Over sixty members welcomed Jill Iliffe to the first meeting of the 24/25 season of demonstrations.  Jill is a well-respected local artist, who has taken part in television's 'Portrait Artist of the Year'.​

​

In less than 2 hours, Jill completed two portraits - one in pencil and one in pencil and coloured pencil.  Her two models were members, Peter and Maria.  Jill usually uses a B pencil but to make it easier for the audience to see, she used a 5B for the demo.  She quickly sketched in lines, 'relaxing into it' and placing the head on the paper.   She then added in details of nose, eyes, mouth.  She does not use measuring at the beginning but adjusts later on as she works, using her pencil to see the relative size of for example, the neck and jaw, or the space beneath the nose against the length of the nose.  

​

Her portrait of Peter was full face, but she said 3/4 profile would normally be better, and she chose this for her second drawing.  She said she looks 50% of the time at her model, and moves her pencil around the whole time, building up the layers of tone.  Peter's beard was 'suggested' with a few gentle lines and squiggles.  ​

​

In Maria's portrait, after the initial pencil outlines, Jill built up the tones using an initial light flesh colour pencil, then adding deeper shades to show the contours of the face.  She said in a quick sketch she was not trying to find exact skin colour.

​

At the end of the demo, Jill kindly presented Peter and Maria with their portraits, which you can see below.  I am sure they will treasure them!

​

​

 

  

​

​

​

​

​

​

​