Pastels and Watercolors (and a few other art media)

[waday]

Okay, all my prattle about copying the masters made me want to go through my files and look for something. Here, I copied "Madame Monet and son Claude," aka "Woman with a Parasol."

This is hands-down the most challenging one I ever did. But I wanted to learn about deepening colors for shadows, like that grass, and who better to copy for tricks of light than Claude Monet? She's really back-lit, too. Plus, the sky was really cool. And I liked the idea of no facial details.

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I took a couple of work-in-progress pics. Just looking at them makes me tired; this was labor-intensive for me. Looks like I scribbled in the blue and used turpenoid and a brush to spread it. Likely did the same thing with the green block, too, but I don't see a pic of it.

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Gorgeous!! I love the progress/process pics. And the floating head in that last one.. haha

I’m excited, because I should be receiving a delivery of pastels and charcoal pencils today. I will join all of you soon (hopefully).

 

[waday]

My model.

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Your model looks very patient

 

[waday]

Look at you go, Leo! For your first couple of attempts, I think these are both very good. I love the palette on the first one. Thicker=texture, which I am very fond of, so it's hard to go wrong there with me. They are both very pretty.

I have some gouache paints around here somewhere, and used them sparingly for some art project years ago. I liked their texture, but that's all I can recall. All I know about acrylics is that, aside from cleaning up easier because they are water-based, they dry a lot quicker, which can be a plus or a minus, depending on your desire to re-work anything.

Keep up the good work, can't wait to see more!

This is a fun thread, because everyone is working with different mediums and approaches.

The first time I ever had a mind to play with paints was over 20 years ago (holy crap!) in Istanbul. I knew nothing (still don't know that much!) and got the paints that seemed less intimidating to me, and that is how I discovered gouache. Oil or watercolors were for real painters, and they made me feel like I would have to take things more seriously than I was feeling at the moment. I did not have ambitious artistic goals - I was simply restless and wanted to play with shapes and textures, and see if I could make recognizable images that captured something I was feeling or seeing. I did everything out on my balcony - lots of hot afternoons with bad Turkish vodka and my K1000 and rudimentary art supplies. I kept a few things I did from those days. Here's one I did of the view from my balcony, where I could see the top of the Bosphorus Bridge, on a night when the moon loomed large in the sky and even larger in my imagination.

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And a self portrait in my the medium I was, and still am, more comfortable in You can see the bridge in the background.

Love both!

That self-portrait, though!

 

[terri]

My model.

View attachment 191136

So, you're basically saying that you made your own model before you painted it?

 

[terri]

Gorgeous!! I love the progress/process pics. And the floating head in that last one.. haha

I’m excited, because I should be receiving a delivery of pastels and charcoal pencils today. I will join all of you soon (hopefully).

Yeah, the floating head looks funny! I had to think about where to place that figure because I knew a bunch of grass was eventually going to come about halfway up...wanted to be sure the placement was good. I took the shot when I saw how weird it looked by itself.

Excited for your purchases! Charcoal is another medium I think looks beautiful that I likely won't ever try.

 

[waday]

I got the goods, and wasn’t able to give it a go until bedtime for daughter.

@terri, I’m going to post a couple of progress shots like you.

This is of one of my favorite sharks, the basking shark. Worked off a picture from a web search.

Step 1, general idea in charcoal
Shark 1 by Wade, on Flickr

Step 2, outline in ink
Shark 2 by Wade, on Flickr

Step 3, blend/soften first layer, add second layer, add white highlights, blend/soften again
Shark 3 by Wade, on Flickr

Step 4, final product... add another layer to provide additional depth, blend/soften some areas but not all to give some texture, sign. Then go back and fix and add more things because it’ll never actually be finished.
Shark 4 by Wade, on Flickr

 

[terri]

Cool! ! ! He looks great!

I love seeing work-in-progress (wip) pics. It's interesting to see how others build up their works. I have an annoying habit of forgetting to take them when I get going, but I always appreciate them later.

@waday: how would you rate charcoal as far as ease of removing lines? I'm a terrible sketch/drawer, and am always trying to remove bad lines as I go. Trying to get away from simple graphite, which erases easily but I'd prefer to just rub or gently scuff something off.

 

[SquarePeg]

Okay, all my prattle about copying the masters made me want to go through my files and look for something. Here, I copied "Madame Monet and son Claude," aka "Woman with a Parasol."

This is hands-down the most challenging one I ever did. But I wanted to learn about deepening colors for shadows, like that grass, and who better to copy for tricks of light than Claude Monet? She's really back-lit, too. Plus, the sky was really cool. And I liked the idea of no facial details.

View attachment 191126


I took a couple of work-in-progress pics. Just looking at them makes me tired; this was labor-intensive for me. Looks like I scribbled in the blue and used turpenoid and a brush to spread it. Likely did the same thing with the green block, too, but I don't see a pic of it.

View attachment 191127



View attachment 191128

Awesome work!

 

[snowbear]

@terri - more like picked out the model's wardrobe. I did not make the bear, only painted/glazed it. We went to one of those paint-it shops where you buy the ceramic pieces, pick your colors, then paint them. The shop fires everything, then you collect the finished pieces in about a week.

@waday - nice. I've done a couple of progression series with my pen & ink challenges in this thread; the first is on page 10.

@SquarePeg - You're here, might as well share yours.

In going back over the other sketch thread, the idea of challenges came up. There are only four of us, but I'like to try it and see where it goes.
Themed Art Challenge

 

[terri]

Okay, all my prattle about copying the masters made me want to go through my files and look for something. Here, I copied "Madame Monet and son Claude," aka "Woman with a Parasol."

This is hands-down the most challenging one I ever did. But I wanted to learn about deepening colors for shadows, like that grass, and who better to copy for tricks of light than Claude Monet? She's really back-lit, too. Plus, the sky was really cool. And I liked the idea of no facial details.

View attachment 191126


I took a couple of work-in-progress pics. Just looking at them makes me tired; this was labor-intensive for me. Looks like I scribbled in the blue and used turpenoid and a brush to spread it. Likely did the same thing with the green block, too, but I don't see a pic of it.

View attachment 191127



View attachment 191128

Awesome work!

Thank you!

 

[SquarePeg]

I do not have any drawing or painting skills to speak of. I start a lot of things and get discouraged by my lack of talent and then put them away for a few months only to start something new and fail again. I have wanted to take some lessons for a while but have not found the right time or situation yet. Princess has all the talent. I think I posted some of her work at one point. We’re very disappointed that we’ll be missing out on the school art show this year - she always has sone pieces in it.

 

[terri]

I do not have any drawing or painting skills to speak of. I start a lot of things and get discouraged by my lack of talent and then put them away for a few months only to start something new and fail again. I have wanted to take some lessons for a while but have not found the right time or situation yet. Princess has all the talent. I think I posted some of her work at one point. We’re very disappointed that we’ll be missing out on the school art show this year - she always has sone pieces in it.

I can only point out that she got her talent somewhere. Just from knowing your good eye for composition and color in photography, I'm gonna guess it's from you.

 

[snowbear]

I do not have any drawing or painting skills to speak of. I start a lot of things and get discouraged by my lack of talent and then put them away for a few months only to start something new and fail again. I have wanted to take some lessons for a while but have not found the right time or situation yet. Princess has all the talent. I think I posted some of her work at one point. We’re very disappointed that we’ll be missing out on the school art show this year - she always has some pieces in it.

Yeah, yeah, I hear ya. And I've seen Princess' work (you posted some a while back), and she is good.

Try this: take a pen or pencil, grab a piece of paper of some kind: notebook, paper bag, even a junk mail envelope (don't use toilet paper - it's too soft and too hard to get right now), and draw a corner of the room your in - where two walls meet the ceiling. It's only three lines, and they don't need to be straight or perfect angles.

Notice how the shadow of each of the surfaces is a little different value (light/dark) than the others? Decide which one (or just pick one of the three) is in lightest. Now slightly shade the other two. If you're using a pen, draw some diagonal lines. You don't need to "color" the entire area, just where the surfaces meet.

Now pick which of those two looks the darkest. Shade, or draw diagonal lines the opposite direction, on that one.
You just made a drawing representing a three dimensional scene.

 

[SquarePeg]

Here is the latest. Probably one of my better efforts. The right ear needs work, too thick I think. Not sure why my iPhone uploads are sideways.

 

[terri]

Good work! I'm happy you posted!

This is not an easy subject. Charlie was just trying to get you to make lines and think about shading and diagonals. You're already getting into depth and perspectives!

You're already better than you think you are. Just keep at it. Since you obviously don't mind challenging yourself, just be patient like you were when learning photography.