Portraits At The Pub 14: Joe

Portraits At The Pub - Joe (detail), Fountain Pen and Watercolour, Fabriano Artistico, 38x28cm.

The second of the restarted Portraits At The Pub at The Lamb, and this time it was the golden locks of Joe we were drawing. I took Martin’s usual spot since he and several of the usuals were away, and didn’t notice that I got profiles all night! I found it hard to get into this one – the classic ‘resemblance’ hole was hard to work my way out, even when I switched mediums. I just couldn’t get him – until I did a 2 minute sketch right at the end of long arduous 30 minute coloured pencil drawing also below.

Portraits At The Pub - Joe, Woody Pencil and Wash (2 minutes), A4 portrait sketchbook. — Portraits At The Pub – Joe, Woody Pencil and Wash (2 minutes), A4 portrait sketchbook.

The Woody Pencil drawing did unfortunately leak through onto the other side, the woodless charcoal drawing I’d done earlier! Luckily I wasn’t that bothered – the paper also started to disintegrate on the coloured pencil ‘painting’ I did – the technique means a lot of water, which I have in a little spray bottle but can go through the 170gsm paper. Maybe I need to bring a heavier mixed media paper? Not sure I have that in A4 though…

Portraits At The Pub - Joe, Coloured Pencils, (28 minutes), A4 sketchbook. — Portraits At The Pub – Joe, Coloured Pencils, (28 minutes), A4 sketchbook.

Portraits At The Pub - Joe, Woodless charcoal, A4 portrait sketchbook. — Portraits At The Pub – Joe, Coloured Pencils, (28 minutes), A4 sketchbook.

After that I did the watercolour, which I am very proud of, it came out rather Pre-Raphaelite, a very Old Master pose, especially the drawing before I did the watercolour which seemed to ‘modernise’ it a little. This pose was also 30 minutes, which didn’t have enough time to do the watercolour and I rather rushed the rest of the body, I didn’t have time to get the dark blue coat right or the lower hand.

Portraits At The Pub - Joe, Fountain Pen and Watercolour, Fabriano Artistico, 38x28cm. — Portraits At The Pub – Joe, Fountain Pen and Watercolour, Fabriano Artistico, 38x28cm.

So I actually cheated and finished those bits at home from a photo that Joe kindly offered to let me take. Probably altold only spent around an hour on this, the rest of it apart from the chair is pretty much as it was, although I did work on the shadows around the eyes and the cheek/chin a bit more, and darkened the hair. It’s always a toss up between overwork and underwork; I hate sharing ‘unfinished’ work with a passion, but I know I have to be careful not to fiddle too much at home.

I’m also really wary now of sharing too much of the early versions; I didn’t scan this as it was intentionally because I really hate the ‘I prefer the older version’ comments! In my mind it was just wrong as it was and not for public consumption.