Pastels and Watercolors (and a few other art media)

[SquarePeg19]

Tonight I copied a Kris Keyes tutorial. I really love her style and that is what I’m working toward. She makes it seem so effortless. In one of her tutorials she says “you have to practice a lot and work hard to make it look like you didn’t work hard”. I would consider this effort mildly successful but I think I went too far with some of the finishing touches and details. Also my stems and leaves still suck. But I am loving the ink instead of the watercolors (the magenta here) and I’m going to order a set of inks. The colors are just so much more vibrant.

 

[SquarePeg19]

Also thought you guys would appreciate my deviled egg platter palette.

 

[terri16]

View attachment 193449 Tonight I copied a Kris Keyes tutorial. I really love her style and that is what I’m working toward. She makes it seem so effortless. In one of her tutorials she says “you have to practice a lot and work hard to make it look like you didn’t work hard”. I would consider this effort mildly successful but I think I went too far with some of the finishing touches and details. Also my stems and leaves still suck. But I am loving the ink instead of the watercolors (the magenta here) and I’m going to order a set of inks. The colors are just so much more vibrant.

Just beautiful! You did very well here. You could put something like this on stock card paper and use for personalized greeting cards. Very good work.

Interesting that you're moving to trying more ink. I agree that magenta sure looks intense. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it - ink is something I'm really not likely to ever try. I think both @snowbear and @waday sketch and paint with it.

 

[SquarePeg19]

View attachment 193449 Tonight I copied a Kris Keyes tutorial. I really love her style and that is what I’m working toward. She makes it seem so effortless. In one of her tutorials she says “you have to practice a lot and work hard to make it look like you didn’t work hard”. I would consider this effort mildly successful but I think I went too far with some of the finishing touches and details. Also my stems and leaves still suck. But I am loving the ink instead of the watercolors (the magenta here) and I’m going to order a set of inks. The colors are just so much more vibrant.

Just beautiful! You did very well here. You could put something like this on stock card paper and use for personalized greeting cards. Very good work.

Interesting that you're moving to trying more ink. I agree that magenta sure looks intense. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it - ink is something I'm really not likely to ever try. I think both @snowbear and @waday sketch and paint with it.

Keyes uses inks and watercolors combined and the inks seem to behave similarly with the way they bloom and spread out when they hit the water but they don’t lighten or fade after they dry. I’m trying to hold off on buying anything else for now. We’ll see how long I can hold out lol. I’ve been pretty much Amazon shopping my way through the pandemic and need to rein it in!

 

[terri16]

Here's what I've been playing with: graphite self portraits. I have so few recent shots of me, I had to cobble a couple together to try to get different facial angles.

These first few are kind of fussy - I have a set of actual drawing pencils that allow for shading, but I don't really know what I'm doing. Trying to follow lines, jowls, etc., to keep it real. Some angles are more flattering than others, but I'm not trying to make these precious, just learn how to assess a face.

Hair down (top heavy from layers):

Profile view, with hair in typical ponytail:

Frontal view with hair in ponytail. This one's not a good likeness, somehow. Face too thin or long - it's just wrong. Okay looking, but wrong. meh.

This is the last one I did. Here, I quit trying to sketch out, then fill in, eyebrows, lids, etc. I just wanted a line drawing, and was happy to get a single line from an eyebrow all the way down to shaping the nose. Took me awhile to figure this out. Didn't bother much with shading or even the hair.

Things I've learned about my face: 1) my nose is bigger than I thought. 2) My eyebrows are unevenly shaped, as I guess I unconsciously knew from my working years/makeup, using eyebrow pencil to even them up. One's straight, one arches - when you start to draw this stuff, it stands out. 3) I have a very bony neck/collarbone area, that stands out more than I knew.

Anyway, good exercise. I'm ready to get back to copying Picasso, where symmetry goes out the window!

 

[terri16]

View attachment 193449 Tonight I copied a Kris Keyes tutorial. I really love her style and that is what I’m working toward. She makes it seem so effortless. In one of her tutorials she says “you have to practice a lot and work hard to make it look like you didn’t work hard”. I would consider this effort mildly successful but I think I went too far with some of the finishing touches and details. Also my stems and leaves still suck. But I am loving the ink instead of the watercolors (the magenta here) and I’m going to order a set of inks. The colors are just so much more vibrant.

Just beautiful! You did very well here. You could put something like this on stock card paper and use for personalized greeting cards. Very good work.

Interesting that you're moving to trying more ink. I agree that magenta sure looks intense. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it - ink is something I'm really not likely to ever try. I think both @snowbear and @waday sketch and paint with it.

Keyes uses inks and watercolors combined and the inks seem to behave similarly with the way they bloom and spread out when they hit the water but they don’t lighten or fade after they dry. I’m trying to hold off on buying anything else for now. We’ll see how long I can hold out lol. I’ve been pretty much Amazon shopping my way through the pandemic and need to rein it in!

You and me both! But it keeps us indoors and occupied, which is kind of the point. Aside from blowing lots of money on books, I think I only splurged on the graphite pencil set, which was on sale, and different papers.

 

[snowbear94]

Nice job on the eyes.

What inks are you using, Sharon? I like that color.

I remember doing an exercise where we drew a model, first with five lines, then four lined, then three, then two then one. The model was on her knees & elbows (knees and elbows were bent) and her head down - think turtle. Mine started out with what looked like a curvy stick figure, then got real abstract.

Well, the desk is together, though I have to order another of their cable management trays (it attaches under the desk and holds all the wires so crap isn't all over the floor), so the drawing table is in storage. I was able to keep the two drawer units here. Now I need some subject ideas.

All of my money (and then some) went to the home office - electric Vari-desk, table, and small file cabinet/drawer unit. I still need a better chair, but that will come later. I haven't had the nerve to look at art supplies.

 

[Mike Drone]

Nice paintings and pictures! My 11yr old daughter draws but she uses Copic markers. Everyone time she buys one of the Copic markers I see a roll a film I can't buy. =[ If it makes her happy though. =]

 

[SquarePeg19]

Nice job on the eyes.

What inks are you using, Sharon? I like that color.

I remember doing an exercise where we drew a model, first with five lines, then four lined, then three, then two then one. The model was on her knees & elbows (knees and elbows were bent) and her head down - think turtle. Mine started out with what looked like a curvy stick figure, then got real abstract.

Well, the desk is together, though I have to order another of their cable management trays (it attaches under the desk and holds all the wires so crap isn't all over the floor), so the drawing table is in storage. I was able to keep the two drawer units here. Now I need some subject ideas.

All of my money (and then some) went to the home office - electric Vari-desk, table, and small file cabinet/drawer unit. I still need a better chair, but that will come later. I haven't had the nerve to look at art supplies.

Right now I just have the one bottle of Dr Phil Martin’s Bombay ink in magenta. There are two sets or it’s sold individually. I need a better idea of what colors I want before I buy anything else.

 

[snowbear94]

OK, India inks. Nice.

 

[terri16]

Nice job on the eyes.

What inks are you using, Sharon? I like that color.

I remember doing an exercise where we drew a model, first with five lines, then four lined, then three, then two then one. The model was on her knees & elbows (knees and elbows were bent) and her head down - think turtle. Mine started out with what looked like a curvy stick figure, then got real abstract.

Well, the desk is together, though I have to order another of their cable management trays (it attaches under the desk and holds all the wires so crap isn't all over the floor), so the drawing table is in storage. I was able to keep the two drawer units here. Now I need some subject ideas.

All of my money (and then some) went to the home office - electric Vari-desk, table, and small file cabinet/drawer unit. I still need a better chair, but that will come later. I haven't had the nerve to look at art supplies.

A live model like that sounds intimidating - but also a real drawing class! That's a good way to learn.

Congrats on getting the desk together at last, I know you were waiting for parts of it. Hopefully it won't be ALL just for work.

 

[waday]

I’ve been pretty much Amazon shopping my way through the pandemic and need to rein it in!

My wife and I have been so bad. Me particularly with art supplies. LOL

I’d trust Charlie more with ink recommendations. But, I would suggest a set of Microns. Heh heh heh...

Here's what I've been playing with: graphite self portraits. I have so few recent shots of me, I had to cobble a couple together to try to get different facial angles.

These first few are kind of fussy - I have a set of actual drawing pencils that allow for shading, but I don't really know what I'm doing. Trying to follow lines, jowls, etc., to keep it real. Some angles are more flattering than others, but I'm not trying to make these precious, just learn how to assess a face.

Hair down (top heavy from layers):

View attachment 193470


Profile view, with hair in typical ponytail:

View attachment 193471


Frontal view with hair in ponytail. This one's not a good likeness, somehow. Face too thin or long - it's just wrong. Okay looking, but wrong. meh.

View attachment 193477

This is the last one I did. Here, I quit trying to sketch out, then fill in, eyebrows, lids, etc. I just wanted a line drawing, and was happy to get a single line from an eyebrow all the way down to shaping the nose. Took me awhile to figure this out. Didn't bother much with shading or even the hair.

View attachment 193478


Things I've learned about my face: 1) my nose is bigger than I thought. 2) My eyebrows are unevenly shaped, as I guess I unconsciously knew from my working years/makeup, using eyebrow pencil to even them up. One's straight, one arches - when you start to draw this stuff, it stands out. 3) I have a very bony neck/collarbone area, that stands out more than I knew.

Anyway, good exercise. I'm ready to get back to copying Picasso, where symmetry goes out the window!

Terri, these are great! I love the minimal nature of them, the clean lines, and the select shading.

 

[waday]

Quick drawing from two days ago, inspired by the 3 hours we were without power after a tree fell on power lines. This is charcoal pencil.

Quick because I’ve been challenging myself to have a drawing completed or almost completed in under 20 minutes. (My two previous Mr. Rogers pictures were also done in about 20 minutes.) As odd as it sounds, I’m trying to get myself to focus on aspects of the drawing other than details.

Also see another drawing of my favorite photo of my grandfather. This is regular old #2 pencil.


Quick drawings by Wade, on Flickr


Quick drawings by Wade, on Flickr

 

[snowbear94]

Nice, Wade, You want to speed up and I want to slow down.

As far as inks; I don't really have a lot of experience until fairly recently. I did some doodling with India ink and a dip pen (the Speedball nibs) many years ago. In the classes I took, we had India ink and Sumi ink for the calligraphy class. I have six or seven Daler Rowney acrylic inks that I've using once in a while, but most of my inks are for fountain pens. My favorites are the Iroshizuku (made or marketed by Pilot), and I have a few Noodler's (including a near-invisible glow-in-the-dark.) I don't think FP ink colors are generally geared towards artists, and I haven't tried mixing them. They fall in to the "whatever is at hand," category for me, like the standard #2 school pencil.

 

[waday]

Nice, Wade, You want to speed up and I want to slow down.

Thanks Charlie! If I focus on details, I can spend hours. Those hours end in frustration. I’m seeing how focusing on shapes, angles, etc impact the image first, then if I want, I’ll go back to fill in the details (and spend more time).

That’s actually why I started with the pen drawings rather than pencil.

I like your dip pen. Do you have any recommendations on where to buy or which one? I have a couple of fountain pens, one from Levenger and one from Visconti. Both are broad tip, and I kind of want something thinner. Not sure if that means I need to go to fine or if I need paper that won’t allow as much bleed in the ink?