Can you see the rat?

Like the title???  Nothing to do with the gentleman in this painting.  When I posted this on PMP  (Paint my Photo), someone commented that they could see a rat sitting on the table below the map that the guy is holding.  This is not the case of course.  The dark shape is in fact his thigh and a small part of his shorts on view.  Can't help but see the rat all the time now!
I have added a detail of his face so that this distraction is removed.  This is another study in light.  We all know that when painting with watercolour the white parts are nothing more than dry untouched paper, but there is a trick - a subtle one - but it works nicely.
Whites appear whiter when there is a bold darker colour placed next to it.  In the same way, the bold colour appears even bolder when placed next to the white.  'Sparkle' is a term I have heard often in watercolour critique - and that is what I tried to achieve here.

Toy trucks

A little boy playing with his toy trucks.  This was painted with watercolour on UK A4 white card stock.  I enjoy working on this surface.  It is not as porous as watercolour paper.  Unsure if the image will suffer some fading, but I have done a few of these paintings so I will monitor them over the coming months.

The tools of a silhouette artist

What is on display here is the basic tools of a silhouette artist.  Note that there is no pencil or pen included.  What you are looking at is a wallet sized folding card where the silhouette is mounted - a pair of surgeons scissors and a folded sheet of silhouette paper.  (there are two in the the photograph).
The silhouette paper is black on one side and white on the other.  I fold it black side in and cut the silhouette of my subject's profile on the white side.  What I am really doing is 'drawing with scissors.'  I am right handed, so much of the work is done with my left hand which is holding the folded paper.  A silhouette artist spins the paper round in his/her fingers while the right hand operates the scissors.
The whole process takes around 90 seconds on average to perform.  There are only a handful of working silhouette artists in the UK.
If you would like to learn more you can contact me at my website.
www.weddingcaricaturist.com

Something new

For all my followers, (and I really appreciate your support)  I thought I would add something on the blog today that has not been seen anywhere else to date.
This is a commission I was given by a friend of mine.  It is my loose watercolour version of a black & white photograph of his daughter proudly holding her infant brother.  So this is the first view of  one of my paintings.  Up until now I have been displaying old work.
I am self taught as a watercolour artist and my approach was probably all wrong.  I decided to work with the darkest tones first - quite the opposite of textbook approaches to portrait painting.  The girl's hair blended into a dark background in the original photograph, so I kept that effect.  It creates a strong diagonal composition which is echoed in the position of their features.  The bottom left portion of the painting is kept pretty simple and doesn't draw the eye down.
Hope you all enjoy this, and I hope Marc does too!

Sad Eyes

Dogs are fantastic subjects to draw and paint.  This painting of a beagle is titled 'Sad Eyes'.  Easy to see why I chose that particular name.  There is no doubt where the focal point lies.  I have never owned a Beagle as a pet, but I did have a Boxer once.  Their eyes are also very expressive.
Again, this has been influenced by Jean Haines' style.

Roman Holiday

I remember this day so well.  It was Bridget's birthday and we had treated ourselves to a few days in Rome.  We wouldn't have been there at all if it hadn't been for our win on the lottery  -  5 out of 6 numbers!

So our treat was four days in Rome.  The weather was sweltering and the Pope was giving a midweek audience, so we walked the short distance from our hotel to St Peter's.  The parasols were raised all over the place as way of a welcome shade.
I did a loose watercolour from one of the photographs I took on the day.  This painting was entered into a competition on the Paint my Photo website.  I'm happy to say that Jean Haines, (the judge), picked this painting as the winner.
The prize was a signed copy of Jean's first book. A little irony here, because the loose style of the painting was very much influenced by Jean's lessons in that very same book.  It goes without saying that I already owned a copy of her book, and now I have two.  Thanks Jean.  You have been a big big influence in many of my paintings.

Canada bound

Slowly but surely getting prepared for our trip to Canada in July.  My Niece is getting married in Ajax Ontario on the 27th.  All of our family were invited, but the way things have worked out it will only be myself and my two grandaughters, Jessica & Niamh who will be going.
The silhouette is of my sister, Grace and her husband, Herve.
Looking forward to seeing them again too.