Cromwell!

I have another 4 volunteers for the Windrush collection, so have been practising my portraiture ahead of getting started. I’m self taught and am aware that they might not be painterly enough for current fashions and admired skills. I press on however as I need to be accurate for this series. You won’t know if it’s a likeness or not, but my volunteers and their families will.

I took a photo off the TV of Mark Rylance who played Cromwell in the Hilary Mantel adaptation of Wolf Hall. I loved the series and particularly his take on Cromwell. The finished version has it’s faults but there you go - sketchbook A2 open acrylics on linen paper. Never painted velvet or fur before so I learned a lot just by doing.