Painting H.E. The Governor, Lt General Edward Davis

Thank you for coming here! With this series of photos, I wanted to share with you a behind-the-scenes look at my latest painting, "Guardian of the Keys" featuring Gibraltar's highest official, the very distinguished Governor.

This painting was quite the challenge for me in scope and complexity, but I wanted to capture more than just his face. I wanted to show him in his role as representative of the Queen here in Gibraltar. In the pose I chose to use, I had him sitting casually by one of the windows of his home, side lit by the warm afternoon sun.

Step 1

In this first step, I quicky blocked in most of the colour, and with the help of a scaled photo for reference, started on the face. I always start with the eyes, which is usually the focal point of any portrait, and work around from there.

Step 2

Next, I finished the first pass on the face (I usually work in layers) and started on the hands. The hands are always daunting- very complex and difficult to get right!

Step 3

Here, I completed the first pass of the hands, and started refining the face. I like to build up the painting as a whole and not get bogged down with one detail at a time.

Step 4

Quickly blocked in the rest of the background and started working on the ornaments and details of his uniform. I added several layers of warm white for the afternoon light.

Step 5

Almost done! Here I painted the massive keys of the city. No joke, they're REALLY heavy!

Step 6

In this step, I warmed up and lightened the shadow areas of the face, refined the details of the hands and face, and painted in the watch.

Step 7

Finally, I refined the details in the clothing and wood grain in the window.

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