Sketches from the last of the Black Swan Prize free portrait painting sessions with model Cougar Morrison.in a neon green leopard print dress with bling accessories and red hair, she was quite a challenge to sketch. The glittery lipstick and eye-shadow were impossible to capture with watercolour but it was a really fun and interesting portrait attempt. The top sketch is my second one of the session (size A6) and is better capture of features and expression, the lower sketch was drawn first and larger (A4) and is less fluid…. I was still finding my way around features and models are often more tense in the first hour….it takes time for both artist and model to relax, to really see the facial landmarks and expressions….only two hours is a very short time to get a likeness but I’m happy with my attempts…always learning.
Month: November 2018
Remembrance Day 2018 – Kings Park Perth
62,000 hand knitted or hand crocheted bright red poppies (with knitted green stems) on the lawns around the War Memorial in Kings Park Perth today. Created by RSL volunteers over the last 18 months they are quite a spectacle, the intense red against the lush spring green grass. 
Black Swan Prize – Live Portrait Challenge – 2018 – Cathedral Square – Grace Barbé
The Black Swan Prize are organising three live portrait challenges – a model is provided (and shade gazebo), anyone can join in, you have two hours to paint or draw in what ever medium you like…..This week it was Grace Barbé and beautiful singer originally from the Seychelles. Grace was wearing a gorgeous green patterned shirt and lots of colourful jewellery so I got a bit carried away with the greens in the shadows, but it was great to have a go at painting her….TWSBI Eco fountain pen with EF fude nib, De Atramentis document Urban Grey ink, various watercolours with Pentel and Kuretake waterbrushes on Winsor and Newton heavyweight cartridge sketchbook.
Final sketch of an artist deep in concentration, squinting to see the value changes…..
Six colour limited palette
I’ve been tinkering with a very limited 6 colour palette for quick and secretive sketches….in a cafe I like to add colour if I can but sometimes don’t want to draw attention by unfolding a larger palette. That’s where the “mini” palette comes out to play, the tin cost about $4 and the lid and base were already coated with enamel paint so I just put a couple of strips of blue tack on the base. The tin only holds 6 half-pans and is small enough to fit in the palm of my hand….the below sketch is on an A6 notebook which hides inside my fauxdori, combined with a small waterbrush I can happily paint…. Colours I have below are: Hansa yellow medium, Burnt sienna, Permanent rose, Winsor red, Pthalo blue (green shade) & Ultramarine blue. The sketch was drawn with my TWSBI Eco fountain pen and EF fude nib in De Atramentis document black ink.
sketchbookblue 