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Big Phil WIP

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Hang on Studio Wall
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Ant Holder

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Righto off I go again with another painting. Absolutely love these portraits....
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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You're using - whether you know it or not, and I expect you do - a tried and tested Old Master approach there; it works very well, too, especially if you need good control and close detail.

Michael Robinson

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It's looking really good Anthony.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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You're starting with a grey base - it could just as easily be a subdued earth green, or a brown, or even an earth red - laying an accurate drawing on top, picking it out with white - the old boys would have used a thinned lead white, in oil paint of course, or even a white egg tempera - and then using a mixture of transparent and opaque colours over the top - mostly, they'd have used transparent colours in glazes. It's a highly effective way of working - and basically, it works just because of the reason you give: it's right; logical, and it's capable of a good deal of variety (eg, using opaque passages, scumbling lighter paint over dark as well as glazing darker paint over light). It's a method that produced some of the finest paintings in history - it's a pre-Impressionist method, which is one of the reasons why I like it; because while Impressionism can give you an immediacy of colour and a spirited application of paint, we also need the more careful, methodical, and above all subtle techniques that are in some danger of being eclipsed by the Impressionist approach. I always like to see the traditional techniques because while they were once standard, nowadays they look different and distinctive: and as Hockney pointed out, acrylic lends itself ideally to this method (glazing, essentially) because you can get on with it - you don't have to wait hours or more probably days for layers to dry.

Ant Holder

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Here is a further update. After the weekend I am expecting quite a bit to be done......

Ant Holder

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Few hours spent this weekend.

Anth Knight

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Looking good! I look forward to seeing more progress on this one.

Ant Holder

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Nearly there on this one.... Absolutely loving working on this...

Michael Robinson

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He's looking fabulous AG.

Ant Holder

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I am thinking this is finished....... can fiddle with it in places but overall finished.

Michael Robinson

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Brilliant work.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Knowing when to stop is what separates the sheep from the goats (I would have said 'men from the boys', but I'd get into trouble saying that these days). The time to stop, of course, is when you've said what you wanted to say; and the art lies in knowing just when that is..... It's a strong image of a strong man, in more ways than one I've no doubt - and I'm sure it'll be appreciated as such.
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