We met Kumara’s family at the end of our holiday, Thurushi is his daughter of about 4 years old, not yet at school, what a beautiful little girl she is. Although Thurushi could not understand what we were saying she was happy to have her photo taken, a little shy at first but once i got the whole family involved, she just loved it and dressed up in her ‘Sunday best’ and even gave me some little twirls. As we chatted, Anusha made some refreshing tea with ginger for us which was gratefully received, the family were so genuine and friendly, it was nice to get to know them a little in such a short time; Kumara offered to take us around the sights of Sri lanka and to stay with him and his family when we visit his country again, which hopefully will be in the next few years, it will give him chance to finish building his home.
Below are a few photos of stages of my coloured pencil painting of Thurushi, still lots to do but making good progress:
I am using Polychromos coloured pencils which are a soft oil based pencil great for blending and i find them to be great for portraits, the lighter shades are great for working skin tones, mixing many layers to create the tone required. This is my first attempt at a darker skin tone, its quite challenging thats for sure and very enjoyable, love looking at this little sweetie as I work. I always find when you have a connection with the subject you are working on, it just gives you the extra buzz which hopefully will make the piece a good result. I am working on cream coloured ‘Stonehenge’ paper which is a good quality material as it takes many layers of pencil, possibly up to fifteen layers which may be necessary to get the best result. So far, these stages have probably mounted up to about 5 hours work, may be another 3 or 4 hours left. Time to turn in now, not good to get tired when I have a painting on the go.
