Hugo Drax

The pose had everything I wanted.  Big black areas, negative shapes and something different to include (the fingers).  I almost made it to the end on this one without adding any impressionistic colours.  Then I spotted this and reached for the blue pearl marker.  I slapped a big mark on under the left eye and then reeled back in horror, realising that I’d picked up the sky blue marker instead.  But was it a disaster or a happy little accident?  The use of the wrong blue actually made my impressionistic colours bold and proud rather than subtle and meek.  I added more of the sky blue and then some pink.  Why not?

And I’m happy with the result at the end.  Hugo wins a place in the final eight at the expense of Rosa Klebb.  His red background is again chosen to add some variety to a collection that was looking slightly heavy on the blues, greens and yellows.