James Anderson

After sketching something out in pencil with the help of grid lines, I got to work with the pastels.  First shape on the list was the cricket ball.  I picked this not just because it was easy but also because there were some fiddly gold markings on it that would be easier for me to to draw before there were wet pastel marks all over the rest of the paper for me to not lean on.

Next up was the head because it’s important to get it right.  I went as usual for a James Gurney three colour band face with gold at the top, red in the middle and green and blue at the bottom.  Plus, obviously, lots of white and the pinky light English red.  Once I had something approximating a likeness, I stopped and moved on.

Then I moved on to the hand and arms.  I could see a lot of interesting colours in my source photo, and included them all.  I ended up with arms that were more colourful than the more realistic looking face, so added more colour to the face to get a bit more consistency.

Then on to the cricket whites.  I strayed with the motifs and buttons and then added creases in blue.  Then white everywhere else and along the creases to try to blend them in.  Then there was a long phase of tinkering with white and three shades of blue, using the blues to make the whites look whiter than white.  I added some extra motifs in red but didn’t like them, so blended them out with white.  I decided I quite liked the hint of red, so added it in a few more places.  Like I say, this was a long tinkering phase.

That left the sky background, which is made up of white and three blues.  Near Jimmy’s right shoulder, the sky was too similarly valued to his whites, so I darkened it.  It’s weird to have a sky that’s darker at the bottom but it looked ok after I added some clouds.

And then the final tinkering.  This is when I stand back from the painting, identify problems with it and correct them.  The most important thing I did at this stage was to add a dark edge along the top of Jimmy’s right forearm.  In the source photo it’s highlighted but I’m doing a painting that hangs together, not trying to replicate a photo.

I’m really pleased with the final painting.  There’s a decent enough likeness, a good look in the eye and a great grip on the ball.  But I also like how the hair and the general looseness imply pace and how the undulating top edge of the forearm mimics the swing that Jimmy can impart to the ball.  Jimmy’s been sold now and I believe he might be waiting until Christmas Day to meet his new owner.