Audiences Blog

My blog for the Professional Practice module of my course

Study for 'Cigar Roller'




The top and bottom images are done using a pen and then adding water to the image after. The middle image has been done using a double ended marker pen with two different nib shapes - the ink was a lot more difficult to get to run so it is a pretty sharp image.

Lady with Cigar 2010


This is the best picture I could get of this image, it is acrylic paint and is fairly small, about A4 in size. It started out as a tester for a large portrait I was working on at the time but I became intrigued by how much you could know about a person from a small section of their face. I also love the way the image just fades away into the background. Below is a biro drawing out of my sketchbook, just familiarising myself with the shape and expression of her face.


Final painting



Biro sketch



The final image turned out to have the exact effect I had desired. I wanted to create a symbolic image of my time in Cuba, in an attempt to sum up the people, the sun, the culture and the way of life. Every time I see this image it makes me smile back in admiration at the face of the woman - selling necklaces to rich tourists at the top of a hill in the boiling heat, making pennies, barely speaking a word of English with an unlit cigar hanging from her mouth... and loving every minute of it.


'Lady with Cigar'

Cuban Men 2010

'Cigar Roller'


'Flute player'


Here are a couple of portraits I did for my parents, they are pen and water drawings, using the ink from the pen after I have drawn with it rather than applying more ink. There is also a little watercolour for the blue areas. They are about A1 in size and I did them from photographs that I took in Cuba. I really love these pieces, they are so simple yet very emotive.