Sketchbook: Portrait

I was out at a concert in a bar in the village one night when I noticed a local photographer checking his camera at the bar; he’d taking some really striking portraits of the band and audience in black and white and I was particularly struck by the dark intensity of one of the shots and knew that I must make a drawn version. The photographer very kindly gave his permission, saying that his photos are ‘universal’ so I set to work with a charcoal version.

Having fixed the first layer I added more charcoal to make the background and facial shadows more intense.

I then decided to try ‘aging’ it and giving it more warmth by adding an acrylic wash in a sepia tone and a layer of crackle glaze before applying a betun stain and finally a rub of white emulsion paint to the blackest parts to highlight the cracks.

It took several weeks before I ran into the subject of the portrait and was able to gain his permission to publish the piece which I cropped close to emphasize the intimate pose.

I’m very pleased with the resulting mix of textures: the matte black and sketchiness of the charcoal, which I lifted with an eraser around the eyes, combined with the painterly strokes of the acrylic wash and the cracked surface works pretty well I think.