Portraits At The Pub 24 - Ruth | Tim Baker | Watercolour Paintings, Drawings & Acrylic Artworks

The Queen (Ruth, Portraits At The Pub), Fountain Pen and wash, A4 Artway Flat White Sketchbook.

Portraits At The Pub 24 – Ruth

The final session of the three-in-a-row Portraits In the Pub sessions. I cannot believe I used to do this every week with the life drawing, sometimes double with Portraits AND life drawing in one week! I find it a struggle to do that now. although it’s been fun. Like the previous week’s two-for-one drawing scramble, this week’s challenge was a massive feathery headdress! It was the first drawing as well, which made for an interesting 10 or 15 minutes.

I wanted to add colour but no time, but my later watercolour work had other ideas, dripping splashes of purple onto it. I didn’t notice til I’d scanned it, and I quite like it, looks almost intentional. I’ve been trying to bring watercolour back in, but that’s a struggle when the drawing takes a long time and you only have a few minutes left to add some colour! The classic one in portrait or life drawing is getting to the hands, one of the most complex things right at the end…

Ruth, Portraits At The Pub, Fountain Pen and wash and watercolour splashes, A4 Artway Flat White Sketchbook.

The Revolutionary (Ruth, Portraits At The Pub), Watercolour. A4 Artway 35% Cotton Studio Sketchbook. — Ruth, Portraits At The Pub, Fountain Pen and wash and watercolour splashes, A4 Artway Flat White Sketchbook.

I did get time to do some colour work – with a freestyle watercolour which oddly kind of French with the colours used, I was going for a more abstract/vorticist approach, and a large abstract one of the headdress later with the Tempera Paint Sticks.

Ruth, Portraits At The Pub, Tempera Paint Sticks and sgraffito, A3 Canson Watercolour XL Pad.

Ruth, Portraits At The Pub, Watercolour and Fountain Pen. A4 Artway 35% Cotton Studio Sketchbook.

Ruth (detail), Portraits At The Pub, Watercolour and Fountain Pen. A4 Artway 35% Cotton Studio Sketchbook. — Ruth, Portraits At The Pub, Watercolour and Fountain Pen. A4 Artway 35% Cotton Studio Sketchbook.

I did get to do another watercolour, again on the Artway Studio 35% Cotton paper. I like the face, hence the detail, wasn’t happy with the feathers. And then finally I did a very regal drawing of Ruth in her metal headdress which reminded me of the Statue of Liberty, paradoxically to the pose and throne chair which suggested more Queen Victoria. Maybe it was the royal purple as well?

This was my favourite drawing of the night, along with the first and the large paint stick piece.