Brighton, murmurations and a concert.

On the 3rd of February my son and I took the plunge and went to Brighton to attend a James Blunt concert. Regardless that we were only 2 of about 6 people in the entire venue wearing masks, we had a fantastic evening and came away without having contracted covid.

James Blunt is not everyones cup of tea, but his concerts are amazing; the atmosphere, his song writing skills, the singing, just the whole entertainment package. My son and I were lucky enough to also see him in February 2020, his one concert before Covid hit and everything, together with the rest of his tour came to a standstill. This Brighton concert was the restart to the tour that didn't happen.

We arrived in Brighton in the late afternoon, just in time to watch the starlings performing their murmurations and it was mesmerising. It built up from a few birds and continued with more and more arriving and then all of a sudden it was over and they disappeared under the pier to roost.

After the captivation of the Starlings we had a lovely meal in Pho and then onto the Brighton Centre for the concert.

We arrived home around 12:45 after a really lovely afternoon and night out.

Ellie in 5 shades of grey - portraits in oil week 2

This week we had a new sitter and could only use black and white paint. We had to mix up 5 shades of grey, ranging from dark to light, with the third being the mid tone.

Using just tones 2 and 4, we first had to paint a thumbnail head to test our colour mixing and then move on to paint Ellie just to show the shadow and light. Learning to read the darks and lights in two tones was difficult, even with squinting at the sitter. The ear was actually in shadow and the cheek bones on the left were not. 

Once we had our shadows and lights we started to add the other tones. At one point I was ok with what I had produced and wish I'd taken an interim photo, but then Ellie moved and I made the mistake of changing things. At the end of the class I ended up with a portrait that had the nose was too long, the shape of the face needed modifying, the lighter paint around the mouth made it look odd and for some reason I made the eyes look to the left. 

On Sunday, before I cleaned the paint from the pallet I thought I'd just spend a few minutes touching it up and I got a bit carried away. Although I am really happy with the results I am also pretty nervous that I've done too much and that people will not be best pleased, when the idea is to continue with in the next session.