After a week of computer anguish, despair and expenditure, I have software that I hope will continue to work. Firstly, I was working on an old photo of my grandparents as an acrylic tonal study, using ultramarine blue, cadmium red and titanium white. This is the next stage-
I worked on this on many occasions, just trying to look at the balance of light and shadow, with a little more care on the faces. I got fed up with the cold blue aspect and wanted more warmth. I added several thin washes of orange yellow- to bring it to life, not try and emulate local colour. That said I also added a little cerulean blue which does imply some green. I was happy with stopping at this stage. From a distance it looks grey but close up the colours can be seen.
I spent an evening looking at the old photos that were my mothers. So I started a quick charcoal study of my mother and grandad with their car.
Quickly blocking in areas of tone. I used a thin slice of a soft rubber to make some corrections.
The final stage. I want it to be a quick sketch, not overworked.
That's it for now. I hope to get back to somewhat fuller blogs soon. Strange that in nearly every photo of my grandad he has a cigarette in his mouth!
These are wonderful. So full of character.