Ansleigh

We’re off over the road for a pub dinner at five this afternoon and I wanted to finish and write up an artwork with plenty of time to spare so I went for a figure in Inktense pencils today. It feels a bit lazy, not pushing boundaries and retracing old steps but I am allowed to do that sort of thing once in a while. Today’s model is Ansleigh, making her debut.

Partly motivated by the need to keep exploring new areas, I thought I’d hold myself back from my favourite blues and violets and stick to greens and reds, maybe even create some interesting dark colours by mixing them. So after putting down a pencil outline, I filled in some greens (teals apple, field and leaf green) and a couple of reds (Persian red and wild flame), trying to mix red and green in the hair and in the shadows.

But then after adding the water, I found things were looking a little washed out. For once I’d been too light with the colour rather than too heavy. So I went over the darkest areas with fuchsia (a stronger pigment than the other reds) and teal green, adding some other greens in places to help the areas I was darkening continue to blend into the lighter areas and I even repeated this, adding on a third layer. And after rubbing out any remaining pencil lines (the best bit about these Inktense pencil paintings), that was me done.

What I’ve ended up with is perfectly fine and worth putting up for sale. Looking at this, though, I can see my figure painting style developing. There re more colours, more brush marks and fewer white highlights than there used to be in my paintings. It’s not that I’m getting better or worse: I’m just moving in a particular direction. I kind of prefer the old style, though, and need to try to reassure t that style at some point and see what happens.

I’m undecided about whether to go for the pie and mash or fish and chips tonight. It will probably depend on whether I fancy Shiraz or beer which, in turn, probably depends on what beers they have on,