Pencil study

This week's topic on Illustration Friday is 'Ageing'. I remembered this pencil drawing of my Nona, my Italian grandmother, that I did years ago, when she was 95. I particularly liked the faraway expression.

Painter IX at last

My new Painter IX software arrived at last, and I've been trying it out. There are two sets of watercolour tools which is confusing, and they don't behave quite as I'd expected... This is my first shot, a painting of my daughter. I used watercolour, with a pencil underdrawing which I've rubbed out. I need to spend a lot longer experimenting with these brushes and how they interact.

More scene painting

I've not had much time to do anything over the past week or two other than stuff for 'Guys and Dolls', our school production. Costumes, all sorts of props (including the puppet here), and the images for projection. Again, all done with Painter 5.5. This one was the most complicated. It's based on a whole lot of photos from the 1940's, mostly from the New York Public Library site. I used a black pencil line, then painted each bit with watercolour and rubbed out the drawing. All the text was floated over the top then dropped in when the watercolour layer was dried. I think this one took five or six hours to do. Anyway, it worked!