Floating shapes

Chalk or pale pastel on black paper.

Three two minute poses simply picking up on the lit portion of the model.

A five minute pose, still trying to grasp the concept of ignoring dark areas

and half tones. I still have the body outline in place.

The final thirty minute pose and the penny has dropped after a quiet chat

 with our wonderful tutor.

I have erased the body outline but the hands are awful. 

With more time I would have improved them.

But what is left is Floating Shapes.

Life Drawing

One 2 hour session for these 4 poses.

I don't often stand in the Peak Foreshortening position but I did like this pose.

The tutor explained that as we have a downward pointing warm spotlight and also a cool light from the windows i.e. the head end, the shadows will be cool or warm colours respectively.

I tried wetting the pastel shading on the body but the smooth cartridge paper allowed the pastel to wash off: it's not a disaster, though.

I really like this pale turquoise colour.

And last and also least ....

Catch up

Pastel Life Drawing.

The subject was gauzy fabric: in this case black netting.

 The fabric continued down over the legs of the seated model and the task was to convey flesh behind a gauzy film. I spent too much time trying to get a likeness that I didn't have long enough for the fabric task, which I was really looking forward to.

Still finding it hard to get models so this is a pupil from the morning Oil portrait class. 

She was excellent.

Unfinished, too long necked.

The task was to reveal colours from the underpainting by using large broad brush strokes.

Very restricted palette.

By the way, notice how I have forgotten to implement all I learned about painting eyes.

I use one brush for a whole painting but I must get into the habit of using a small, flexible brush if I want to introduce some life into these dead eyes.

This week we were restricted to using just TWO colours plus white !

Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue.

I can't say I enjoyed the experience but on seeing everyone else's work, it was astounding to see the variation in colours we managed.

Lost edges in pastel

Areas of the painting were to be left as mid-tone like the background colour.

This meant drawing in the brighter areas and highlights.

It was quite effective.

Eye, eye.

We had a model for our oil painting class but only had to stare at her eyes and ears.

I find eyes difficult when in a painting but much easier in isolation like this. The white of the eye is never white, is usually a different shade of grey on one side of the iris from the other due to catching the light at a different angle, is darker in a line under the shade of the eyelid and also darker in the corner of the eyes - so much to think about just for the whites of the eyes.

The iris is surrounded by a dark margin (more pronounced in young people). A "jellybean " of paler iris colour placed opposite the catchlight gives an impression of transparency and the catchlight is never white.

The lower lid is hardly painted at all.

This was a sketchier version.

The tear duct is a warm red.

2,2,2,5,10,20,30,30

This is the 2,2,2 drawing.

We always start off with quick sketches to loosen up and get to know the model's dimensions and form so these drawings each took 2 minutes. The tutor always lights the model beautifully to achieve shadows and reflections but the 2 minute slot doesn't leave much time to put in the darks.

After these very short poses, which are usually more dynamic than the model can hold for a longer time, the poses get longer until we have two 30 minute (or one hour-long ) usually sitting or reclining pose.

This is a 30 minute pose on brown wrapping paper, which I enjoyed drawing on. I used the more shiny side. Pastels come in astounding colours and I can't resist adding more and more colour. I could probably spend 30 minutes on a foot.