John Seerey-Lester Doing a Demo

John Seerey-Lester is known for his wildlife, landscape, and historical paintings. He and his wife Suzie are featured on the cover of the upcoming October/November issue of International Artist magazine.

While John did a demo at the SKB Workshop recently in Wyoming, I sat off to the side and painted his portrait in watercolor. 

Here's the first stage. I sketched the lay-in with a raw sienna colored pencil, and then added some watercolor washes on the face, hat, and background.

I then painted the black shirt and the hand, carefully dodging around the suspenders and the bracelet. For the white sideburn hair and the glasses I used a white colored pencil and a touch of gouache. 

John and Suzie kept up a running commentary of painting advice and stories of encounters with big game as the group of students huddled around and asked questions. The apparent color shift is between a digital camera and a scanner.

John's new book: Legends of the Hunt: Campfire Tales