"Destiny has taken a hand"

Charcoal sketch of Bogart in Casablanca:

 
I was inspired to draw this while musing on one of Bogarts lines in this scene "It seems that destiny has taken a hand". This musing was brought about by an incredible stroke of luck, just at a time when I'm wanting to take time away from my regular job to concentrate more on my art and the possibility of getting to a level where I can make some sort of living at it so more materials, the means to make prints, a website and all that stuff is needed. I've been wondering how I can afford this investment when wham! out here there is an annual sweepstake that was drawn last weekend with a top prize of £1500, It had even occured to me that to win that would be a real help, we Falkland Islanders are very keen on the Sweep so there's always a lot of tickets sold but this year I did win the top prize! a lump like that out of the blue is going to be a real help....pure luck of course but just when I needed it most, any other time I would have spent it on a holiday or something or just frittered it away, it's a funny old world.

Johnnyrook 2

Well....things are moving on, been working on a couple of commissions now but they're a surprise gift so can't tell show 'em yet. Yet another bout of insomnia this morning so had another crack at that great character the straited caracara AKA johnnyrook. Charcoal, A3.

Ian McKellen

Another sleepless night......still, allows me to get some drawing done. Ian McKellen, charcoal & Soft pastels on white pastel paper. After weeks of using fancy paper like pastelmat and velour it's interesting to go back to such a basic substrate, now that I have decent soft pastels I find this works quite well and it's not nearly as hungry as the more expensive, textured papers.

Luca the keen Collie

Feeling a bit low so indulged myself by doing a pair of 'recently deceased' portraits. Luca was an 11 year old border collie who belonged to my brother and his wife, he had been suffering terribly with joint problems and was recently put down. A great character, destroyer of toys, escape artist, and all round entertainer.

Both are soft pastels on A3 pastel paper.

Rest in peace Luka.

Red Backed Hawk

Juvenile Red Backed Hawk, also called the Variable Hawk due to the many variations of plumage it can have. He was just landing in the ref for this. I rather liked the rich colours in this variation, on the ground he was a bit awkward but this shot caught him rather well. Soft Pastels on white 30 X 40 pastelmat.

I find birds difficult but was quite pleased with this one, must practice more.

Paul Verhoeven

Couldn't sleep last night so stuck on one of my favourite old movies, Robocop. In the DVD extras was a photo of the director Paul Verhoeven with his typical bad tempered, tempramental director look. So I had a crack at drawing him, charcoal on A3 pastel block.

Hoped some of tension of the filmmaking could show in this, Robocop was supposed to have been a complete nightmare for all involved. I recall someone on the documentary saying "working on Robocop was like being the victim of a violent crime, you try to blank it out" Grand film though.

Bill Porter

Finished my portrait of Bill Porter, took a while and I found the WIP photos useful so posting this one as a complete work in progress. The finished pastel I'll give to the local social club which Bill chaired for many years.

Charcoal sketch

here's the first stage of the larger painting, graphite sketch on pale grey 30 X 40 pastelmat.

Filled in with charcoal, some colour next.

First blocking in of colour, conte soft pastels.

Bit more done, using my daler rowney pastel pencils on this, excellent pastel cores in them but the wood casings are terrible, grain all over the place so very hard to sharpen without breaking the core.

looking a bit flat, slapped some unison pastel on there, grand stuff.

Getting there.

Finished painting