Christy 9x12 conte crayon/ pastel 1/29/19

Gave the first drawing to the model and her friend.
Very wiggly model. Hard to capture her eyes and mouth in the same position.

9x12 graphite pencil sketches, starbucks 1/25/18

 

It's 0 degrees outside and snow everywhere, so I've been struggling to find a place with even light where I can photograph my sketches. Right now the back hall is too cold so I tried the downstairs kitchen with poor success. Right now even if I took pictures outside the light would be too blue from the snow reflections.

Started out with graphite sticks after I sorted them from the charcoal sticks. (graphite is slipperier than charcoal. Charcoal drags.) Then switched to graphite. Not feeling focused on drawing, but drew anyway or scribbled, which is how I like to think of it in a low stress way. (Anything worth doing is worth doing imperfectly.)

9x12 oil pastel msc model 1/24/19 on canvas paper

Decided to switch to oil pastels because I have a wider selection of values and shades.

Trying to apply the four factors/ conceptual aids to drawing from "Portraits from Life in 29 Steps" by John Howard Sanden.

• Angles: Reduce the entire mass of the head to angles that follow the general contours
• Mapping and Proportions, or relative distances: Indicate relative distances and proportions between points of importance/landmarks; face center, eyes, nose, mouth, hairline, cheeks, ears, etc.
• Plumbing both horizontally and vertically to observe where landmarks fall directly on it. (Actually in this drawing I also checked with plumb line on an angle because her head was tilted to left in order to keep her eyes level and her nose and mouth mostly in line. So maybe not a plumb line then?)
• Positive and negative shapes to check drawing accuracy. Head and neck proportions, relationships.

watercolor practice 10.5 x 14.5, 11/18/19

One of our Friday morning members taught a class to us on watercolor.
We practiced

• wet on wet flat and graduated wash
• dry and on wet applications
• making marks with our brushes
• clouds 3 different ways: paint around on dry then soften edges with wet brush, on damp then use kleenex to lift color for clouds, and paint around clouds on wet.
• Then we did this group of 3 trees on a hill.

I found out I really like my liner brush. I discovered that I also like painting two handed, apply color with one brush in one hand, then soften it with a damp brush in the other hand. Don't blend too much pigment in water or it is too dark. Painting watercolor on 140# watercolor paper is much easier than on 90# mixed media paper. Terry says it cheaper to buy a big sheet, then fold? crease? and tear it into the sized you want.

Claudia Nice has some really nice drawing books.

• Drawing and painting trees in the landscape
• How to see, how to draw, keys to realistic drawing

9x12 maribu art crayon portrait 1/17/19

Still struggling to show the head tilted to the right.
I'm using up the maribu watersoluble (oil pastel) art crayons pretty fast. Think I'll go back to using my tackle box of regular oil pastels where I have a wider range of values.

Looking at "Portraits from life in 29 steps" by John Howard Sanden isbn: 978-1-58180-582-6

He doesn't differentiate between drawing and painting. Drawing is position, placement, and modeling. You need to observe and select. He shows how to use angles/mapping/proportion (relative distances, plumbing, and positive/negative shapes.

Value is important of course and he talked about the six kinds of tone; light, halftone, shadow, reflected light, cast shadow, highlight. (Side note;  I listened to an outdoor painter podcast this month where an artist made value scales using gray that he mixed from ultramarine blue? and red iron oxide?)

He showed the colors he uses to make portraits divided into neutrals, darks, halftones, and lights.

12x18 conte crayon MSC model 1/15/19

Started back at MSC.
Decided to do several drawings so I can get faster.
She had her head tilted to the right. I think it was a natural position for her.

9x12 pencil starbucks sketches 1/11/19

Lot of people on their phone.
I generally use a cheap mechanical pencil. I am really glad that I'm used to that. A sketching buddy told us that she took her pencils with a pencil sharpener to the airport so she sketch while waiting for her plane and they took her pencil sharpener away. How can you hurt someone with a tiny pencil sharpener? Oh well, they have the power and if we want to fly somewhere we have to bow to their superior wisdom. Obviously terrorists can use pencil sharpeners to threaten a whole plane of people.

9x12 maribu art crayon sketch on canvas paper 1/11/19

Decided to check out Hobby Lobby that all my friends recommend so see if I could find a giant water filled reservoir brush. No such luck. However, I did discover these crayons. They work very well but only have a limited 25 color range. Mostly too dark. That's the problem I generally find with Oil Pastel type products. I need a middle range especially for people. People are a range of shades. For example this set came with 2 lights, a white and light pinkish color, then a super dark brown and black.

I really like the feel of these. I did my normal oil pastel technique which is go over the paper with the light color and rub it in before I start drawing with the darker colors. I do that so I can blend to lighter values and scrape back to get highlights and lighter areas.

Marabu Art Crayons say that they are lightfast but appear to mainly be used by scrapbookers http://www.kerentamir.com/art-crayons-comparison-review/

Sometime in the future I could look up Faber Castell Gelatos, Tim Holtz Distress Crayons, Prima Water Soluble oil pastels, Dina Wakley’s Scribble Sticks and Derwent Art Bar and see if they have a set suitable for drawing people and winter landscapes. Meanwhile Conte Crayons here I come.

Roos Trees, Inktense on 9x12 in canson 98# mix media notebook

Bob of "Bob Blast" said he used the Derwent Inktense to sketch when traveling and then a water filled brush. So I figured I'd experiment with it while looking out the window at the bike trail.

I was struggling with the tiny water reservoir brush and decided it wasn't for me. Especially for the background wash. It was a gray, low key day.

So I went and got a 1" trim brush, a bucket of water, and a rag. Then it worked much better. I can not use tiny brushes. That worked much better but probably not practical for traveling.

9x12 graphite starbucks sketches 1/4/19

Met some new people. Maybe they will start coming.

pen sketches in 9x12 notebook at Love Thy Neighbor 12/20/18

I take my mom here. This is a really entertaining bunch of people.

9x12 graphite sketches Corner Bakery Cafe 12/7/18

3x5 pencil sketches mostly at St. Al's xmas concert 12/2/18

9x12 graphite starbucks sketches 11/30/18

Obviously sketching buddies and I didn't meet thanksgiving week.

I just keep sketching and talking.