17/03/22

Today was one of those days where I didn't feel like painting. I got my work done but not at a speed I would like, I really took my time and used a different method when starting it out.

The day before I painted this, I did a small charcoal drawing as an example of what was to come. So Sam is very important to me and I have said many times that he has so many excellent features to paint e.g. a beard, tattoos, ear stretchers and strong facial features like his nose and eyebrows.

I started off my pencilling in his figure, not something I'd normally do but I wanted to try something new. I admit it gave me great proportions but I felt as though I was too limited, I couldn't do things as freely as I'd like.

Also blocking out the figure straight away threw me off because I was intimidated by the stark white colour that I needed to fill in.

Sticking with my darker colours, I filled in the darkest parts of his face, that being his facial hair and the hair on his head. I was struggling to paint this, I'm not entirely sure why, I can guess it was the different method of starting out. I admit I liked the way it is here, angular and strong.

I jumped ahead a little bit here, I was too focused at this point to take pictures. I tied to replicate my other paintings but I felt too constricted. I was also using a smaller brush aswell whereas normally, I use a thicker inch brush so you can properly see the brushstrokes. This process speaks to the painter in me, I like to see thick brushstrokes in works, I was not getting this with this painting.

By this stage I am very pleased with it because I am getting back to my painterly ways and I can move on to the rest of the body next time. That's something else I did differently, I always work on the whole body at once as opposed to just the face. Now I am behind on the painting and everything will be at different stages.

Overall, I do like this painting, and my subject matter. I just think it will be a slow-going work. Next week I will start a new painting so I will have a few on the go to keep my mind and eyes fresh.