Brian Clough’s Finger

I went notan style again and used the Shire colours, along with the other two greens in my supergranulating palette and a bit of white gouache at the end.  So after putting down a pencil outline and reserving the whites. I put down a first layer of Shire yellow with Shire olive charged in in places and spattered both these colours over the background.  Then the second layer was Shire blue with Shire green charged in.  And the final layer was Shire grey with Forest brown and green apatite genuine charged in.

I did a lot of fiddling with the painting afterwards, searching for a likeness.  I tried adding more of the Shire yellow over the white areas in a few places.  Also more of the Shire blue over the Shire yellow and more of the Shire grey over the Shire blue.  I even found myself creating more highlights with the white gouache.  But I just couldn’t get that likeness.  Phil Daniels kept wanting his portrait painted.  Oh, and because I’d been a bit premature removing the masking fluid, there were a few smudges in places and I covered these with white gouache.

What I’ve ended up with isn’t my favourite ever painting.  It’s not just the lack of a likeness: it’s that you can clearly see where I’ve messed around with the white gouache, making the highlights bigger.  I’m going to have another go at Brian at some point using that other source photo that was on my shortlist.  Still, that hand looks great with a lost edge along the top of the finger.

This one’s grown on me since I first painted it.  There’s more to capturing someone in a portrait than getting a likeness.  I’ve caught Brian’s personality here, 100%.