Pastel Portrait

[JohnWolff]

I was trying to use pastel pencils for the first time, but the paper does not permit erasures! So I resorted to a kneaded eraser anyway and did what I thought was possible. I think I am close, but “something just doesn’t look right”, which always seems to be correct….

 

[GaryM]

Hi John

I like it – hope you don’t mind me suggesting a few things (just my thoughts-I’m not a professional and haven’t used pastels so these may not be any help whatsoever!).

I think you need to see the hair as larger shapes rather than individual strands and look for where the waves are in shadow and darker. Also the shadow under the chin and maybe the cheek could do with darkening to add more contrast. I also think the eye is a bit small. Ive played around in affinity photo and attach a version here with some rough alterations to show you what I was thinking.

Hope this is useful and doesn’t offend.

[xelael]

Hey, John.

Pastel is a wonderful material, isn’t it? It’s one of my favorites to work with.

It’s hard to analyze certain aspects of it from a photograph, but I have to assume through the image provided, so.

I would first encourage you to analyze the values of the overall reference. Notice how the face is actually much lighter in value, much brighter in color. Squint your eyes and try to compare the value of the mouth with the overall value of the face, and then compare it with your own drawing. Do the same to the hair, which looks much brighter in your piece, relative to the the face, than does the reference. The green underneath gives a nice cooler contrast to the warmth of the face, so that’s pretty good if you can preserve it.

Now, I am assuming that you wish to be relatively accurate in relation to the reference, since you provided it. If not, then some of these points can be ignored if they were intentional, but I would still encourage you to look after those plane changes in the face and emphasize them with some lighter valued colors, or even perhaps add some stick pastels for some punch.

[Mengu Gungor]

Great pastel sketch John, I like the variety of color you’re using for skin, and the features are delicate and well placed. I had the same thoughts as Gary. Think of hair more as clumps than strands (if it helps, think Disney hair), or think about sculpting it with clay. Also for portraits, I like to indicate a bit of the neck and shoulder to suggest the gesture of the pose, even if it’s not rendered fully. Also if I squint, the composition is primarily emphasizing the hairline, while you put most your work into the face, so I would have darkened the background, to bring more attention there. Here is my very rough attempt at some of these. I hope you find it helpful, and keep on sketching.

[JohnWolff]

Good grief! I never really expected anyone to look over my sketch so I did not check back until now (April 17)! But thank you all for your reviews and suggestions regarding the hair (to be seen as a mass, instead of ‘strings’), the eye being too small and some values being too dark vs too light. I apologize for making you all think that I did not care and want to thank you again for your suggestions. Pastel pencil on sanded paper is an real challenge for me since I always start with a pencil drawing on regular paper and then transfer it to the desired surface….so I can make and correct all the errors beforehand….

John Wolff

[GaryM]

Hi John

No problem – these forums are getting a lot busier these days which is great!

[Joshua Jacobo]

I believe this was also critiqued my one of the NMA instructors.

[JAFSPURS (Jacob A)]

Hey John,

New to art. New to these forums.

I really enjoy the relative simplicity of this work. Generally speaking you seem to be using the pastels effectively, particularly in the face, as each layered color helps built the mood.

Take it from me as a neophyte using/ experimenting with pastels: a little bit (actual material) goes a long way with soft pastels.

For me the type of canvas or paper is critical, particularly if you’re using pastels layer colors. The integration of the paper’s color into the work can be very effective: see—Degas, Cassatt “sketches” for obvious and effective use of the paper’s original color. While I don’t personally love the brand, Mi-Teintes (Canson) offers ~ 60 colors. I enjoy the “Pack Parma,” “Pack Light Blue,” and “Pack Orchid” colors for portraits.

What brand pastels are you using? I find most them to be close in terms of quality. I like certain colors/tones from one brand more than another. For pencils I mostly use Fabre-Castell PITT (sometimes Derwent) as my workhorse (initial layers), Conte/CarbOthello as versatile options with Caran d’Ache as the soft, vibrant pencils most similar to the high-end sticks (I find).

If you’re interested in drawing techniques/dynamics that have been effective for me in a layering strategies let me know. I’d also be willing to share my experience with sticks (like many people recommended to me, I believe Rembrandt sticks are a versatile “work-horse” well worth the value in terms of the mileage you’ll get from these.

I’d also be willing to discuss the possibility of creating your own surface using Pastel Paste — I can discuss what has worked and some pretty awful fails.

Hope you’re staying healthy. Look forward to seeing more pastel work from you should you chose to do more.

 

– J  (Jacob)

[JohnWolff]

Hi Jacob,

Thanks so much for taking what is obviously a great deal of time to review my pastel portrait. I have been trying to follow the process that Cuong Nguyen uses in his pastel portraits (icuong.com). The pencils he uses are the CarbOthello, supplemented with Nupastel sticks. I don’t like the sticks because they are messy to use and produce a lot of dust. My dungeon studio is messy enough without adding to it. I fashioned a cardboard ‘catch basin’ if you will, that is placed on my easel underneath the paper to catch the dust. The pencils are more to my liking. The paper that I used was Sennelier La Carte Card….basically sandpaper. One cannot erase in the usual sense, only tap areas to loosen the pigment or lift with a small piece of tape. But my drawing skills are not good enough to lay down the correct line the first time, so I resorted to using a kneaded eraser, which did not seem to mar the surface that much and gave me a fighting chance on the drawing. I don’t plan on experimenting with other papers or pencils until I get more comfortable with the basics. I have used some of the Canson papers for my graphite/charcoal pencil work..Canson makes the worst watercolor paper…at least for me (Arches is the best, followed by Fabriano). My current media are watercolor, graphite or charcoal pencils.

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