The Art of It

I went to a fascinating demo by Cherry Nichol at the Constantia Art Society monthly meeting. She uses watercolours but adds splotches of a medium called ATP Clear. This absorbs the watercolour and you can move it around like oils. It dries leaving a texture. She also uses pastels in the wet watercolour for highlighting stems etc, and Progresso Aquarell woodless coloured sticks which she sanded into the watercolour. This created little flecks which partially disolved. I have decided that this is the year of workshops and Plein Air painting!!! Cherry Nichol will be holding a workshop which I definitely want to attend. I am not yet confident enough to use oils outdoors and so have been using charcoal and water. The sketch below was done in this medium. I then took some very old fat crayons that my daughter was given when she was a child to paint on faces. Using these I started adding a bit of colour. The sketches above were done at Kirstenbosch and are very rough. I then bought my...

Isn’t nature interesting? If you look at some of my earlier posts you will see a pencil drawing of my late father and a couple of charcoal portraits of his grandson, my son. I am posting a new charcoal portrait of my Dad as part of this post and I’m busy with an acrylic based on the same photograph. Drawing a portrait concentrates your mind on those characteristics, which make a face unique. It was a fascinating discovery and a strangely emotional experience to find myself drawing the same lines on the forehead and around the mouth; shaping the same crooked smile and battling to get that ear right. Amazing! Can you see it too?

This is a drawing of my son and his fiance The photograph on which it was based was taken in the early days of their relationship! This is one of my favourites and I will be getting it framed soon for hanging in my studio. This drawing is from a photograph taken by I don't know who on a fancy cruise liner!

This is my gorgeous red headed, blue eyed daughter. The original photo was taken by her boyfriend and is incredible! This is definitely one I want to paint when I have a bit more experience!

This was one of my first charcoals; my sister. The original photograph was taken by her partner and her expression captivated me. I hope I have done it justice.