The composition of my portrait of Ernest wasn’t sitting correctly on the canvas. He felt either overawed by the space around him, or caught in headlight dazzle.

I used the ‘Fibonacci Sequence’ to determine the golden points and cropped the portrait so his eye was centered on one of them. I then tilted the composition by 5 degrees to bring his shoulders onto the diagonal line, and create tension with the space around him.

Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue, mixed for the base grey colour. The ‘Cooler’ colour pushing back the shadow areas. The warmer colours of Magenta and Indian Yellow Deep were used for the shadow area, over painted with Van Dyk Brown and Golden Ocher, to create depth and interest.

Naples Yellow Light and Deep were used for the lighter areas of the face, with pure white for the highlights. A tad risky, and a first for me.