The pope and the politicians

The Pope on his first official visit to Germany last month, with everybody smiling, but only small smiles.

Politicians

I was working from photos with a wide flat No.10 brush for these images. Sometimes I can’t help but get too involved in the detail of a painting or picture, especially when I’m not drawing from life. Using this kind of brush ensures the final result is simplified and that there is more accidental overlap of colour, which for me gets closer to the goal.

political abstraction

How did I get to this? I guess I was trying to move away from straightforward representational sketching and find a looser more abstract style. I love the unpredictability of water-colour when used like this plus the fact that politicians look much better in watercolour than in real life.