It's been a while - yet again - since I've made a post on here, mainly due to the facr that I haven't really been making any art. This is mostly due to time constraints, I find myself continously putting off starting any painting sessions as I never seem to have a decent amount of time to spare. I have done a few sketches to work out compositions (for new paintings) and have done a small bit of watercolouring, and a bit of writing & artwork for my 'Zippy the zebra' series of childrens books.

Following on from my proposal to do a painting of Lady Godiva during Coventry's time as UK city of culture this is still a "work in progress". I had established a composition and began work and then decided that I wasn't happy with it (the composition). More importantly though, I have never painted a nude, or even painted many portraits. So - not surprisingly - painting skin isn't easy. It's something I need to practice.  I have my new composition sorted out ( although I have to review the buildings), and have begun practicing watercolour portraits. Watercolour - for the moment - is the most convenient as I can spend an hour (or less) working, and then leave all the brushes and paint in situ until I can back to it at a later time.  Although it's one drewback is that it's a very difficult medium to control. And the paper is quite expensive. Luckily I have a pad of student grade paper as the good stuff is too dear to be using for practicing. 

This week I have attempted a copy of Van Oost's 'portrait of a boy aged 11'. I wasn't trying for an exact copy - but more to use it as a reference. I didn't measure up or anything, as my main concern was to practice the technique of painting in watercolour. Learning how to lay washes and understand how to deal with bleeding.

I thought the hat would be an easy wet-into-wet experiment but it wasn't as straightforward as I expected. Still, I was happy enough with the skin tones.

The second portrait I attempted was a copy of Botticelli's "portrait of  a young man". This reference image is a frontal view with a fairly graphical quality, but again, I am more concerned with trying to capture the variations in skin tone, along with application of washes.