Michael Gage

Another new linocut, but again, I forgot to photograph the earlier stages of it. Here we are, already at stage 5.

New linocut: a classic view of Belle Tout and the Seven Sisters from Cuckmere Haven in Sussex.


I forgot to take any "work in progress" pictures, so regular readers might like to work out how many layers this print has for themselves!

Working my way through the vegetable drawer.


I tried to use harder, sharper edges toward the front of the potato, and softer lines towards the back, to emphasise the perspective.

About time I practised the sight-size drawing technique. I couldn't persuade anyone to sit for me for thirty-six hours, let alone afford model rates, but I managed to find an onion who offered decent terms.


Hard to believe that such a small drawing took me four hours.

One of many useful ideas that I picked up from the sight-size drawing course was that you don't need to draw a line round everything. Here, for example, the pale broken line at the top of the onion makes the highlight look much brighter.

Inspired by my attempt at oil painting, I decided to try out some more unfamiliar materials. This one's in gouache, with the drawing done with a Pentel brush pen. Last time I used gouache, it was for A-level, which was ahem years ago.

It's the last day. And as with sight-size drawing, I could carry on working on this one painting for weeks to come. The more you do, the more interesting it gets.

But we have to stop at the end of today. Here's the final result:



The photo is a bit darker than the painting actually is. Here it is next to the original setup:



Quite pleased with the result of my first attempt at painting with oils.