Framed Portrait

As promised in my last post here is the finished portrait as it returned from the framer's.

Geoff has been a stalwart of Durham County Cricket Club for many years, adopting a variety of roles. Last season, in spite of a mid season heart attack, Geoff coached the club to their third County Championship. I couldn't resist including the trophy in the picture. 

Geoff Cook - Oil on Linen 40" x 30"

Portrait - Geoff

Once again an apology for neglecting the blog. One of the reasons is that I've been working on a large portrait and I promised the sitter that I wouldn't show it at all until he'd had the opportunity to see it finished. This happened last week.

The portrait comes about as a result of me deciding that I wanted to attempt making a couple of large portraits. I further wanted to make pictures of people who were known beyond my immediate circle of friends, adding a different pressure to getting the exercise to a decent conclusion. One of the people I contacted was Geoff Cook, coach at the Durham County Cricket Club. I explained to him what the nature of my project was and he readily agreed to give me some time when I could make a few sketch notes and take lots of photographs. That in itself was a pleasant experience as Geoff is a real gentleman with plenty of interesting conversation.

The day of reckoning arrived last week when I took the piece up to the Cricket Club to meet Geoff. Imagine my relief when he reported being delighted with the finished result and so it comes to you via this post. The picture is now off at the framer's and I'll post the finished, framed work when it returns. In the meantime here is a photograph of Geoff and the picture and below is a detail of the head from the portrait.

Two Geoffs 

Geoff Cook - Detail from 40" x 30" portrait, oil on linen

Long Time Missing

Well I've been missing from these pages for some time and got to thinking it was about time that I broke cover and made my excuses.

In some ways the painting activity has been somewhat limited for all of the usual reasons but for one or two others as well. The main one being a commitment to work on my portrait work with a view to producing two large scale portraits and for me this has been a big task in terms of technique and application. The project is not yet complete and as I promised the subjects that I would not let anyone see them until they had had the opportunity to view them in completed form. Hence no blogging about the developing work, much as I would have liked to share the progress with you all.

However, there are I couple of things that I can share. The first is an unusual  work for me. I was approached with a commission to produce a caricature of a group to be given to a chap who was retiring from work. As the gift was to be a surprise I only had a couple of photographs to base the work on. I spent a lot of time doing preliminary sketches to inform the final piece and it was with some trepidation that I presented the finished work to the people who asked for the work to be done. Thankfully they were pleased.

Off to the First Tee - Watercolour and Pen on Not paper 16" x 12"

My second picture in this post is one produced on a recent visit to the Norfolk Painting School. Regular readers will know of the high regard for Martin Kinnear and his workshops. My recent visit was to explore the use of glazing techniques as used by a variety of Masters. This was my favourite piece made as a study of a work by John Atkinson Grimshaw. Atmospheric effects courtesy of subtle glazes. I can see me trying more of this style in the future.

Back to my portraits, hope to be able to share them soon.

Study after Grimshaw - Oil on board 24" x 20"

Portrait 3

Today's changes to the portrait. Another day of learning. The main points for me are finding ways to improve my mixing and also my measurement. Whilst I've made a number of adjustments to both during this process, I've not yet got them to the point where I'm totally happy but I feel that this exercise has got me a little closer.

I'm about to put this one aside for a while as it has always been a study for a more formal portrait. The next step for me is to spend a little time experimenting with colour mixes to improve my choices when representing skin. 

On reflection I feel that this isn't too bad as a portrait even though it doesn't have that magical quality of a true likeness to the subject. However it is close enough to suggest that I'm making a little progress.

Portrait 3 - Oil on linen

Portrait 2

I only managed a short spell in front of the canvas today but managed to begin the work of improving accuracy placing some extra shapes. I've also played with some different colours as well as those used yesterday. For a yellow I've introduced Gold Ochre and for a blue, Cerulean. Along with the pigments used previously it has become easier to produce an interesting range of greys.

As with yesterday I can spot a number of things requiring a little adjustment before the next work on refining the image.

Portrait Day 2 - Oil on linen

Portrait Time

I've eventually got round to beginning the first of a bunch of portraits that I want to work on. The last few weeks have been a time for sketching and planning and thinking about where I want to arrive at.

The next stage in this journey is to experiment with technique, colour mixes and types of support.

For the first study I've chosen to work on linen, largely because I don't need to produce a coloured ground and I've already got a mid tone to work against.

The first stage for me is an outline in graphite. After that the application of some paint to get a feeling for the shape of the face and provide a base for thinking about drawing accuracy and placement of colours. The initial strokes are made with burnt sienna and some medium then some skin tones made with cadmium red light, cadmium yellow, titanium white and medium.. All of the paint was put on thinly to assist in drying.

My first impressions have given me a list of adjustments that I need to make to improve my accuracy but I now have something to work on as I develop my palette and start to refine the shapes that I've initiated. Hopefully, I'll have time tomorrow to get back to the job.

Portrait beginning - Oil on linen 14" x 12"

A New Challenge

Recent frustrations with image making had me thinking hard about getting some sort of focus to my activity. The latest thinking for me is to spend some time making portraits with a view to producing a large scale piece early in the New Year. So in one sense it's back to basics, drawing on a daily basis and honing the observational skills necessary to make convincing portraits. It's some time since I submitted myself to that degree of discipline  so I'm hoping that the process gives me a boost in technique.

The sketch below is one of today's efforts with evidence of much adjustment and erasing as I have attempted to get somewhere near to getting the rudiments recorded. As yet it doesn't represent a convincing capture of the subject but this whole project is very much a work in progress.

I hope that regular readers have patience with my fragmentary work on these lines and I'd welcome any advice from the more regular portraitists out there.

Drawing - graphite 6" x 4"