We're late, we're late ... but ...

Firstly, I have to apologize to Marcelle who took time to do a great charcoal portrait sketch - and I believe she is continuing over this in acrylics - and it got obliterated from my last column by my haste and incompetence. There was a white patch where it should have been... but you don't want to know the tekkie details, I'm sure. Apologies Marcelle.

However, other folk have been sending in late pix (don't artists have calendars to mark deadline dates?!?) so it is a moment for put together an apology, and include a few more works.

Anne Puren sent in a a delicate and attractive rendition of an old photograph of her maternal grandmother (just above) - and she really missed the autumn deadline but sent in another lovely painting of vines: see further below.

Maureen had already submitted drawings by deadline date but took the bull by the horns (I'm guessing she didn't sit still so did you do it from a cellphone photo Maureen?) and decided to tackle a sweet young lady in watercolour and did a pretty good job.

Despite what our favorite local watercolour artist Hazel Soan says, watercolours are not easy as they have 'a mind of their own'.  It is a brave artist that takes out his watercolours for a portrait, so well done Maureen.

As I joked previously, I also attempted a watercolour selfie - not finished but included to amuse you. Unfortunately I appear more like Margaret Thatcher than me - not a look I'm happy to cultivate. I remember another Cape Town portrait artist telling me try not to do open mouthed smiles and 'never do teeth' as you always get them wrong so taking her advice I glossed over them (but the space is too white, I know).

BUT, I shall try again with another portrait - after all non permanent watercolours can be washed almost completely away leaving your paper ready for another work.

And so to late arrivals.

Anne Puren sent in this lovely vine, above, where the tints of autumn are starting to touch the leaves. There was no mention of the medium but it is a very competent work.

Lastly, a lonely red apple from Maugie.  Thank you everyone.

I'll leave you with some beautiful portraits painted by Hazel Soan to inspire you all. 

Do note that Hazel does live demos on Zoom from time to time. 

She did a fabulous one (free of charge! nogal!) yesterday on painting wild animals in Africa. Check out information on her website. www.allsoanup.com or follow her on her own Instagram pages which are not only a way to hear about demos but are full of really useful info.

Posting our Portrait Challenge

This has been fun! We may not all be Singer Sargents or Rembrandts, but it seems there is a much enthusiasm among some of FHAS members. More than one portrait was submitted by some members and all are included here.

Portrait or self portrait? There were some very brave and entertaining attempts at self portraits so, well done. It isn't easy coming to terms with wrinkles, scars and bad hair days not to mention light and shade, but our members rose to the occasion.

However, it is not only a question of accepting our character lines; most subjects have firm ideas about how they look and the artist runs a fine line between getting a likeness that is blessed by the sitter and being able to do a realistic yet artistic work. Maureen pointed this out when her 'sitter' wasn't too happy with the result that Maureen herself liked! You can't win them all, can you!

What medium works best? You'll see that drawing media were most popular. Pencil, pastel and crayon: they are the easiest to control. There were some acrylics and oils too - again fairly forgiving media. But watercolour? 

Collectively we shied away from this and I believe to do a recognizable portrait in this medium requires courage (or an intimate knowledge of which colours can be lifted if an error happens). Ann Z was the only one (correct me if I am wrong) who submitted some portraits in watercolour - she's good at this and has done a number of them over the years.

As you blogger, I set myself the challenge of doing a self portrait in watercolour. A visitor to the house kindly identified me from the finished work ... but my husband did not! Enough said. 

But I found the challenge a great one and did another work in pencil (on the wrong kind of paper) which is passable and I learned that one can't just pick up a scrap of paper from the back of the cupboard and expect pencil, or crayon, or watercolour, to be perfect on it. A good lesson learned: choose your support carefully.

All good works take time. Sometimes, as really famous minimalist artists will tell you, the time is spent thinking rather than wasting effort on coloring away at bad, ill-conceived works. But all works - especially portraits - require consideration and though before the first daubs are put down.

Are you enthused to try a portrait now? 

An easy way of starting portraiture is to use a photograph and create a grid over it to break it down into sections and ensure the proportions are correct. So, if in your A4 photo, you might want to break up the image into 4cm blocks.

Alternatively (and the great masters didn't have this great technique) you print out a picture and rub a 2B or 4B pencil over the back and then with an HB pencil or even an H, you trace the outlines of the defining areas of importance (eyes, eyebrows, mouth, ear, top of head, beauty spot, chin etc etc etc) on to your paper. It's the easiest way to ensure features are proportionally correct. After that, the rest is up to you!

You may have seen a couple of the images below previously but they are good examples of FHAS members' works.

And so to the works in no particular order.

Ann Z, portrait 

Maureen 2

Ann Z 2

Ann Z 3

Anne Puren 1

Anne Puren 2

Noni 1

John S 1

Rob 1

John S 2

John S 3

Noni 2

Maureen 1

Maugie 1

Maugie 2

Noni 3

Ann Z 4

Apples and Autumn

 While awaiting the contributions for the PORTRAIT challenge (and we have some really interesting submissions already), we are catching up on the Autumn and apple theme.

Who can resist the vibrant colours of new apples? Those greens and reds, yellows and goldens. And when they are fresh, crunchy and tasty, they don't last long in the bowl. 

As we all know, when inspiration is not in great abundance, a bowl of fruit or peppers can provide an excellent challenge for their vivid colours, their three dimensionality and the reflection of colours from one object to the next. Add a bit of sharp side light and ... voilà  - a good composition. 

Don't deride it: Cézanne made some great painting with his weekly shop for fruit and veg. See above. The key is to be bold!

Anne Puren starts us off with her vibrant apples. Is this acrylic or oil?  Not to worry as the result is great and a good sense of three dimensions.

Fiona uses colored pencils to do this line up of apples.

Maureen couldn't wait and took a bite of her apple before the watercolour was finished. Great lighting, Maureen!

A quick(ish) rendering of apples in a bowl - to prove you don't need hours or an overworked subject to pass the message.

Arty alternatives

John Strickland has drawn my attention to a couple of interesting techniques that are a little out of the ordinary. During his classes he has been encouraging his participants to think out of the square.

The first technique is scraperboard. 

Maybe you remember this from your school art classes? We were given a bit of black board and a sharp instrument for cutting through the black surface and revealing the white card beneath.

Things have moved on! The underlying layer can now be multicoloured. Maureen sent an impressive example of a head - see above. Of course with time perhaps the ‘arbitrary’ colour below the surface can be used to its advantage.

John thought colour and cleverly used the hues to create a Chinese dragon.

The second technique his group has been experimenting with is the effect of pouring acrylic paints. These are liquid acrylics that are thinned down and then...poured! Sounds simple and indeed it is but to create and vaguely control the pouring, dilution and direction...is an art.

There are no FHAS pictures to support this but, according to members present, it is a liberating and fun way to create colour and design.

John recommended looking at OLGA SOBY(see above)  on YouTube. She has produced some exquisite work. Have a look at what she does and maybe you, too, will be inspired.

Remember next up is the portrait challenge. Please send your works soonest!