I saw a brilliant opportunity for a figure in line. Totally by accident on a stinking hot day I came across a workman working on a pile of steel girders near home. I grabbed the nearest bit of gessoed board and some paynes grey acrylic paint that I had sitting already watered down in a pot. I had no time to find a support or easel (not sure I would have been brave enough anyway to be so obvious). The man had taken his top off and was sitting in the strong sunshine talking to another person. From a discreet distance I used the thin paint to draw on my board. I only had about 5 mins before he got up and walked away.
I am quite pleased with what I managed to capture so quickly, whilst holding the board with one hand. There was a great juxtaposition of the strong horizontal and vertical lines of the girders and the defined, sinewy anatomy of his torso. I didn’t really mange to get any of the muscle definition in this very quick painting. If I was to continue with this I would also want to exaggerate the diagonal lines of the arm as a contrast to the girders.
Painting 1: Practice of Painting 