Alf's portrait

 

I had it all worked out. First I turned a photo of Alf into a pop art painting using a photo editing app.

Then, I marked the canvas with the outlines I needed to create a convincing portrait. To do this on an A3 canvas, I had to divide the portrait in half and print each half on A4 paper.

I started adding colour to the outlines and realised that it wasn't going to work. I'd got the proportions all wrong. I worked lout that the printer was defaulting to letter size. I'm going to overpaint the canvas with Gesso and mark out again, using minimal lines and making sure it prints on A4 to get the proportions right.

I've printed it off in black and white so that I can see just where the light is falling on the contors of Alf's face.

I washed all the colour off the portrait and set the canvas to dry. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my new work-space. 

I have two desks, set up at right angles, to allow more space for paints, pallettes, brushes and water.

The other half of the room is a lovely, relaxing space, with a CD player for me to 'listen while I work'. Today, it was the Beatles Let it Be, followed by Side 1 of The White Album.

The room is divided by a screen, featuring a beach scene, very like the one at The Denes, Southwold.

It is both my Sanctuary and Studio, as well as a bedroom when the heat is too much or I'm not well enough to be upstairs.

I'm going to use the heart-shaped wreath as a Christmas wreath again this year, with holly and ivy from the garden.