Venerable Gentleman

This is my latest portrait after quite a lapse. I was attracted to a photograph that my fellow AVA artist Yvonne Harry produced and asked if I could borrow it.  The attraction to me was the character of the face - goodness knows what it has seen in the course of a long life.

The original drawing made with a mechanical Pentel 07 2B pencil. I took no measurements but started with a basic fairly faint outline, then worked out where the features, eyes, nose and mouth went constantly checking them in relation to one another and erasing and redrawing where necessary. Quite often actually. The mouth was more or less hidden. I then used Pebeo masking fluid, mostly thin or very thin lines, possibly overdone in places but with the hair a combination of gray and white preferred the white paper to show through rather than add acrylic white or gouache later.

This is my `studio' with the work in progress. The TV isn't in working order though.

Another view.

Still another, rather dark unfortunately which means I have to use a powerful daylight bulb.

`Venerable Gentleman' - 16" x 12" Centenaire 140lb (300gsm) not

The skin colour is various combinations of Cadmium Red Light, Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean, Burnt Umber, and Translucent Brown (Schminke) The beard had light washes of greys made from Cerulean, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna etc. The darker areas were put in when the original washes were dry. One of my many faults is not to wait long enough for the washes to dry.

Brushes used were the Isabey 6 retractable and Isabey series 6228 Kolinsky sables in sizes 4, 6 and 8.