I captured my daughters in some photos on my phone during a trip to the park over the Easter Holidays.  Having selected five images to use, I began to experiment with where to crop the image.  Eventually, I decided on a focus on the figures.  I began to work out where the drawn lines should be.  In this image, the drawn sections are not working well at all in the top of the painting.  However, the feet are beginning to show some life.

Next I began to experiment with drawing.  I drew using pencil, charcoal and paint, trying to find a medium which works for me.

Inspired by seeing Jenny Saville's work at the Ashmolean Museum, I wanted to make my own work which captures movement in a similar way.  My starting point was to make a copy of The Mothers, 2011.  This is my copy.

Having now completed a set of five new portraits, my tutor suggested that some of the backgrounds needed a tweak.  This involved quite a lot of work and I was initially reluctant.  However, the results show that it was worth it.  The painting of "Mum" has a lighter background, which makes the cyclamen more noticeable.   Peter's background is now blue, which makes him stand out more against it and works well, blue being a complementary colour, so less confrontational than the purple.  

I needed a new challenge and decided to loosen up my style when painting my mother.  Taking inspiration fro Tai-Shan Shierenberg, I have tried to paint loosely, while trying also to capture a likeness.  

For this year's studio work, I wanted to have a new challenge: to depict light and movement.  I took over a hundred photos of Peter playing the drums, with light from the torch app on our iPhones shining onto his face.  The image we chose together for me to paint has an unexpected co-incidence in that the shadow created on the wall behind forms the upside-down cross of St Peter.

As predicted, it is really difficult to stop making tweaks to the work, even when you think it is finished.  It might be finished now!

Sometimes it is good to have a break from the work in order to be able to spot what needs changing when you see it again.  Having had an enforced break while assessment was taking place, I was able to see the small tweaks which needed doing in order to bring the portrait to life. Having the input of others in the studio as well is always helpful.  The portrait is ready to be delivered at last.

It is always difficult for me to work out when a painting is finished.  Having made corrections to the shade of purple of her clothes, I decided that the feathers in the hat would look better red, after all.  I re-painted the face, adding highlights and shadows, added detail to the brooch and painted a small Boeing 747-400 on the pearl earring (a reference to the Commissioner's previous career as a pilot).  Sometimes the paint dries a slightly different tone, so I might still change it slightly, but, for the moment, I think it is done.

The photograph shows the Queen with red feathers in her hat.  I decided that I would prefer blue as these go with her outfit better and help to tone down the "pinkness".  I added shadow to the hair under her hat, began to paint her pearls and started to add detail around her eyes.  She is starting to come to life.

As I started to block in the colours of the Queen's outfit, the portrait became overwhelmingly pink.  I needed to over-paint with several coats of purple in order to correct this.  The brooch is to be the Warwickshire Bear and Ragged Staff, not the one in the original photograph, so I needed to size this to work in the portrait and angle it so that the foreshortening works in its position on the Queen's jacket.

I decided to abandon the first version of the Queen because her face was in shadow, her eyes were screwed up tight because of the sunlight and I found an image which was more recent (March 2015, rather than 2007).  Its a tough call to make, to start again as I had done three days of work on the first image.  However, I think it should be worthwhile.  I made the background very unfocused, like in the first version and started to block in the shapes.

The Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner has asked me to create a portrait of the Queen for one of the walls of his office in the middle of Warwick.  The brief was to paint the Queen as she looks now, wearing informal clothes (no royal regalia) with two added elements.  The first is to have a reference to Warwickshire somewhere on the painting and the second, rather less important element, was to have a small Boeing 747-400 as a reminder of the previous career of the Commissioner as a pilot.  

Having picked an image to work with, I drew the Queen in pencil onto the prepared canvas, which is 60x85cm in size.  I wanted to have a blurred background to represent all the activity surrounding the Queen in her daily life, while she is at the calm, unruffled centre.  

The last day of rehearsals for Emma was Friday 1st May, so the challenge was: to try to finish the portraits in time for the actors to be able to use them during rehearsals and for me to be able to photograph this.  I managed to take them for the final outdoor dress rehearsal, on a fairly chilly, windy afternoon, and watch the portraits and actors interacting.  It was a real treat to watch such a talented group, who were generous in their praise for the work I had done, and to sit back and enjoy seeing how they would use my work.  The production is a "play within a play" - six artists who decide to put on a play.  The actors used blank frames to introduce the characters and made the most of every opportunity to interact with the audience (of three!)

Six actors were used to play twelve different parts so there was a lot of doubling up.  The portraits were used as "stand-ins", to show the presence of someone with a non-speaking part, as dance partners, dinner party guests etc.  It was exciting to meet them after working so intensely on the portraits - firstly to see whether or not I had captured their likeness, and secondly to see whether or not they were like I had imagined.  During the painting process I became very fond of the actors and was delighted that they liked my work.

This was my second attempt at Harriet, my first curtailed due to a change of bonnet, which completely altered the look of the actor's forehead and shadows.  This portrait was to look unfinished as it would be "painted" during the performance by Emma.  I completed this rather quickly - in a morning - but the problem was that, despite the lack of background, it did look rather too complete.  I needed to find a way to "uncomplete" it, while maintaining the likeness of the actor playing Harriet.

My first attempt was to paint in a sketchy background, an isolated area of pattern on the dress, a loose brush stroke across the dress edging and a sweep of paint across the ribbon.  This didn't really do the job.  In the end, I decided to add white paint to areas in the bottom right and top left, to make it seem sketchy and unfinished.

Mr Weston was to be painted in the style of John Constable.  As the character of Mr Weston is a farmer, I selected an image showing farmland in the background and a rather moody, dark sky, often seen in Constable's work.  I'm definitely getting quicker, as I had completed the first layer of paint by 3pm on the same day I started and already feel like I have captured something of a likeness.  I had been worried about painting the wig, which needed to look like it was sitting on the actor's head, rather than part of him.  It was the first time I've ever painted a beard so this was also a challenge.

The same actress playing Miss Bates was also to play Mrs Weston.  This painting was to be in the style of JMW Turner.  The issue for me was how to create an accurate likeness of the actress while having a very different style.  I started with the background - one of Turner's famous sunsets - Flint Castle.  Turner was a fan of dividing his canvas into thirds, so to be authentic, I placed the sun exactly one third of the way up the canvas.  I copied, as exactly as I could, a sunset from the Turner painting, then looked to his portrait of Jessica for inspiration for the figure.  

This portrait needed to be painted in the style of the cartoonist, George Cruikshanks.  I decided to go for a background which would contrast with the pale clothes and would give a clue to the character of the person depicted.  I painted the likeness from the photograph and then tried to work out how to "Cruikshanksify" it.  This involved adding rosy cheeks - many experiments here before finally settling on a brief flick with a wide brush.  The figure was then outlined with a black marker pen, giving a cartoon feel.

Heartbreak Productions in Leamington are going to be performing Jane Austen's Emma during the Summer of 2015.  The premise is of six Romantic artists who decide to perform Austen's work.  They want five portraits of actors playing different roles in the style of different artists - JMW Turner, John Constable, George Cruikshanks and William Blake.  They have asked me to paint the portraits before 25th May - a five week deadline - no pressure, then!

I decided to try to paint at least one painting per week, ideally getting the basics done in one day at the studio.  The first one I tackled was "Mr Elton", in the style of William Blake.  It needed to have a rainbow background, so I chose Blake's The Dance of Albion as the point of reference.

"Mr Elton", in the style of William Blake