On the Buses

Model: LaDawn Clare-Panton

Preparatory Sketch

Second time around for me and LaDawn. With the minor exception of Steve's kneecap, this is the first time I've painted the same model twice. Since I'd given her quite an emphatic send off in her last painting, I wasn't really sure where to go with her this time. My mundane fascination with the banality of London Transport reared it's head once more...

Photo research on the number 40 bus to Aldgate and my preliminary underpainting

In the second week, one of my fellow painters, Paul, complimented me on my work but took me to task about my eye painting – they just didn't seem credible – in any of my paintings.

"Well, I suppose I can't escape the fact that I have a cartoonists soul" I replied, "but at least I've stopped moving the eyeballs"

"Moving the eyeballs?"

"Yeah... well... I really like eye contact in my paintings, so in a lot of my earlier work I'd rotate the eyeballs so that they seemed to be looking at the viewer..."

"What???"

With this criticism ringing in my head I made a serious attempt to make the eyes more "painterly" – more Manet than Manga perhaps. However, having made this concession, I couldn't resist swivelling the eyeballs...

iCheat – Here's looking at you kid!