More Paintings (Mine).

I stress these are mine as I have a bumper lot coming for the next 'Watercolour Paintings' piece from an array of fantastic artists many new to me.

A Study in Gold. 11" x 15,"Khadi hand-made paper approx. 200gsm

I was trying something slightly different and not doing a complete head. I have been looking at the portrait by Charles Reid in Judi Whittons book 'Loosen Up Your Watercolours' (Collins 2005 Page 72). This particular portrait was a demo painted by Charles Reid  at a 1999 workshop at Stow on The Wold, England. Judi bought it when the demos were sold off at the end of the course. It's just amazing. Other partial  portraits by various amazing artists I've picked up on Facebook or Pinterest and studied those also.

Charles Reid Portrait from a live model. Stow on the Wold 1999.

This may well not appeal to the realistic school of portrait painters. You will see some amazing examples of realism in the next batch of watercolour paintings. I love it though and don't let anyone tell you it's easier doing looser  portraits because I can assure you it isn't!

The Sunglasses Have it! 16" x 12" Waterford 

This was painted a few days prior to the one above. I loved the colours and was especially taken by the sunglasses and colourful reflections. It was difficult and I'm not entirely happy with it, especially the hair. Perhaps another example of sticking too closely to the original (or rather trying to). I mainly paint from photographs through necessity, and the biggest problem is you are invariably pulled towards copying them. I resist that much better these days but Charles Reid doesn't do this and concentrates on his impression of the subject. Sometimes the resemblance is good but not always 100%, but the final result is what matters not how accurate it is. If he can capture the essence of the subject that's good enough.The finished paintings are always interesting. 

Despite having been painting in watercolour for approximately 19 years I'm still not at a level where I  am happy with my paintings. At 80 it's probably too late to make much further progress but I'll keep trying. That's the result of not starting to paint until I was 61 so get started as soon as you can and for the first two years concentrate on drawing.