Oil sketch of Simon

This oil sketch was done in approx 2 hours during our last session before Christmas at the scout hut. I experimented once again with the 'Zorn palette' limiting my colours to Cadmium red, yellow ochre with Ivory Black and Titanium white. To read more about the process, read my earlier post 'Oil sketch of Gabriel 2'. Here is the work in progress:

The colour in the final photo is subdued as I had to photograph it away from the light to stop getting too much glare on the wet oil paint. Once our session was finished we all set off to a local hostelry, to enjoy our annual Christmas 'bash, (I'm front left) a good time was had by all!

Glass Jar with Citrus

I am beginning to get a little embarassed by how I favour this glass jar with cork stopper. The glass throws up so many beautiful colours and I love the chunky shape and jaunty angle of the stopper. So. I am not going to apologise for using it yet again; I just need to hunt down more recycled glass to elicit the same response in me.

Oil Sketch of Gabriel 2

This is my second study of Gabriel, painted in a session of approx two hours. I decided to try out the 'zorn palette' so that I could enter into the challenge. I thought I may not get as much colour using such a limited palette; surprisingly, I found that far from being restricted it all became more colourful than usual. This is my palette: Ivory black, Cadmium red, Yellow ochre and Titanium white. I set up the palette, (from the left) with a grey scale using the black and white. Green from the yellow ochre and black. Purple from the dark grey and cad red. Flesh tones from cad red and yellow ochre in differing proportions. I took all these mixes into white to give a value string for each. Working between these I could neutralise the flesh tones with the grey scale, purple scale or green scale. The brown hair is a mix of green/red and black/redwith a little yellow ochre. It came as a surprise that I was able to get so much colour into the sketch; possibly I concentrated on making sure the colours were available to me by my palette preparation. It made me realise that a more restricted palette is no bad thing, and I will continue working with this for a while so that I can really work through the possibilities.

Presents with Pot

I used pastelmat as a support for this pastel still-life. It is the first time I have tried it and I really enjoyed the way it took the pastel. I like the fact it is not to abrasive on my fingers, and feel it lends itself to detailed passages very well. Consider me a convert:-)

Oil sketch of Gabriel

There is a fair bit of glare on this photograph; I may try to take a better image tomorrow when the light is better. I painted Gabriel from life in a session of approx two hours, yesterday at the scout hut.

Copper jug with fruit

This painting was done a little while ago and I realise I have never posted it. Sometimes it happens like that, I work on a panel and I'm not sure what I think about it. It gets put it to one side until I know how best to proceed and then gets buried somewhere deep in the studio. A tidy up can sometimes prove fruitful :-)