PeachK

I didn’t want to spend long painting today as (i) I want to finish the novel I’m reading, and (ii) want to make a start sketching tomorrow’s painting, one that will probably be my 2025 self portrait and my Portrait Artist Of The Year entry. So I’m back to figure drawing with the Inktense pencils for what seems like the first time in ages. I was determined, though, not to rush things as it’s so easy to screw up these paintings. Looking through the choice of models, there are some new names there, so I thought I’d pick someone new. So it’s a debut today for PeachK.

For colours, I decided on a combination of blues and reds. I’ve used these colours before, generally aiming for blues on one side of the body and reds on the other to create a temperature gradient. But today I did something different, using the two together to create purples.

After putting down a pencil outline, I shaded in all the shadowy areas with Persian red, using slightly less pressure in the lighter areas. I should add, by the way, that I didn’t use the Notanizer app to help me identify those dark areas: I trust my judgement a lot more with figures than I do with portraits. Once the red was down, I added three blues over it: indigo in the darkest places, iris blue in the lightest and sea blue in between. I was hoping this would create three violets with different values.

And then I applied the water, with no idea how things would turn out. And, yes, there are purples but with a narrower range of values than I was expecting. And there are places where reds and blues paper on their own, unmixed. And I’m really happy with the result.the colours are amazing. But so too are the curves: both the smooth curves (e.g. above Peach’s left hip) and the wobbly ones (e.g. down the outside of her right thigh). Yeah, this is good. Back to something like my best, even if the bottom of the neck doesn’t look quite right. Peach is up for sale. To see the price, click here.