Martin Kirkwood

It took me a while to pluck up the courage to ask a total stranger on the other side of the Atlantic if I could use her pictures for a painting. I’m so glad i did.

As someone kindly pointed out to me in the forums here an accurate drawing is the foundation for any successful realist oil painting. I also like to plot the main shadows directly onto canvas w…

OIl on 300gsm Windsor and Newton Galleria paper 210mm x 297mm

I’m not sure I can portray this amazin…

This started off as what was intended to be a loose oil painting….

I first primed a sheet of 120lb Windso…

Ok, so some purist oil painters may shudder at the thought of using acrylic paint as an under painting for oils.

I always start an oil portrait with an accurate pencil drawing applied directly to the canvas or panel. In this case I am using an HB pencil on a stretched linen canvas of 12×10 inches.

This started off as a rough sketch with a graphite pencil and acrylics paints.

While chatting to a great watercolourist friend in Florida, USA we came up with the idea of sharing creative ideas across the internet and seeing what each other could do with the others idea.