It's been a day for experimentation today. After reading the Alyona Nickelsen book, I thought…
Neil McCarthy
Neil McCarthy (1932-1985) was one of those actors everyone recognises but whose name nobody knows. I saw him in an episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em the other day and decided that his chiselled looks would make him a great subject for one of my coloured pencil drawings. A bit of research reveals that his looks were down to his acromegaly, a disorder resulting from an excess of growth hormone long after growth plates in the bones have closed. It results in enlarged hands feet, fire head, jaw and nose. I wasn’t surprised to read that Richard Kiel also had acromegaly. There’s also someone I know in the business world who reminds me of these two actors who may also be a sufferer.
Anyway, this was one where I followed my usual techniques. A pencil drawing first, using a grid, then some filling out with a dark colour to get all the edges and shadows, then lots of saturated colours where I could see them, then some neutrals and finally the burnishing. After seeing Liz Chaderton on YouTube starting a watercolour portrait with a purple underpainting, I used a blue violet for my filling out. I then followed up with reds, greens, yellows and blues. Then browns and greys. And I burnished all the flesh and clothes with white. I didn’t burnish the hair, preferring the tousled look which I’d built up over the course of the painting by first shading then scribbling in with most of the colours I’d used everywhere else. Finally I did some tinkering, adding some outlines and a faint grey background and adding a little colour to the face in places.and then I was done.
I don’t mind what I’ve ended up with. The likeness is there and the acromegaly is definitely coming through. I just wonder whether I shouldn’t have bothered with the outlines though. And the head seems separate to the t-shirt and shirt. Neil doesn’t make it to the shop window, I’m afraid.
<Edit: Neil was later used for a dummy run with coloured pencil solvent>
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