Pastels and Watercolors (and a few other art media)

[SquarePeg19]

I see Luke Wilson in that one. I think it’s the eyes.

 

[terri16]

Ok, last Mr. Rogers attempt. But, I can totally see Luke Wilson, and now I’m convinced I actually drew his portrait.

View attachment 193117

It's absolutely an improvement. Amazing what just a few subtle changes can have, isn't it? Great work!

 

[terri16]

I found this one on the little shelf that was over the drawing table. It had fallen over and was behind something else. I don't remember exactly when I painted it - a few of years ago; I'll have to find the original photo for an idea. Acrylic on canvas, 5x7.


Untitled by Snowbear Photography, on Flickr

Wow! This one's just gorgeous! That's a lot of components for a 5x7, too. I find anything smaller than 8x10 to be more challenging, frankly.

Acrylic on canvas, eh? It looks great!

 

[SquarePeg19]

Did I tell you guys I went to Michael's yesterday and was like a kid in a candy store? I restrained myself as best I could, lol. I bought small tubes of Payne's Grey, Cad Yellow and Yellow Ochre to fill in some gaps in my half pan set. And a small bottle of Dr Phil Martin's Bombay ink in Magenta. I have been fascinated by the abstract florals of Kris Keyes and she seems to use ink instead of water color about 1/2 the time so I wanted to give it a try to see what the difference is. Excited to have some time tonight to play around. Also bought a cheap foam board to tape my paper to so I can tilt as needed. Oh and a kneading eraser. That's it. But I wanted to buy everything!

 

[waday]

@SquarePeg , that’s so awesome! Love it so much! Excited to see more of your floral work!

 

[snowbear94]

Thanks, Terri.
Ink, Sharon? Now you need to get one of these:

 

[terri16]

Did I tell you guys I went to Michael's yesterday and was like a kid in a candy store? I restrained myself as best I could, lol. I bought small tubes of Payne's Grey, Cad Yellow and Yellow Ochre to fill in some gaps in my half pan set. And a small bottle of Dr Phil Martin's Bombay ink in Magenta. I have been fascinated by the abstract florals of Kris Keyes and she seems to use ink instead of water color about 1/2 the time so I wanted to give it a try to see what the difference is. Excited to have some time tonight to play around. Also bought a cheap foam board to tape my paper to so I can tilt as needed. Oh and a kneading eraser. That's it. But I wanted to buy everything!

Hahaha, sounds like a blast! I love having fun at an art supply store.

Paynes Gray is an AWESOME color, btw. It's going to show up for you when nothing else will do.

Neutrals are fun!

 

[terri16]

Thanks, Terri.
Ink, Sharon? Now you need to get one of these:
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View attachment 193155

That is one beautiful looking pen!

 

[terri16]

I am tickled to death with this one. It's a copy of one of Picasso's many paintings of Sylvette David. In the 1950's, she worked in a pottery shop where Picasso kept a little studio at the time, firing his own pottery. She had beautiful blonde hair and often swept it up like this, and he noticed it and made as many as 40 different portraits of her. She became known as "the girl with the ponytail" and her hair was imitated by stars at the time, like Brigitte Bardot. She was very shy, avoided the public scrutiny as best one can when made a star of sorts by being a muse to Picasso. She is firm when saying he was always respectful of her.

Anyway - I came across this one and was struck by the grayscale style. What?! Had to try it. I used a grid for this one, because the proportions are unique and I didn't think I could eyeball them.

And because I'm so tickled with how it turned out, I will torture you visually with my WIP photos.

Here is my sketch over the grid pattern I made (I don't do those tiny grids). Notice how I got the eye direction wrong; I realized it later and corrected her gaze.

I did the background first, and worked on the face, correcting the direction of the eyes. I erased some of the grid lines in the head, but they're still visible in the sketch.

Got to working on the hair, scumbled in some dark gray in the neck there, shadowing and such. Then I got more absorbed and didn't take any more pics. Lucky you.

This one was so.much.FUN. It was weird. I broke out every shade of gray I own. It's fun - so many grays move towards blue, some stay in the typical middle-gray tone. Even whites are different between manufacturers. I knew all this, but never had a palette where I could only work with them.

I learned a lot doing this one. I hated coming to an end. I will miss this girl. *sniffle*

(Note: Sylvette David is still alive, and goes by her married name of Lydia Corbett now. Picasso gave her several of the paintings and sketches. She studied art and became a painter in her own right. Yay!)

 

[SquarePeg19]

Love it. That does look like it was fun and great backstory

 

[waday]

Beautiful @terri !

 

[snowbear94]

Awesome work, Terri. I was planning on putting the desk together this weekend but the top is still in Cali - I guess I'll do some art.

 

[terri16]

Thanks everyone! It's sitting up across the room, still taped to the board. I'll spray it in a few weeks with a finishing spray.

I'm kind of obsessed with portraits these days. All kinds.

 

[SquarePeg19]

Trying not to go to sleep today and end up on an off schedule all week! Here are some sleep deprived florals. The 1st one was too fussy so I spritzed it into a blob and ended up liking it. I’m calling it accidental art. I wish I had taken a before pic. The 2nd I’m trying to work on getting my flower petals at least oriented in a reasonably realistic direction. Getting that right seems to be my current hurdle. My flowers always look a bit misshapen and then the abstracts don’t work. I think I need to sketch more flowers until I get it.

 

[terri16]

That first one did turn out nicely - so soft and dreamy. It's really hard to think about taking pics while you're actually in the zone. But fun to look at later. I love that dusty pink!

You're doing great with your flowers!