In praise of good friends.

The internet can be a wonderful thing. Within the worldwide web we have made some good friends, who we love very much.

Recently, one of those good friends - Amy Tomei - sent us a parcel, just so we knew she loved us too!

Missy was fascinated by the parcel.

Is this for me?

Its a locket for mummy, with mine own picture in it!

and the picture of my sister in Heaven, Spotty

Pleeeeze let me habs it, mummy!

Comes to me, Foxy!

and Heffalump - meet my teeth!

Den me hypnotised mummy to gib me a tweet

and it werked! 

 Thank you so much Amy - the locket will be treasured forever - the watercolour paints and paper will be used to create something nearly as beautiful as your friendship -- though I have a sneaky feeling that Missy's toys won't last that long!

The Boy King

The finished painting - hopefully you enjoyed watching him progress.

The Boy King

The painting will be added to my permanent gallery site
Pat Elliott Paintings.

Boy King 5

Carrying on with the greys and deepening the features and shadows, which helps to create the illusion of a three dimensional mask.

The masking was removed also. I'm not satisfied with the white spaces the masking left behind, they don't quite match my vision for the painting.
The next changes I will make are to the white areas, they will get tidied up and subtle reminisces of Egyptian heiroglyphs will be added.

Tomorrow you will see the finished painting.

Boy King 4

Because the theme of shades of grey was already in my mind from the previous painting, it was continued into this one.

The first wash is a pale grey, just to fix the Boy King into the painting.

Boy King 3

Now the painting is the right way up - and I did add a second "touch up" wash onto the sand to give it a little more punch.

Next, painting the Boy King will begin.

Boy King 2

Stage two of this pouring.

Paper was wetted on the top edge as you look at it - paint poured into the wet and paper tilted to make the paint run in one direction only.

When the paint got near the bottom of the page, I propped it over the sink, so that any run offs could run straight into the sink.

Pouring The Boy King

I'm experimenting again with the pouring technique, so I get it firmly fixed in my brain. This time using a painting done some good few years back as a reference.
The original Rest In Peace, I painted many years back, when all things Tutankhamun were very popular. His mask got painted in shades of black and grey, with the only recognisable blue and gold on his face, being the tear he wept.  A tear, because he would never rest in peace.

 
So, here is the new drawing, complete with some masking.

At this point I don't have a definite idea of how this will turn out, but I am trying to make the effect of a sandstorm brewing up around the Boy King.