Mike Brearley

As usual, this had several layers of colour to it, with the first ones being very light pressure and the later ones increasing in pressure.  The background and rocket jumper were smoothed out with paper stumps, but everything else was burnished, mainly in white but with a couple of flesh tones in places. Oh, and the hair was burnished in a light, cool grey.  I wanted to distinguish between the main subject matter and the background but I think I’m better off just smoothing everything out with a paper stump – this will be my last go at burnishing a portrait if I remember.

I included loads of different colours everywhere, as you can probably see.  They came out well in mist places but not in the sheet of paper that Mike’s holding, where I was starting to rush things at the end.  As for the order in which I did things, I didn’t bring everything all through together: I started by putting down enough dark shapes for me to be able to recognise what was in the picture but after I worked on one bit at a time.  Background, then hair, then face and hands, then clothes.

Overall, this one passes and gets a place in my XI but it’s not good enough to make it into the shop window.  The likeness isn’t there, the mouth and oversized hair being the biggest problems.  There’s the rushed piece of paper he’s holding.  And in the background the boundary between the bricks and the window is missing a window frame.  But there are some positives too, the reflections in the window being the biggest.

This one took me four days to do and I was rushing at the end.  I’ve a few other things on my mind at the moment and might need to take a break.  But we’ll see.