Working with individual sitters.
I have decided that to improve at all I need to stop trying to jam a decent portrait into a class session and take my time and work with individuals. Hopefully friends and family will volunteer, but if not I will look for models.
My first kind volunteer – Jeanette. I took several photographs, though I am still very timid about doing this and should probably take a lot more. One advantage of working from a photograph is
a) The sitter hasn’t got to give up hours of their life and
b) It is possible to have a range of expressions to choose from.
Posing for a long time inevitably leads to very serious expressions, there is no way the subject can hold a smile for a long period.
Only a smile of course, under no circumstances will I attempt teeth!
5B Pencil on white cartridge paper.
My next victims were Helen and Hugh – Who sent me a selection of photographs. I did a preliminary sketch of Hugh and then tried an acrylic final portrait. I tried to stick to the basic Lucien Freued Palette which is Yelloe Ochre, Cadmium Red, Ultramarine, Ivory Black, Cadmium Yellow. and White My results in acrylic are way behind my pastel portraits, and I do get dreadfully bored mixing paint,
So far have only done a pencil drawing of Helen, but I like it. Will try a full portrait with acrylic, but may retreat back into pastel.
