Latest Painting - Michael Saunders RIP

We have a lovely picture of Mike Saunders on the wall of our grandly named front room. The room with the restricted natural light (thanks to a natural light bulb, all is not lost - ed), and freezing today with the bitter wind chilling the house no matter how far I ratchet the thermostat up (thanks to snug, close fitting and reassuringly new underwear my vitals have not been lost to posterity, though finding things in the last chilling toilet break was much more difficult than I would have hoped - ed).

Why did I mention Mike, oh yes, well Mike was/is my father-in-law, Bridget's Dad, who unfortunately for all concerned, passed away in October 2010, hence the RIP in the post title. Anyhow, last week I had suggested to Bridget that I do a painting of her Dad, well after the flood of tears had passed (and that was just me - ed) - I wanted to find a photograph of him to base a painting on. With me so far?

Well, to try and keep to the point (yes, please do - ed), we visited Bridget's Mum (my Mother-in-Law, Jo - ed) to drop off a slightly early Mother's Day card last Saturday and I managed to remember to ask to see a particularly good set of  Black & White photos of Mike, which I borrowed to choose a portrait to paint. Strangely the one l liked best and the photo that was to become the basis for the painting was Jo's second favourite, the favourite all ready on the wall and so not in the set!

Now, if you have been following the trials and tribulations (did you mean the trouble with tribbles - scf-fi ed), of my painting endeavours, you will notice that I tend to do IN YOUR FACE bright colours (ooh you're so clever David - sarcasm ed), so the challenge was to do a Black and White painting (surely there must be a Shades of Grey reference coming up - ed). Nope, not one, sorry to disappoint you.


Anyhow, to cut the wiffling to a minimum, below are the various stages of the painting, from sketch , to what I think is almost but not quite the finished article.

Initial Sketch

Fill in backgroumd - not a roaring success

Add some detail

Broad brush the clothes - fiddle backgroud

Fill in beard in prep for detail

Detail beard some more

Almost, not sure, the finished article

 Afterthought

Probably about time I let the whole world see my paintings, so if you are interested below is the link to the secret hiding place on the web (not so secret if it is now accessible on the interweb - ed)

Click David's Paintings to see them. As I do new ones, and just noticed the Sand, Sea and Fallen Tree is not there as yet, I will put them in the same place, probably.