Virtual Lockstock!

Mrs Sophie Cobweb-stock, with skin as pure as white silk and eyes that pull you into her very soul.


Sophie is the current model in a virtual life class at Wet Canvas. A wonderful project designed to give members the chance to work from fantastic references when a life model is out of reach.


This is the first time I have taken part in such a project, although there have been many before this one, having only just stumbled into it in the figure forum. Unfortunately, Sophies features so captured my interest that I don't seem to have been able to paint past her face so far.
The painting above is in acrylic on canvas sheet and currently hangs in Lisboa bar & restaurant in Lincoln Rd, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

I titled the piece "Never the Bride" due to that deep longing, almost lost expression Sophie has so precisely portrayed with just a glint of envy. I can almost see the Bride, her friend, glowing with life and love, bubbling next to her. She watches...so happy for her, admiring how she looks, imagining how she feels, wondering...longing...lost in time, making a second last forever in her mind... drifting to a place where dreams are made. A stolen second just for her in a day that belongs to someone else.


The painting emerged from a quick facial sketch in charcoal and chalk

My HUGE thanks to Sophie for sharing her wonderful photographs.

If I feel depressed I will sing. If I feel sad I will laugh. If I feel ill I will double my labor. If I feel fear I will plunge ahead. If I feel inferior I will wear new garments. If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice. If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come. If I feel incompetent I will think of past success. If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals. Today I will be the master of my emotions. - Og Mandino