Close ups

Here's the detail on the figures from the last painting. The larger child in the foreground was the hardest to paint for many reasons, mainly that the side of his face is showing and I wanted to do my best to get a likeness, plus there was the issue of changing his clothes from summer to winter and having no photo or reference to base it on (I did end up using my daughter's coat so I could get the right angle for the hood!) and finally it was just that he was so much closer than the other two and more detail had to be put on him.

The two background figures were lovely to paint. It's surprising how much the body language and the angle of the legs and arms are recognisable as the movements of these two children, who I know well. The dog running towards them is a nice balance to the composition, leading the eye into the distance. The colours of brown and turquoise also work well without being too in your face and eye catching.

Commissioned painting from beginning to end

Here's another series of photos showing the work in progress of a painting that was commissioned as a gift for Christmas.

I purposefully started off with a mess because, 1. it stops me getting precious about the painting; 2. it shows me where the light and shade is going to be; 3. it creates a thick undercoat for the main paint on top, so that it doesn't look thin and washy. This undercoat is acrylic, but it's going to be oils on top. Acrylic is a bit more predictable, plus it doens't absorb into the canvas like oil paints do. You know when you get cooking oil on your clothes, and there's a big smudgy, oily mess that you can't get rid of? Well that's what the back of a canvas with no undercoat looks like, and it's not nice!

This next undercoat is oils; spot the difference?! There isn't much, I admit. I suppose it looks smoother than the acrylics. Lots of low odour thinner is used here (a bit like turps but without the stink) so the oil spreads in a thinner layer.

Now it gets a bit more interesting with detail in the sea; I always start from the top down, sky then sea then sand then figures, it just makes the layering easier. The thick oil paint works well here to make some nice frothy type waves, plus the same colours are used to suggest the puddles in the foreground.

More work on the figures and sand continues; a bit more blue here, a bit more brown there; it's a balancing act. But at this point we realise there's a continuity error! The figures in the distance have thick winter coats on, but the foreground figure is in shorts and tshirt, it doesn't add up. Problem is I was working from two different photos, and this is where things can start to go wrong when you composit them together.

So we gave him a coat, and I altered the angle of his legs, and here we have the finished image. Happy days. There's a bit of shine on the photo, the canvas is quite big, one meter wide by 80cm high, so it's hard to fit it all in without some of it catching an angle of light. I'll post some close ups on the next post.

Mini Gallery

These are the paintings in the shop at the moment (hopefully they'll have found a happy home by Christmas!). It was nice seeing them grouped together like this. The daughter of the owner came up with the idea of making a triptych, three separate paintings that will be displayed and sold together, which is a really good idea. It was from seeing the two beach paintings above displayed side by side, as they do look as though they're part of the same landscape.

The little boy watching the sail boat is called "Sailer Boy," he's so cute, and I've also done a variation on the snow painting. I think that's my favourite at the moment, we're almost drowning in the stuff here! Lots more photos and paintings to come on this snowy theme hopefully.

Boys on the Beach

Enough red for now, sticking to a turquoise theme, which gives a fresh summery feel. The two boys almost look like the same figure taken in two different positions but are actually two different boys.

I'm going to use this photo again, which also includes one other figure on the right hand side, in a larger black and white version.

Buildng a Sandcastle

Slightly more colour was added to this painting compared to the previous monochromatic paintings. I think it's livened it up and makes it look more sunny. The previous painting is more obviously a winter setting whereas this is a summer setting. I love the high angle showing the rock pools and little rivers fading away into the distance. It gives plenty for the eye to wander around on and then come back to the figure of the little girl busy working away.

Children on the Beach

This is the finished painting based on the previous photo. It's currently up for sale in the Potting Shed shop in Llantrisant, near the Royal Mint. It's acrylic on stretched canvas and the size is the same as an A4 sheet of paper.

A few elements not in the photo were added for interest, such as the red bucket and spade and the rocks and reflections in the distance. A slight hint of red was also added to the sand to warm it up slightly.

I've been commissioned to paint a much larger version for a friend of mind for her mothers Christmas present. It'll be on a landscape format with an extra child added and a dog running in the distance too. The accent colour she wants is turquoise, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Children on the Beach

I've been working on a series of paintings for a local shop The Potting Shed which feature children playing on the beach. I've done a small version based on this photo which has come across really well. The painting is painted primarily in black and white, with tones of dark brown, then as an accent colour I also added a red bucket for the girl and a red spade for the boy. The painting shows really well how elements from a photo can be kept as they look in the photo whilst also adding features from the imagination that add to the composition.