Witch in Flight was painted in September 2019 in acrylic on to a base drawing using pencil and water-based coloured pens. The image is 1500 by 1200 pixels and displayed reduced (50%). The painting was produced from a commercial source with the fantasy building enlarged, a portait photograph on a pillow (I painted this, see below), and a photograph taken from a high perspective at a Harry Potter convention - this woman was in a gown holding a broomstick looking upwards over a rooftop set. I put these elements together to produce the finished result.
The follow-up painting Nude Witch is shown below the drawing and source portrait.
Below is the drawing. The building was relatively straightforward, but the model took ages to draw with much rubbing out due to the foreshortening of the arms and the legs in flight. As ever without a physical photograph, the drawing happened in front of the computer screen, whereas the painting took place blind of the source images.
Directly below is a small image painting of the original portrait picture. This was done after the main painting and not, for example, as an exercise in learning the face. Her face without make up is different from her self-presentation during the active day.
Nude Witch was painted later in September 2019 in acrylic on to a base drawing using water-based coloured pens only. The image is 1500 by 1200 pixels and displayed reduced (50%). This painting was intended as a follow-up to the first painting. The image was produced from merging my own photograph of a model (displayed further below) taken in 1993 at Worksop Photographic Studio and a portion of the commercial source background again made to be closer. The model was altered so that she has much more hair, her hands hold the broom and she is made to smile in an assertive manner with narrower eyes. When I established the 'positive' colours the blue rooves and brown buildings were all moderated by grey.
Below shows a very early stage, painted in 'negative' colours for underpainting effect. Blue was for under the flesh and broomstick, orange and yellow under the rest. There was no pencil drawing this time and only coloured pens were used, with the addition of a few white lines from a correction fluid pen. The image is 1500 by 1200 pixels and shown at 50%, and the source image for the model photograph below it is 1500 by 1002 pixels shown at 50%.
