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.

Trials of a Life model

A bitterly cold morning and the Life model is surrounded by electric fires 

and lying on a cushioned podium. 

Then the fire alarm goes off.

Is it a practice ? Do we ignore it ? No.

We grab what we want to keep safe but no time for coats and we congregate on the terrace in front of the coffee bar/restaurant. 

The tutor has waited for the model to grab a thin house coat, her warm coat and her shoes, which she is holding in her hands: she is barefoot. 

She said that this is the sixth time that this has happened to her !

Three cheers for Life models !

They are getting thin on the ground around here. For £10 an hour, soon to rise to £12, they are refusing to make the journey to Bracknell. 

This was a contrasting mediums exercise. I used acrylic ink, graphite and my usual hard pastels.

Whitefaced Woodland sheep

I don't think you'll find better looking sheep than this breed of supernatural grazers, who live on the blasted shingle meadows at Orford Ness, Suffolk.

This acrylic is slightly larger than an iPad and is not quite finished: I need more definition 

i.e. more darks but it is 100% better now the background has been changed to a sandy yellow.

I will be eradicating the wink.

The photo below is not the exact one I used for reference

 but I can see more of the snout on this one.

The painting below was done quickly as a dark underpainting, then painted over and it lost its vitality

but not all of it. The trick now is to reinstate the darks, eliminate the fussiness and then decide when it is finished.

I am quite pleased with this one.

Portrait of Claire

The colours are not true to life in these photos and neither is the rough textured 

appearance. In short, the portrait is better than it appears here :)

This top view was taken after one two hour session. 

My easel was directly underneath a bright ceiling light

 and so I was shocked to view it at the end of the session in a dimmer light and saw, again, 

how dreary and dismal my colours were. 

I hate the brown/green background but the likeness is good.

This is after the second two hour session.

I have brightened up the skin tones, changed the foul background colour

and neatened up the features.

 It is so useful to see both versions together because I can clearly see that the relaxed facial pose of the first has been replaced by a tighter expression.

Is this because I "neatened up" the features and profile  ?

Does the highlighted upper eyelid alter the expression ?

Have I lost too many shadows (under the nose, for example) ?

I'll have to look at the painting again to see if these failings are as obvious 

as the photos show.

Pastels or charcoal ?

This is a hard pastels painting (a drawing, really, 

but called a painting because it is in pastels) on white paper. 

I can see here that I am getting better with pastels, using several layers of different colours to tone down, define the form and correct mistakes. 

But that right buttock is waaay too bright.

Same model, same day.

Using a softer black pastel, not quite charcoal but easy to smudge.

The stomach is not defined: I should have spent longer on this one.

The tutor liked the use of flesh colour, white highlights and tiny touches of turquoise here and there.

I love a bit of turquoise.

The Ancient Submariner.

This is Michael. 

He is about 80 years old, likes a pint at lunchtime and speaks with a strong West Country accent. He loves the sociability of the art group and chats away.

 He takes the job very seriously.

Compared to other portraits in the group, mine was sombre in colour. I don't know if that is a reflection of my character or just that I'm too mean and lazy to get fresh colours out when I have overmixed them. 

Life Class

I tried to channel Toulouse Lautrec here :)

His pastel paintings of female nudes usually figure yellow-tinged skin, never pink tones.

The complementary colour is violet and I used that for hair, stockings and most darks.

This was a warm-up sketch.

The stripy stockings were supposed to be a big feature but I had to almost ignore them 

or they became the focal point of the drawing. 

Ongoing and last portrait of the academic year.

This was the next stage. The perspective is wrong for a painting 

as the camera has distorted the angles to fit everything in so the background is 

squashed up and unrealistic.

 I have too many hard edges. I'm trying to capture 

the nature of the suede sheepskin. Colours are ok except for the rug, which is 

too yellow and lacking in texture.

This is the lovely Lisa. She is an ace model: gorgeous, relaxed and motionless.

A two-hour portrait, so not finished.

I painted over Kieran the Maori, who can be seen faintly and horizontal under 

the pink background.

I have photos of this pose and really should finish it.

The hand is quite nice.

Ongoing projects

I am Aries, after all.

I took lots of photos of these beautiful rams at Orford Ness, Suffolk. They are Whitefaced Woodland sheep and both male and female grow stupendous horns. 

They are magnificent, if slightly 

malevolent-looking, with their haughty gaze. 

It is not yet finished, but not far off.

Started this acrylic today.

Paige's sheepskin slippers.

I painted David's shoes (see below) a few years back and intended to do a series 

of family shoe poses but never got a good enough photo of characteristic stance/pose together with good light for shadows.

I've been doing loads of painting to get works ready for the Wokingham Art Society annual exhibition and it has spurred me on to finish other stuff I had in mind.

I love this one.

It is David queuing up for food at Borough Market. 

The sun struck his left leg and shoe very nicely, thank you.

I hope to do at least two more (for Peter and Claire, if they want them).

Last of the year

Not quite the last Life Drawing but subsequent ones were binned.

I have already enrolled for both classes next year.

This is Dermot.

It's a good likeness - but the eye is weak, too small, too close to the profile ? 

I observe the model very closely but fail to measure, preferring to be slapdash and hasty. He took a photo of this painting - always a good sign for the artist :)

This was a two hour portrait.

Unfinished portraits.

These are oil portraits I painted during my Friday afternoon class with Harriet Brittaine.

The one above is my most recent effort after a 2 hour session and we have one more session next week to complete our work. 

I work quite fast so it is easy to reach this stage and then spend 2 hours fiddling on and messing about with it, ending up with a disastrously overworked, too detailed portrait.

This was a one session portrait. We are allowed, with the model's permission, to take photos and so I will try to finish this one.

This painting was a two week sitting and it looks no better now than it did after the first session. But again, I have a photo and may have another go at it.

There are fairies at the bottom of my garden, .......

Life Drawing in Colour class.

I'm trying to get better at using pastels, soft and hard, but I can see that I use the hard most and simply use it as a crayon. Others blend the soft pastels into a solid ground but I'm not sure I like that effect.

Same lovely model.

She is , in reality, covered in tattoos.

Splat

This was a day Life Drawing workshop with a circus theme.

This model is now a nurse, who had the most perfectly fitted ringmaster/mistress costume - and no wonder ... she managed to join a circus and this had been her work attire.

A long pause and cookies have insinuated themselves.

Uplit portrait in Harriet's class. The colours in the photo are not true, too bright and bleached.

Self portrait as homework over Summer. Painted from life, using a mirror, so squinting to gauge tone. I'm quite pleased with this though it's impossible for me to be objective.

This is too smooth and pernicketty.

I quite like this one.

All portraits, except the self portrait, were painted in two hours so are not finished works.

I have enrolled for 2 classes next term : Life Drawing and Oil portraits. I love it.

I have to check that there is a cookie warning on this blog. I do not seek such information but ggle does, apparently, and an EU (ha!) directive obliges me to warn European readers of possible privacy infringements. I say nothing more.