Caricatures

Looks like I will be adding lots more to this blog in the way of caricatures. My website is now no longer active, which is great news for all followers of www.glenapp.blogspot.co.uk Watch this space . . .

Sleeping child

This simple little watercolour of a sleeping child is another example of a minimalist style I have been using.  The profile of the lower part of her face can be seen only by the shape it creates on her hand as she supports her head.  I thinks its cute.
Kept the colour range to a minimum too.

Basin Street

This one is called Basin Street.
It is a mixture of Indian Ink work done with the fork as usual, and some watercolour.   I was much heavier with my use of watercolour this time as I wanted to create a smoky atmosphere.  I used earthy tones for the most part, but if you look behind the pianist's head you may see a colourful image of him drifting into the room.  This is a mixture of the colourful music and his aura.  That's what I tried to depict anyway.
We have been to New Orleans a couple of times now and have visited Basin Street itself.  Not much there to see now except the Lafayette graveyard and the Basin Street Railroad station which is now a museum.
We did, however, visit the French Quarter and enjoyed some fantastic live music in the Bourbon Street Jazz clubs.

Silhouette cut demo

Thought I would add an early video I made of how a silhouette cut is performed.  Hope you enjoy it.

O Fortuna

Another musically inspired piece.  I am a big fan of Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana.    This little pen and wash sketch is my vision of the energy in that first measure of 'O Fortuna'.
This again was created with a broken plastic fork and a few light sweeps of watercolour.

Sometimes a title is half the work

Rhapsody in blue.
That was the title - the rest was easy.  This little ink sketch was inspired by Gershwin's fantastic piano piece.  Two sweeps of a flat brush were enough to indicate a grand piano.  For the ink work, I used a plastic fork that I picked up at KFC's.  After breaking off three of the four prongs I used the remaining prong as a nib.  I deliberately set out to have an uncontrolled flow of ink on the paper.  I wouldn't recommend this for calligraphy, that's for sure!
I did a series of these last year - all musicians.  This one was my personal favourite.

Glance from the east

I have posted this image recently in various locations but it is a favourite of mine at the moment, so here it is again!  I began this watercolour by laying on various washes to establish the veil around her head.  I ignored the skin tones initially, but began to gradually add one or two colours from the veil onto the woman's features - including the cadium orange on the right side of her face.  Complimentary colours were to the fore again, much the same as my 'Claire' portrait from a little while back.
Plenty of juxta-positioning of warm against cool too.  It all adds up to another bold watercolour portrait.  Who said that watercolour paintings are 'wishy washy'?