- This topic has 280 replies, 16 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 8 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I’m finding that watching both Vilpuu and Huston teach a particular aspect is really helpful because they approach it slightly differently, but their approaches go together pretty seamlessly and so you glean a broader understanding. Steve walks through the basics more deliberately and thoroughly and therefore is probably the more helpful at the beginning stages, but Glenn is very inspirational and also explains things well. With the head, Glenn focuses on learning and using the skull for construction whereas Steve uses his “simple yet characteristic” sailboat shape and builds off that. I’d like to do the skull studies before too long, but it will take time. I have a lot more of the videos to work through, so my thoughts may change.
How big are you working, out of interest? Looking good.
Deborah
Thanks Deborah. I’ll check out those lessons. I know I’ve watched some of them before, but I need a refresher. I seem to do ok with the head straight in some views and struggle in others. I probably need to spend a few days just drawing heads in every position and use all those construction lines.
Most of my works have been pretty large. I tend to prefer at least 15×15. I’d probably go even bigger if I had larger paper. The pastels are easier to manage in larger areas.
Day 17. Spent a long time on this drawing. Still trying to work a few parts, especially the arm and hand and feet. Trying to show the slenderness of the model and the fullness of the forms at the same time is challenging. I’ll try to finish this tomorrow. In the meantime, I have to plan out the pastel colors for her skin.
Hi Bryan,
She’s looking good so far. It’s bedtime here in Australia, so I’ll answer you properly in the morning, but I just wanted to say thanks for your helpful insights and kind words on my thread. I really appreciate it.
Deborah
Day 18. Still struggling with a lot of the same problems, but I feel like I’m making some progress. The things I still need to work out include which colors to use in which planes, how to blend and unify them to make them realistic, and how to work out the small details with the pastels. At least I know what to try to improve on tomorrow in my next painting.
🙂Are these your new oil pastels? If so, how are you finding them? How many colours do you have to use? I am watching a critique session Steve Huston did for some students and he is focussing on shadow shapes, planes and form. In case it’s helpful to you, the link is: https://youtu.be/1OioR1SiIx . It seems to me to be fairly relevant to what you’re trying to do and to me also.
Hi Deborah. Yes these are the new Sennelier pastels. I love the colors, but they are actually harder to use than the cheaper Van Gogh brand pastels because they are very soft and melt very quickly, especially in Florida’s hot and humid weather it seems. I think I actually prefer the cheaper brand because they are more like chalk, and less like a stick of butter. When I started this challenge, I didn’t know much about the medium and which supplies to get. Now that I’ve had a little practice with them, my next shopping list (when these supplies run out) will be better I think. The specific kind of pastel paper matters a whole lot too, which I didn’t think much about initially. So far, my technique has been to put down a different color or two in each plane, and then try to use a unifying color over the top to blend together. Then, put in some highlights over that. I’ve seen some professional artists do this very effectively, but of course they have a much stronger grasp on colors and theory than I do at this point. I think a lot of them just go with what works for them after years of experience and experimentation. I’ll get there eventually. Right now, I’m happy if I make a small improvement each day. I really like the critique videos, they seem very helpful. I’ll check out this one 🙂
Day 19. Just a bunch of sketches today. Trying to work out all the difficult parts of this pose and also the light and shadow shapes. The drawing paper was a bit ruined at the bottom because I’d used pastels on the page before, so I couldn’t shade in the last one.
Thank you Joshua for the feedback. Very helpful. I’ll work on correcting these things in my future drawings.
Day 20. Trying to draw this accurately and get the light and shadow mapped out before I use pastels. This one was tough because the figure has a lot of muscle. It was my first time using graphite sticks today. I prefer the charcoal sticks, but these will show less under the pastels if I decide to use them.
Just a thought, would it worthwhile your splitting up your figure drawing and colour theory practice sometimes so you’re not having to grapple with both at the same time? Or practicing a particular body part with your pastels in a larger format so that details aren’t so small? I’m finding men harder to draw than women because of the musculature. Perhaps get the basic tubular forms and proportions working first, then put on the muscles? Look back at the sketch you did for this drawing (bottom left of the four) – there is more volume to the hips and a better positioning of the model’s right (viewer’s left) shoulder. It’s hard not to tighten up when going from sketch to final. There’s a nice looseness in your sketch which would be great to see in your final. I hope this is helpful 🙂
CONNECT
New Masters Academy
16182 Gothard St
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
Contact US