. It will be an oil painting but ...


... the under painting is being done in acrylic. I am painting quite wet and am hoping to pull all the mass shapes together. This painting is based upon multiple photos and lots of small drawings. I am still leaning on the photos for reference but hoping that by the time the under painting is finished I have moved on to painting straight from imagination.

Will it work?

Sadly 'Tree Dancer' did not get accepted for the R.A.'s Summer Exhibition. The rejection letter, besides pricking my confidence, speaks of almost 10,000 entries so reminding me that this exhibition is intended to be a money spinner for the Academy. So hauling my confidence back into place I have entered it into the 'Threadneedle' competition.

So why have I put my work up for this sort of judgment? I think I want some sort of indicator if I can run with the big boys. Rejection will tell me ... 'not yet' ... and eventually .... maybe ... perhaps ...

'Babes in the Woods' - process 1

A preparatory pencil drawing towards an oil painting. The idea still needs some development so the picture will evolve.

'The Thatcher' - process 2

Painting the under drawing went well. I tried to keep the paint on the thatcher smooth but descriptively rough on the roof. It is now on a small easel under a protective umbrella of a J-cloth to keep the dust of while it dries. Drying may take some time!

'The Thatcher' - process 1

This guy has been re-ridging a thatched cottage round the corner from me on Queen's Street. Re-ridging lasts around 15 -20 years so the earliest he will be returning is in the year 2024.

I am flexing my oil painting fingers for this as I want texture showing in the thatch. It's a small canvas (180 x 125) which was previously painted in blue acrylic paint. I drew directly onto the canvas using vine charcoal working from my thumbnail drawing, removing the unwanted marks using putty rubber, but as you can see by the shadows of my first attempted drawing it is not easy getting the composition right. The under-painting (grissaille) will be in oil using the blue as the mid tone.

Oil paints require drying time so I will be developing other paintings in tandem with this painting.

'The Lost Door'- finished

I think this picture owes much to the levels and hue/saturation sliders in Photoshop. I have, yet again, made the error of not allowing for the yellow of our cotswold stone when painting shadows.

'The Lost Door'; process-2

I am within a whisker of making mud of the colours in the shadows. Grrr! So it's out with the 'bleed proof white' to retrieve the white in the lightest areas and to add colour to the dark areas. This white is very luminescence but it does not pick up the under colour as you paint. The naughty bit is painting over the top of it. Colour needs to be placed without to much scrub because it will bleed into the top colour. When I list body colour in the media used it is usually the 'bleed proof white'.

'The Lost Door'; process-1

A basic line drawing of a door which has been painted closed that leads into the garden of a once grand house around the corner from where I live. It's garden is now covered in 70's cheap houses and this door now only leads into the past.

The start of the coloured drawing using brushes and dip pens. I am not sure where this will take me but the ride should be interesting