Cross Channel Ferry

Ricky Asleep on the Cross Channel Ferry - 10" x 14" - Watercolour

I don't do many portraits. I like doing them but tend to concentrate on everything except getting a likeness, which, to be honest, is a bit of a weakness in portraiture. This one was done from a series of photos of the painter Ricky Romain (http://www.rickyromain.com) on the Channel ferry en route to Paris. It was a short trip but I came away with many ideas for subsequent paintings, including several of the steps series already included in this blog. At the time I was reading some short stories by Honoré de Balzac and during the trip I visited the August Rodin Museum hence the passing similarity to the statue of Balzac by Rodin. I especially enjoyed painting the vinyl seat and the wall: I used a toothbrush to spatter the paint through a paper stencil to get the cork tile effect.