Painting and pen plotting
Gouache heads, pen-plotted posters and covers, and posts on what I learned making them. The studio tools here are the ones I use myself.
See recent work →From the blog
Progress logOctober 21, 2026Four Plotter Pieces: Posters, Book Covers and a Change of Mind
A break from portraits: four mixed-media pen plotter pieces, two posters and two faux book covers, chasing moire and blends in the line work and finding a better way to start a piece.
Progress logOctober 2, 2026Pareidolia Portrait: From a Watercolour Splash to a Finished Head
A finished gouache head that started as a watercolour splash: finding a face in the shape, enlarging the sketch, inventing the lighting from references, and painting it shadows-first on Zorn with bolder colour on top.
Progress logSeptember 29, 2026Two Master Studies on the Zorn Palette
Two gouache master studies on Zorn, one after Cedric Peyravernay's Lord Pendleton and one after Ahmed Aldoori's Face Practice: no tools, a bigger sheet, and the difference between pulling colour out of the mixes and pushing it in.
Progress logSeptember 28, 2026Wet-in-Wet Gouache: Two Gradient Studies
Two quick technique studies in gouache, a plain sky and a rock, to practise wet-in-wet gradients and find out where dry layering on top starts to undo them.