Dave Best

Another portrait today for the benefit of those lovely PAOTY judges. Today’s subject is Dave Best from The Royle Family, played by the great comedy actor and writer Craig Cash. Craig one of those people I only have to look at and I’m laughing. He’s one of those people who could make me laugh by reading out the shipping forecast. He’s so funny that I laugh when people talk to him to him: don’t even see or her his reaction. Like when people say:

• Hello Dave
• What did you gave for your tea Dave?
• Would you like a snowball Dave?
• Bloody hell Dave!

While exploring a photo of Dave within the Notanizer app, I came to the reluctant conclusion that he would work better in three values than four. So he’s been painted in the trippy scheme, following my well established process. A shame because the trippy scheme is very energetic: a plan blue colour scheme would have suited him better. Still, I gave the trippy scheme a go.

I do like how this one came out. I’ve managed to capture that little boy lost look in his eyes. There were also a couple of deliberate tactical nuances that worked out well. One was the decision to deviate from the app’s recommendations and to have proper highlights in Dave’s left eye rather than mid tone shapes. The other was to have that rainbow band of colours just above his left shoulder rather being completely random with the colours in that first layer. Dave’s up for sale with the price to be found here.

It’s not I’mpossible that I’ll do a series of Royle Family portraits at some point. These could all be watercolours, or they could be a collection of marker portraits. There are a lot of interesting characters to choose from: not just the immediate family but also a few recurring characters and even some who only appeared in a single episode.