The Red Line

"The City Silent" page 280. Vegas, baby.

"The City Silent" Page 279. 

"The City Silent" page 278.

Saskia Reeves, painted from a screen grab from an episode of "Portrait Artist of the Year."

"The City Silent" page 277. 'Slow' also rhymes.

"The Center of Focus 2." Struggled trying to remake an earlier painting. I couldn't get the face right. In the end, I made it work by not doing the usual and sketching him out first. Pencil, Procreate, Affinity.

"The City Silent" page 276. I think Smatt's getting taller...

Writer's Block Self. Trying to keep likeness while loosening up.

Slightly pouty self portrait.

Another in this experimental series. I usually start with pretty tight sketches. Here, I painted the whole thing at once, eyeballing, then went and did sketches just for the faces. I think it works?

 I've been wanting to experiment with portraits for awhile. An idea that came to mind was to keep the background and even figure as abstract as possible while doing a much more detailed version of the face. So I prepared by doing a gridded version of the face and then free handing the rest. It was actually pretty fun and while I don't think the exact likeness is there, it captures the young man I photographed on the subway pretty well. And this is how we look at things, isn't it? With the important things in sharper detail, the rest a sort of blur of colored shapes.

Self portrait made from a photo my sister took of me on the tube in London.

"The City Silent" page 272.

"The City Silent" page 271. Slow progress is still progress.

"The City Silent" page 270.

"The City Silent" page 269.

"The City Silent" page 268. Simple, but at least it's progress.