Jack Blah!

"Jack Blah" 

15" x 22" Watercolour with Pencil

Started 27-Jan-2013

Completed 30-Jan-2013
[click on image for larger view]

The intent of this painting was to portray absolute feeling of blah-ziness, Jack is such a fantastic subject to paint as his expressions are worn freely on his face. It also helps that Cara (his mom) is so adept at catching these times with her camera. Priceless moments. This painting was based on such a photo taken by Cara.

I have been going through a black and white watercolour phase for the last while specifically to improve my understanding and portrayal of values. In this case I believe the black and white (or grey-scale) adds to the mood being portrayed.

I am also trying to come up with my way of painting ... I use an original sketch or photo and roughly draw in minimal features (lots of poor vision and squinting helps) to establish fit within the painting area. I then start with the very darks to establish the key features. Then from there I work from what I envision in my head that the final painting will look like. Never be afraid to try new things.. 

After darkening some shadows and shading, adding folds in sleeves of shirt and doing limited cleanup...I declared this finished. Did not want to take the edginess away from the painting by smoothing too much out.