MATERIALS
• 1x matt board (81cm by 56cm)
• Various Faber Castel
Polychromos pencils: 101 White, 103 Ivory, 120 Ultramarine, 123 Fuchsia, 129 Pink Madder Lake, 132 Light Flesh, 138 Violet, 146 Smart Blue, 156 Cobalt Green, 170 Chrome Oxide Green, 182 Brown Ochre, 185 Naples Yellow, 189 Cinnamon, 191 Pompeian Red, 199 Black, 219 Deep Scarlet Red, 231 Cold Grey, 278 May Green, 280 Burnt Umber, Cold Grey II, Cold Grey VI, Earth Green.
• Photo of sitter (in my case, my neighbour Dorothy)
• Graphite pencil
• Eraser
Whenever I create a portrait I first study the sitter, the person I’m doing the portrait of. Talking over a cuppa or perhaps eating and making conversation, I’m learning who the sitter is. I may take many photos of them during the study process; however I make countless mental notes and look for the individual’s unique spark.
We all have distinctive twitchers or habits that we may not notice but others, like me, do notice. I want the portrait to say a lot about who I am sketching but it also has to say a lot about the artist as well.
After studying my sitter and taking mental notes I then decide what surface it will be best sketched on: canvas, MDF or matt board. For this demonstration I am using matt board. It is the exact same board art framers use to put around the outside of a piece before it’s framed. I love matt board because it’s a slightly rough surface and ideal to hold the Polychromos pencils I will be using. I have chosen the photo I will use but first I will mentally delete background walls and the entire foreground including the chair and floor. I am replacing the background and foreground with objects that I have learnt are important to my sitter.
Okay, the photos are taken, the mental notes are clear and now the first marks on the board are made and I start to tell my sitter’s story: – once upon a time.
STEP ONE
I make a very light, and I do mean very light, outline of where the main or central image is going to be placed on my board, pencilled in using White 101. Always remembering to keep my vision of the final portrait clear, you’ll notice I only outline the sitter and chair at this stage.
STEP TWO
For my flesh tones I’m using the following: 101 White, 199 Black, 132 Light Flesh, 189 Cinnamon, 182 Brown Ochre, 280 Burnt Umber and a combination of the 189 Cinnamon and 123 Fuchsia for the lips and mouth.
I used 103 Ivory for the teeth but ran the 182 Brown Ochre over it. For the eyes and hair I’m using Cold Grey II and Cold Grey VI.
You can see I like to make very light blocks of colour and only when I have stepped back and am happy with the tones and shadows in the right places I heavily colour them in. I use an anti-clockwise motion.
I don’t use the tip of my pencil and I only every use the sides. If you are going to use matt board to sketch on, never make your lines heavy as they will dint and buckle the board and will never come out.
Use the same flesh tones on arms and hands but introduce Pompeian Red 191 to the darker shadows. Once again step back. I run that wonder Brown Ochre along the right hand side to darken shadow.
STEP THREE
My sitter’s dress is bursting with colour: 156 Cobalt Green, 129 Pink,Madder Lake, 138 Violet, 185 Naples Yellow, 182 Brown Ochre, and 231 Cold Grey. I start with a very small patch and I lay the colour very lightly, working out pattern as I go. I am using colours 120 Ultramarine and 146 Smart Blue for the ball of wool. By the time I have coloured in her dress I leave the legs and shoes until last; this is only because I don’t want to be working over the top myself.
For now I’m leaving the rocking chair until later only because once again I don’t want to be working over the top of myself.
STEP FOUR
I then start to lightly sketch a vase of flowers and framed photograph sitting on a small white table and use colours Fuchsia 123, Pink Madder Lake 129, White 101, Deep Scarlet Red 219, you can see how I use the darker colours as my base, then I run my lighter coloured as highlights over the top, once again keeping blocked in colour lightly applied to board.
STEP FIVE
My Greens are colours Chrome Oxide Green 278 and May Green 170.I mainly use those two colours for the stems in the vase and in the smaller spaces between flowers. For the photo frame that sits behind vase I use Brown Ochre 182 and Naples Yellow 185 to run over hight lighted areas of frame. The Photo of the man in the picture frame is sketched in using graphite pencil and I use White to run over highlights, forehead, cheeks and shirt et cetera.
STEP SIX
Now I start on the rocking chair colours – Brown Ochre 182, Naples Yellow 185, White 101, Black 199, and Burnt Umber 280. The mesh at the back of the chair is Ivory 103. I deliberately keep the chair mesh and back of chair lines very light only because I have to add books in behind it and until they are completed I can’t use heavy colouring.
STEP SEVEN
I use the White pencil to highlight light reflection on top and sides of chair and Naples Yellow over the top of the Brown Ochre to lighten the sides of the chair.The Burnt Umber and Black are used only to darken edges.
STEP EIGHT
Next stage is to sketch in the framed photo on the wall, and then start on the bookshelf. A great tip for drawing a bookshelf is just remember that a book shelf is like a box, it has four sides and a top and bottom. If you draw it from the side as I have in this demonstration you’re going to have shadow from the books and shadow and light from where the light goes into the shelf. The books I’m using are going to be colourful to keep with my bright happy colours theme.
The bookshelf colours are Brown Ochre 182, White 101, Black 199, and Burnt Umber 280. Once again keep it light because of the mesh from the chair over the top of the wood grain and books. I use a black to do a criss-cross pattern over the books creating a very old style shelf system, the kind you see in older homes. It’s at this stage I use Earth Green as the colour of my background wall.
I pencil in my floorboards remembering that the illusion is floorboards at a distance will be thinner then boards close up, I then lay down the Brown Ochre and Ivory and use Brown Ochre and Naples Yellow as darker shadows near feet. I use Burnt Umber as the dark colours between each board.
FINAL STEP
Now I step back and smooth out any unsure lines, then I go ahead and sign and last of all it’s off to the framers. Now that my artwork is framed it’s time to present it to my sitter as a thank you for sitting for me and being patient.
ARTIST’S HINTS AND TIPS
• Learn who you are painting or sketching, this will make for a far more interested portrait. Talk-learn the art of communication-believe me it’s a disappearing art form. The symbols in my sketches talk about where my sitter came from and who was important in her life. In the finished sketch on the wall you will notice a framed picture of a rather large home. It’s where my sitter grew up and is where she called home for many years before coming to Australia. The sitter’s chair has been replaced with a rocking chair and beside that I have drawn a small table with flowers and a framed picture of the sitter’s husband who passed away many years ago. I always see flowers as a symbol of love and peace, and in this example it talks about remembering a loved one. The background book shelf is filled with Holy books, again another symbol of my sitter’s personality and religious beliefs. My sitter is dressed very appropriately, full of colour with different shapes and a great example of describing her personality.
• Take your time; do not rush into your creation. It took me more than 20 years to slow down and enjoy the creative process.
• If you are going to use matt board to sketch on, never make your lines heavy as they will dint and buckle the board and will never come out.
• I like to work from the middle outwards and from top to bottom.
• Trick one: Your first marks on the board should be very lightly placedonly add final or heavy colour when you have stood back from your work. The trick is to visualise and translate what your sitter’s story is.
• Trick two: If you are like me I tend to colour in by resting my hand on the board or canvas, thus dragging and smudging whatever is under it. The trick is to place a piece of white paper under your hand between you and the board thus not touching board or canvas with your colouring hand.
