Rowan
PS
Lifted wholesale from the big-format paperback book of one of the Secret Policeman’s Ball shows in the 1980s, this was my former university colleague Rowan doing what he does best. Practically all the work was done for me here. There were no half tones to worry about (hooray!), all I had to do was choose a quality black card and a decent thick white ink. Details and outlines done with pen, filled in with brush. Size is about 10”x5”. The last one is slightly larger (because so was the image I was tracing from the book), but quite by chance I stumbled across a technique to differentiate between the flesh and the more solid white of the shirt front and cuffs. The hint of half-tones on the face and along the edges of the shadows on the hands were simply the result of the brush drying out as I painted. I found if I left those areas as they were and loaded more paint onto the areas of fabric, I could thicken those up and make them opaque, while the hint of black paper still showing through the fleshy areas gave them definition and depth. A happy accident, as was my ever knowing this genius gentleman in the first place.