Portrait: Volcan – 14 and 21/04/16

21/04/2016

Portrait: Volcan – 14 & 21/04/16 – Two Sessions

Volcan is our Turkish sitter who visits a couple of times a year as his wife is a local girl. We like to think he brings the sun with him and it’s nice to have a Mediterranean complexion to paint.

Volcan
Charcoal sketch on A2 paper

 

 

Following on from our previous tonal exercises, we were asked to make a tonal sketch of Volcan using charcoal on its side and a rag to blend and manipulate our drawing. Again we were to try to avoid linear marks and just lay tones next to each other. I had some “chunky” charcoal which was extremely dark and didn’t really get around to lifting out any light. However, the object of this exercise was to become used to using the rag as this was to be our tool when painting.

 

 

 

Still within the first session, once we had an idea of what was required of us, we began our painting. I was using oils on an acrylic coated piece of mount board 34 x 43cm. A head and shoulders composition was our brief. Learning from our sketch we had only rags to use and the initial shapes and form was rubbed in and dragged around the support to form an under-painting. I enjoyed this as it was akin to finger painting, and, was a tactile and immediate response without a brush handle breaking the contact. Many of our class struggled greatly with not using a brush as this was their first attempt at this method. Interestingly, it was the ones that struggle with form and proportions that took to this technique, and, have subsequently used it again. It just shows it’s all horses for courses.

In the second session the next week, we continued to use rags (well, some of us did – the brushes did come out in some cases), we continued with our paintings. Volcan has very specific features, particularly his mouth shape, and at the end of the first session, I was pleased that I’d captured it. Unfortunately, as is often the case, this was lost in the second week. It is one of those infuriating things about painting, portraiture in particular, the push and pull of accuracy and likeness. In the end, I was less successful in this than I’d hoped – only the eyes were anywhere close. Maybe on Volcan’s next visit?

Volcan
Oil on mount board