This book arrived in a post yesterday. No art books for me for Christmas so I thought I'd better order one and learn more about using pastels...
Year: 2024
Swatching New Soft Pastels
My 112th soft pastel arrived in the post today, filling up my wooden pastel box, so I was straight out to the studio to swatch all 56 of my new...
Christmas Stash 2024
Happy Christmas everybody. I'm busy rushing round finding homes for all my presents before I go for my daily walk. But then I thought, why not...
Website Tinkering
I’m still on my year end painting hiatus but that's not going to stop me posting. Individual posts on this website of artworks that are up for...
The 2024 Artistic Actuary Video
I wasn't feeling it today. I think it's time for me to down tools and start my Christmas break. It's a bit awkward when Christmas Day falls on a...
Crash Landing
And here's the companion piece to go with 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be). The process for painting it is exactly the same. Both paintings...
1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
I wanted to do something today that didn't involve using a photographic source. The idea was that I could watch the World Championship Chess at...
Michael Portillo
I had quite a long afternoon free today so thought I'd have a go at a posterised watercolour portrait. Today's subject is faction icon and former...
CasD, Drinks Break
It's been nine days since my last painting. December is too busy a month. I hope I’ve not lost any readers during the hiatus. The break might have...
Slash
Today I have been mostly painting Slash. This is a posterised painting using the blue colour scheme, as described here, so the colour are cerulean...
Messing Around
It's been a whole week since I last posted. Sorry about that. Too much other stuff on. Choosing a bathroom, choosing blinds, attending an 80th...
Lee Carsley
It struck me, watching the football the other night, that the England interim manager Lee Carsley would make a great portrait subject. His eyes...
Kerri
After Saturday's fun with the Artgrafs, I wasn't ready to put them back in the drawer and fancied using them to paint a figure. Today's model is...
Portrait Artist Of The Year 2025 Entry
I've bitten the bullet and put in my entry for Portrait Artist Of The Year 2025. My self portrait is this one. For my second portrait, I went...
Oliver Reed
I’ve had a photo of Oliver Reed as Bill Sikes in Oliver! sitting around for a while waiting to be painted and today was the day when I was finally...
Creative Drawing Techniques, David Brammeld – Book Review
Time for another book review. Once again, a book whose price suddenly dipped on Amazon and tempted me to click on it. This one's been on my...
The Face Of Harakbut In Oil Pastel
The plan was to do another soft pastel painting today but looking through all my potential source photos I couldn’t help remembering how short I am...
Talisker Distillery
I was busy yesterday putting together my applications for Portrait and Landscaoe Artist Of The Year yesterday. The PAOTY deadline isn’t until 7...
Self Portrait 2025
As promised, it was a self portrait day today. I've seen people online talking about applying to Portrait Artist Of The Year, and it's got me...
PeachK
I didn't want to spend long painting today as (i) I want to finish the novel I'm reading, and (ii) want to make a start sketching tomorrow's...