Those with long memories might remember Rick – he’s posed for us at Portraits at the Pub before, only a month or so before the first lockdown in Feb 2020 – it was one of the last portrait sessions. And here he is again, this time very different from last time’s welding clothes to a flower in his hair and an amazing wool clothes that I really didn’t do justice to – all purple and red. Loved drawing the flower, fascinated by that and the colours.
So I had to rock out my first watercolour at PATP since about those times….and the first portrait watercolour completed at the session in nearly two years (I forgot I had done one of Joe but that was finished later)?
Really like this 20 minute (I think it was a long one) fountain pen piece – pretty sure it was fountain pen, one of my EDC (every day carry) pens – probably the Preppy or Monami, or maybe the V7 Pilot fine liner. There’s a really nice reflective pose here, or almost worrying. Again carried on with the coloured pencil experiments on the mixed media paper, got some of the colour here but not sure I got Rick’s features well. He does look worried here – that’s me! And a quick pen study…
I always seem to be still finishing the previous when the next one starts – these were poses of 5-10 minutes, and the longest was 30. I have gotten out of the habit of drawing people quickly!
Rick with a flower in his hair 2, Portraits At the Pub, Fountain Coloured pencil and spray, A4 mixed media pad. 
Rick, Portraits At the Pub, Fountain Pen and wash, A4 sketchbook.
And finally the watercolour, which was a long pose – I know this cos I used a dip pen, and unless you use a Speedball nib with a reservoir, you’re not going to be drawing fast with one of those! I made Rick look a lot younger here, and if you were at the pub you’d have heard me muttering ‘I’ve forgotten how to do this! I don’t know how to mix skin tones anymore!’ – yeah…I had, it took me a whole to get it back, not great in a timed environment.
Looking at it now, I’d have made the background tone a different colour for contrast, but it was a rush to get even this much done, that was added last minute. I think it came out well – it definitely captures something about Rick, even if it might be him 20 years ago 🙂
He was happy with it, and so was I (skin tone panic notwithstanding).
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