Pencil drawing this weeks model

We all thought the model was Scandinavian this week, turned out she was from Belgium, I was surprised that she started the two hour session with a smile and a gaze that looked straight out at us , blimey she won't hold that for two hours, I thought, but she did, and I think the steely determination shows.
One student wondered how to paint the colour of her hair,
"You will have to ask my hairdresser" she helpfully quipped, before adding
"It has highlights" ... bringing up the difficult problem of colour versus tone  

Latest drawings from life

 A different model this week, an element of the young Paul Weller I thought at the time, not immediately obvious from this drawing, but it was what I was thinking as I drew him. He was reading a book which was propped on a chair in front of him, he asked for a book on Freud, Lucian I presumed, but none could be found so he is gazing intently at a book of Klimt's paintings.

Pencil drawing

 Drawing from John Gustard's  portrait classes, a good relaxed atmosphere, this is the second drawing i did in the two hours, the first one was too small and tentative, the usual thing with joining a new class..    

My daughter Bella

 Born prematurely on March 10th she is putting on weight and growing in strength, these are some of her more placid moments. with love from Daddy

"

"Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer by to pick up idly ? Beauty is something wonderful and strange.."
From The Moon and Sixpence by W Somerset Maugham 1919

Oil on canvas Contours and Tracks Pen and ink Medway at Rochester

I had a quote from Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim written on the wall of the studio when I was at college,
" ...absolute Truth, which, like Beauty itself, floats elusive, obscure, half submerged, in the silent waters of mystery" , I wanted the paintings to live up to this powerful invocation. I wrote it there to appear erudite no doubt. 
   In Lord Jim. how does Jim reconcile his keen sense of failure with his continued existence?
  " I may have jumped, but I don't run away "