The reference photograph for this painting was taken by me in 1992 on a vessel called The Spirit of St Kitts as it sailed from the island of St Kitts to the smaller island of Nevis. It is over 30 years, if I remember rightly, since I attempted to paint a person. I admit, I traced it, using my computer monitor as a lightbox. I could probably draw the image but the time it would take me is not time I am willing to sacrifice; my joy is in applying colour and you will note that there is a lot more colour in the painting than in the photograph.
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| Man on Spirit of St Kitts yacht |
It is painted with Schmincke Horadam watercolours in my Strathmore journal and the journal is not ideal for an amateur like myself who spends a lot of time putting down paint then lifting it off again fixing errors, but I think it turned out okay. The hardest bit was the background as the paint skated around on the surface even though the journal paper is supposed to be cold press. It behaves like hot press and is not cotton. I got a bit stuck with the cables so here and there I resorted to using a Caran D'Ache Luminance pencil.
Somewhere in translation, as I had not traced the man's face, I ended up with him looking down at the camera rather than looking in the distance.
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| Man on Spirit of St Kitts yacht, 1992 |
.JPG)
