Sanguine portrait

Drew a life portrait in sanguine conte chalk, with black and white conte touches at the Stamford Arts Centre Thursday night life drawing group.

Life drawing

A sanguine drawing from last night at the Stamford Arts Centre. Highlighted with white chalk on buff Ingres paper.

The Four Humours Series

Completed a series of oil paintings based on the 'Four Humours' temperamental categories named by Galen as "sanguine", "melancholic", "choleric" and "phlegmatic" after the bodily humours. These humours are traditionally associated with the colours Red, Black, Yellow and Blue respectively. The general idea is that personalities should be balanced, or at least avoid extremes. My natural inclination is towards the Phlegmatic.

I did a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test at work which characterised me as INFP (introversion, intuition, feeling, perception) with borderline INTP (introversion, intuition, thinking, perception). INFPs have been refered to as Healers and INTPs as Architects. Amongst my scientific colleagues I was unusual in being 'feeling' slightly more than 'thinking'. There is no one type that is best, but it is interesting to appreciate that different types are largely inherent and that we should take account of these when dealing with others, and perhaps in our life choices.

These square format paintings combine trompe l'oeil with 'colourfield' composition.

The Four Humours: Melancholic (Somber – Guardian – Sensing-Judging (SJ)). Oil on canvas. (c) Mike Todd 2011

The Four Humours: Choleric (Enthusiastic – Idealist – Intuitive-Feeling (NF)). Oil on canvas. (c) Mike Todd 2011

The Four Humours: Sanguine (Cheerful – Artisan – Sensing-Perceiving (SP)). Oil on canvas. (c) Mike Todd 2011

The Four Humours: Phlegmatic (Calm – Rationalist – Intuitive-Thinking (NT)). Oil on canvas. (c) Mike Todd 2011.

Portrait drawing - sanguine

Our life model was a no-show this week, so by popular demand a member of the drawing group agreed to be a portrait model. I think you can see why we wanted to draw her. Drawing was done using sanguine conte chalk, white chalk and charcoal pencil. On green paper which is great for portraits. I finished this at home, which is risky, but it had to be done.

Life Drawing: Leicester Week 1

Life drawing in sanguine conte on toned paper, highlighted with white chalk. From life class at the Richard Attenborough Centre at Leicester University.

(c) Mike Todd 2009