Ian Astbury, The Cult Print

Having no formal training or necessity to paint or draw as part of a career, my main drive and desire to draw is derived from a long lived personal fascination with people's faces and all they betray. One's face and expression always tells a story and the paintings are a snapshot into someone's life and a moment of transition or a key experience and life defining moment for that person. As a painter I am solely drawn to the face and care not for accuracy, form or detail, mainly interested in the light and how that works and illuminates. Having worked with oils, acrylics and brushwork, as are a few larger exhibits on show, my main technique is to build the portrait with a black marker pen to first boldly draw the face using outline, shading, cross hatching and traditional pencil and pen techniques as this can transfer an idea more effectively than a paintbrush. This establishes a strong starting point. I then paint to embellish and add colour and depth applied with brush, sponge, finger and a range of 'smearing' methods. Overall this produces a pleasing effect, utlilizes any skills in the right proportion and makes for a speedy process to keep things flowing and interesting to myself as I go through the creative journey and, with the best intentions, interesting to the observer afterwards.