Fig 1&2

By the afternoon I decided the time was right to cut off the back of the head and remove the paper from inside the piece. Also I planned to take it off the peg and support it on a smaller one. Having done this I made the decision to use the large ‘afro’ wig style Sonja had on the first day! So rather than replacing the back of the head I started to add coils of clay to develop the hair into a large heart shape (Fig 3-5).

Figs 3, 4 & 5

I had to prop the chin and back up to wile it dried a little more. As this was the last week for the model I decided to take the head home and finish it off using photos of the model. The head survived the trip home in the car and I carefully unwrapped it and wetted it down to keep it from drying out.

DISASTER STRIKES!

The following morning when I unwrapped the head I was dismayed to find that it had somehow shifted overnight and sagged causing large cracks in various places and it became apparent that I needed to take some drastic action if the piece was to survive!!!  Also the neck seems to be too short, too thick and at the wrong angle – “so off with her head”, said the Queen of Hearts!

I removed the hair then cut through the neck to remove the face, leaving the shoulders as a third piece. I constructed a stand for the shoulders using the original post (see Fig 6) which now forms a solid base which will not move.

Then I hollowed out the clay behind the face to reduce the weight and after lengthening the neck, which had compressed I re-fastened the head, securing it across the forehead to the post, with tape (look like she has been in the wars but much more elegant). I will leave this for a few days to harden and then complete the hair as a separate unit before joining it back onto the head. (see below)

There will be quite a bit of re-modelling to get it to a finished state as all the handling has flattened the finer details. I will probably prick through everywhere as well, before I complete the final modelling.

Watch this space for the next instalment!

In the afternoon I did more work on the neck as I realised it was becoming too thick and the face had become too wide. I also started adding the ears but haven’t yet decided on the hairstyle – there are some different wig options available – I will decide next week.

Unfortunately I forgot to take another photo before packing the head away for another week  but I will take one before I start next time.

1. Linseed

2. Poppies at Barley Hill, Thame

3. Bluebell Wood

Look out for the finished paintings soon!

Our first project is the head of Sonja.

I have chosen to use a smooth red earthenware clay which I like because I can get some nice detail in the work and and introduce some interesting textures whilst still keeping it loose.

I decided to try a new method, used by Stuart Williamson on his DVD tutorial ‘From the Inside Out’. It involves working from a fixed point at the base of the throat where you insert a cross-head screw (see fig 1 below) and make all your measurements from there.

I made a tentative start but am becoming more confident with the unfamiliar measuring process as time goes on.

See figs 1 & 2 below.  Here I have just got the paper armature covered in clay and have started to establish the shape of the scull, forehead and the jaw. I also indicated the centre line and some of the other important points of reference. The golf tees I used to keep track of the position of the ear holes can also be seen.

    
Fig 1                                                                                              Fig 2

At this stage the clay was really soft and I had some trouble with the head slipping downward on the stand.
I managed to stop the slide by wedging a wooden block under the back of the neck (see figs 3 & 4 bellow).

    
Fig 3                                                                                              Fig 4

I then managed to establish the position of the other features and filled in some clay to position the cheek bones nose and mouth as well as refining the eye sockets.
Next week the clay will have dried and will be much less likely to move, so I will be able to start refining the features even more.

I will up-date my day 2 progress next week.

Once the masking fluid was removed there were some places where I needed to soften the colours and and take them back in tone.  Other areas needed to have more detail and colour added. The field was too green and I decided to apply more purple in places and some additional flowers to the foreground (Fig 12). I put more light into the trees and drew in the detail around the edges of the field.(Fig 13).

Fig 12

Fig 13

After a little more fiddling and touching up in the far distance (Fig 14) and a few other places I decided to call the painting finished and signed it! (Fig 15)

Fig 14

Fig 15

Tomorrow I will remove the painting from the board, scan the work at high resolution -  300dpi at actual size -  which will allow me to make giclée prints up to actual size.

Look for the final scanned image on my project work! CLICK HERE!

I hope this series of Step-by-Step illustrations have been helpful! Please leave me your comments below!

DAY TWO – 19th Jan 2012

Having let the whole painting dry overnight I applied a little more spatter to the linseed in the foreground as I felt it needed to be more dense – I can always take out but it is a little more difficult to put back!

This morning I mixed up a range of greens from quite a dark grey green to a lighter more ochre green. Working flat I covered the top part of the painting with sheets of paper as I intended to work quickly and use a spattering technique to achieve some of the variation of colour and tone in the foreground. I washed in the field using my greens, getting darker and more intense towards the bottom of the painting and leaving some of the purple to show through at the far side of the field where the linseed becomes more concentrated in perspective.

Fig 7

Fig 8

I decided at this stage to put in the dark green areas of the tree-line and hedgerows

fig 9

At this stage I decided to leave the painting to dry thoroughly before attempting to remove the masking fluid

Fig 10

READ ABOUT DAY 3 – CLICK HERE

If you found this interesting – leave a comment below!

DAY ONE – 18th Jan 2012

I have chosen to use a sheet of Windsor and Newton 300 gsm Rough Artists Water Colour Paper 760 x 560 mm, which I have stretched onto a sturdy plywood board.

The photographic reference is one I have already been working from to make a small gouache preliminary colour sketch for an acrylic painting I plan to do later. Actually I am planning to use the same scene in all three mediums of watercolour, acrylic and finally oil. It will be interesting to compare the contrast in style and treatment of all three at a later stage.

This morning, after stretching the paper I started pencilling in a grid and some simple guide-lines, which would help me to position the first wet-in-wet washes. Basically just the line of the field, hedgerows, tree-line and horizon hills. See Fig 1 below.

Fig 1

Before starting with the first washes I rubbed out some of the construction pencil lines which might have shown up through the lighter washes, in the sky and distant hills for example.

I slanted the board downwards towards the bottom and started at the top with the wash of the sky and then worked my way towards the bottom, changing and increasing the colour as I worked my way down. At this stage it is a good idea to put a white mount around the work to make sure the washes are dark enough. While the paper was still wet I went back and increased some of the colours where I wanted them darker. I overworked it a bit as the paper started to become a bit blotchy – I will take care of that later.  Then I left it to dry thoroughly – I sometimes use a hair dryer to speed this up. See Fig 2 below.

Fig 2

The next step, once the paper is thoroughly dry, is to decide what to mask out before the next stronger washes go on. I outlined some areas with pencil, in the background hills and the middle distance hedgerows where I need to preserve the first colour where small chinks of light show through. Also the small purple linseed flowers need to be kept purple out of the light blue/green which I intend to apply to the field tomorrow. See Fig 3 below.

Fig 3

In the details below, Figs 4 & 5,  you get a better idea of how and where the masking solution is applied, in some places with the ruling pen shown in Fig 6.

Fig 4&5

Fig 6

Read about day 2

If you like it or not  – leave a comment below!

This request was passed on to me and I duly supplied a CD containing ten of my paintings from the exhibition.

I heard nothing for a few weeks and as we were passing the gallery one day my wife and I called in to say hello – as you do -  and Trisha asked me if I had received an e-mail that morning from her – which I hadn’t, due to our early departure – on asking what it was about she told me that she had heard back from ‘The Hospital’.

“Oh!” I said “Which painting did they choose”

“Well actually” she said “they want all ten!”

Trisha arranged for the paintings to be re-framed in the style they wanted, with perspex instead of glass and then fixed to the walls using special tamper-proof mountings.

We went to visit them shortly afterwards.

A few months later the hospital managed to find some additional funding and bought four more of my paintings.

I think it it really improves the look of the sculpture although it it does seem to make it look slightly smaller than the earthenware version. It is interesting to compare the photos below with those in my previous ‘Work in Progress News’ item on the ‘Head Of Jo…..’

The patination method is one of my very own invention but seems to face the test of time extraordinarily well. I have used it on other pieces over the last 5 years with no apparent degradation.

See the finished project

These will be included in the House of Lords collection for display at Millbank House in London.

The paintings they selected are:

‘Farm near Cuddington’- (Watercolour and Water-soluble Pencil)

and ‘Borage from Bledlow Ridge’ – (Acrylic on board).

Both of these works represent typical countryside in Buckinghamshire.

The following Press cutting is from the Bucks Herald:

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