William Shatner

First up, I got something onto paper using a grid and working upside down .  That’s got to be the best way to get a likeness.  It took me a couple of attempts in places and I still don’t think I got it right.  Anyway, after that I followed my usual method of colour the darkest areas first.  So I started with deep indigo, then worked through to violet, shiraz and fuchsia.  I also put a little bit of sea blue in the eyes.  I then thought I’d better get Bill’s shirt the right colour, so put in some sun yellow and apple green.  I also added a little bit of this to the face.  And then I reached for leaf green, always a favourite colour, and added it in random places all over the painting, not really worrying about values or about where I could see greens.  Not that I could see greens anyway, working from a black and white photo.  And all of the colours went into the hair.

After wetting the painting and leaving it to dry, I thought the indigo neckline on Bill’s shirt looked too light, so put some bark over the top, taking the opportunity to make a correction to his jawline at the same time. This worked but made the neckline too dark, if anything, so I added more bark over the darkest indigo areas, including the hair, facial creases, and bitsof the eye and mouth.

And then I stopped.  It was good to get back into swinging the brush and I like the interesting colours that I’ve brought out in Bill’s face but the likeness isn’t there and there’s a lot of, well, amateurness singing out from the painting.  The eyes and mouth, despite being carefully observed and drawn, look like the sort of eyes that a kid at primary school would draw.  It’s as if I’ve never drawn anything before using observation.  I’m clearly not back to match fitness after a long layoff.  This one can’t go in the shop window.