Character driven

I just finished reading The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, by Robert Dugoni, and decided to do a portrait of the main character to go with my book review, which will be posted tomorrow.

Sam has ocular albinism, which caused him to be born with red eyes. You can imagine what going through Catholic school is like with that physical trait to contend with, yes? Hint: Nicknames are Sam Hell and Devil Boy.

I chose to paint Sam when he was first starting school, so he would be about six years old here. It's good practice for me to paint children, it's a different challenge from adults. What I have discovered is that I consistently make their faces too long and narrow/slim, which ages them. I did that to Sam, here, but since he was quite young in the reference photo I chose, he still looks pretty youthful. His eyes are a teensy bit too far apart...

"Sam Hell"—Pencil, Uniball pen, Daler Rowney inks, on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 6x9inches.

And here is another, older child whose picture I painted yesterday from an old photo. Someone might recognize her...or maybe not. She's probably about 14 here.

Same materials as used above, same size.

Week 15 of LFI2021

This week's lesson was with Angela Kennedy and, while I liked the initial image she proposed, I wasn't so on board with turning it into yet another girl with round hair, big eyes and an elongated, skinny neck. Why? When your model is interesting to you, why generify her? So while I followed the directions of the assignment for the most part by making it a combination of black and white and color, I drew my model as close to reality as I could get. I didn't actually end up using Angela's model, but found one who turned out to be strikingly similar, a photo of an anonymous suffragette.

I also ignored all the pencil work. While I sometimes admire the effect, I'm just not into the shading, and I also don't like an end product with a messy surface that can be smudged all too easily. So I did my girl as a combination of ink and watercolor, using Payne's Grey in lieu of pencil, but followed Angela's style by only "colorizing" certain sections. I did love the combination of colors she chose—Burnt Sienna, Perylene Violet, and Payne's Grey. I don't think what I used was precisely Perylene, but it was close, maybe a little warmer. And I gave my suffragette the pale blue eyes she came with in the photo.

I overworked the hair a little, trying to make it look more interesting, but...everything is a lesson.

"Suffragette"—pencil (underdrawing), Uniball pen, Paul Jackson watercolors, Signo white gel pen, on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, approx. 6x9 inches.