Watercolor painting of a woman sitting in a chair

For a long time I haven’t drawn my family.

But in the past I would often draw them.

And occasionally I would do a painting of one of my family members.

I especially enjoyed drawing my wife because she looks so feminine and elegant.

I sometimes like to look at her fingers and toes which are particularly nice in shape and length. 

My fingers and toes are short and stubby.

And I am very happy with the painting of her above.

This painting was done in 2012.

I did several paintings of her in front of these net curtains. 

I noticed that the folds in the net curtains made an interesting and beautiful background.

At the same time the pattern of the folds is delicate and doesn’t compete with the subject which is the figure.

When painting a figure, I have learnt that the background is one of the most important and also one of the most difficult considerations.

Perhaps I need to start doing paintings of figures again.

Especially as I enjoy it very much and because such paintings can look very interesting.

It is also a subject that I haven’t explored very much which makes it exciting.

The biggest problem is finding somebody.

And here is a drawing of my wife wearing a floppy hat.

Like the painting above, this drawing was done in 2012.

I am very pleased with this pencil drawing.

However, I don’t like to draw with a pencil.

Because although you can achieve some beautiful effects with a pencil they smudge too much.

With this pencil drawing, I did an orange wash over the pencil lines in order to stop them smudging.

You can spray it with a fixative but I never do. 

I don’t like any kind of aerosol. 

I think that those tiny particles coming out of aerosols must get into your lungs and be harmful. 

And this is why despite having a full can of fixative in my artbox it never gets used!

I have no idea what I’ll do with it. 

I guess one day it will just get binned.

But that would be so wasteful and so for now I just keep it.

That’s all,

Gareth.