We all tuned in for the last session of PAOTW and were pleased to hear that there will be another session next Sunday…hurrah!

For this penultimate week the sitter was rapper/songwriter/documentary maker Stephen Manderson aka Professor Green. He was painted by Tom Mead, PAOTY 2019 finalist.

Tom was a 2nd year uni student when PAOTW 2019 was filmed and by the time the programme was broadcast he was just leaving uni. That tv exposure has led to many commissions and he was pleased to say that the whole programme and judges have been very supportive of him.

For the portrait, Tom painted Stephen as he was seen on an iPad screen. A conscious decision so that Tom can look back and remember the portrait was painted while we were on lockdown. He used a green and 2B pencil then acrylics on a plastic plate. Nothing fancy he said and cheap paint because he can buy it in larger quantities. He used a red, white, raw umber (it looked like burnt umber actually) flesh tint, Wedgewood blue (a greyish blue) and parchment (a greyish green).

These two young men had an amazing conversation during the session. Talking about their own lives and also about writing, comics, music, horror films, illustration, and Stephen’s documentaries about child poverty, class divide and suicide. We learnt about Stephen’s tattoos and what he called the ‘incident’, when he was violently assaulted and bottled in the neck, a life changing experience, for which his assailant spent several years in jail. The word on his neck, tattooed only 2 weeks before he was attacked, is ‘Lucky’, which he certainly feels now. All in all a very interesting session and good to get to know someone who wasn’t well know by our members to start with.

During the session the judges explained how they choose the artists for PAOTY, by first looking at all the digital painting submissions, choosing their top 50 then meeting up to fight it out!

Tai said “It is hard for a lot of artists because art is not competitive by nature, because we don’t usually paint to beat anyone else, it’s about finding out about yourself. If there’s anyone to conquer then it’s yourself. Get out of your boundaries and experiment, get over yourself. And practice your drawing, it is the scaffolding of a picture.” Very good advice, Tai.

Here are our members’ pictures…

Steve used coloured pencils on Bockingford 340gsm paper for one portrait and watercolours on the same paper for the other.

Dot worked with graphite wash pencils and only took 2 hours to get her likeness of Stephen.

Susan did no drawing, apart from the tattoo, diving straight in with brushes and painting loosely. She says “I am grateful to last week’s artist (Aine Divine) for giving me the confidence to work like that.”

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Juliet used pencils for her portrait.

Rosie has called her painting “Innocence, Anger, Wisdom”, the 3 ages of man. She has wanted to do a 3 age portrait for sometime and now has the confidence to do so. Watercolour on 300gsm 40cm x 40cm watercolour paper.

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Cynthia used pastels for her portrait of Stephen.

Tracy was distracted by her husband going to the local cafe and bringing back not a prawn sandwich but a roast beef dinner. Very tasty it was too! She sketched Stephen looking down but then decided to do a watercolour of him looking up and then another of him smiling, in black biro with a green background, of course. Both on Hobbycraft’s own 300gsm watercolour paper in a spiral pad.

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Here are the top three adult entries and Tom’s finished portrait. (I will add the top three youngster entries when I find them in the repeated session!)

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