In the meantime, I made another Invisible Cities drawing.
One thing I'm struggling with a little with these pencil drawings is getting darker. So far they have all had a pretty narrow value range, but when I try to go darker it gets a nasty texture to it. Any recommendations for pencils?
Ebony pencils? I would always end up going mix media with it, and just throw some in in there, but my drawings were always going to get scanned and modified anyway, so the texture/sheen on the actual paper didn't matter to me.
If you are finding a gross texture in your drawings, you may want to reassess your paper choice, though.
Apart from the obvious of using a softer lead, you could also try brushing on some water? Not sure how well it absorbs on higher H values though. What are you using now?
Awesome, I will try both using ebony pencils and also brushing water. I've never heard of brushing water on pencils before, so that should be interesting. Right now I'm using a 2H, and the unappealing texture happened in response to softer leads. Sounds like it might be a paper mismatch. Thanks for the tips! I will mess around and report back with results
For the moment, here is a little anatomy studying. It has been a long time, but I actually really enjoy these studies, so it seemed like a good idea to get back into them.
Also, this is a preliminary drawing from school today. I get to do this pose as the two color temperature study! First figure that won't be black and white
Can you define "two color temperature study"? I think I know what you mean but googling didn't really help. I'm not real familiar with the terminology. I guess if I wait for another post it'll be obvious though.
Sure thing, @SpaceMoose!
There is probably a better name for it that I'm unaware of, but the temperature studies we do are sort of a baby step into color. The study uses only white, ultramarine blue (the cool), and burnt sienna (the warm). You could really do it in any medium with any pair of colors that include one warm and one cool, though ideally they will also need to be dark until they are mixed with white (so that on their own you can still get very dark values). The goal of the study is not to match the colors exactly, hue for hue, but just to match the temperatures of the colors in the same way you would match their value.
To put it another way, here is how it fits into the general training of translating your observations into a drawing or painting-
We start off by learning how to draw (pencil/charcoal). The most fundamental part of putting down your observation is that your dang old marks have to be in the right place. So we practice and practice before we even get to paint, and even then, drawing is still the most important aspect of any painting and something we are always trying to improve.
Next, we start painting in black and white, in order to learn how to observe value. Without worrying about the colors, we need to make sure everything is the right level of light/dark and that the hierarchy of values within the whole composition is related correctly. I guess this happens in the charcoal pieces too, but it helps to keep working on just value while you learn how to use paint as a medium. We practice that.
Then, the temperature study is just adding warm/cool to what we are able to observe. The drawing is still the most important thing- my marks have to be in the right place. Then they have to be the right value. And now the right temperature also. Then eventually, the hue will have to match too, and that's finally matching the actual color! It's a long learning process :P
From flipping through the Classical Painting Atelier book by Aristides, she seems to include black in her temperature exercise. This seems odd because the black has a temperature, so she's sort of robbing the warm and cool colors of their role a little, and the pieces look kind of funny.
That was probably a more drawn out explanation than you were looking for, woops. Examples are better.
This landscape form the last page was me trying to do the temperature study in the park (with gouache: white, pthalo blue, and burnt sienna)
Here are some of my class mates working on the bow pose doing this study:
aaand the jug still life I am working on is the same study, too. I worked on it some more today (finally!)
It's pretty hard to worry about temperature after working in black and white for so long, but at least I have a good enough handle on drawing/values that it's my main concern! Baby steps
That was an awesome description. Thank you for going into so much depth. From following your thread I was piecing together how you are approaching things, but sometimes it's nice to see it all spelled out.
I spent most of last year doing just line work and am now slowly adding in some value studies. My work isn't even in the same universe as yours but it's nice to see the process I've kinda been following be validated a bit.
I can't wait to see more of your work in this area posted! Keep up the great work!
This is my first day off after working about 150 hours in two weeks. Woo! Unfortunately I have not had the time to do any creative drawing or work on those illustrations, but luckily I did still manage to get to school.
More work on this, though the picture is kind of dark. I need to refine the front of the cloth a lot, because it has a really intricate pattern on it that is still too generalized. After that though I need to make sure the background is all soft enough and doesn't detract from the jug.
Day one painting this pose, so this is just sort of the thin washy block in. I really dislike the beginning stage with the thin paint, because I feel like I lose my drawing and it becomes a nasty mess, but then as soon as the canvas is covered it starts to feel better. The canvas is buckling near the top and I'm almost ready to give up on stretching my own canvas. These weak arms!
I also happened to make this diagram, which probably better answers Spacemoose's question from earlier.
For the still life, my teacher challenged me to paint the elaborate embroidery. Challenge accepted! Now that I've drawn it all out though, I need to go back and soften some of it back in and make sure that it still works with the folds of the fabric and everything. Also I need to develop the lace and the jug a bit more to match. My teacher really wants me to shoot for texture and push this one really far. So there's still a bit to go, but I'm excited about this one because apparently when I'm finished with it I get to do color
Thanks! That piece has probably taken around 30 hours at this point? I'll try to keep track of the hours with the next one.
There is one more session left on each of these paintings, so if anyone has any final advice, now is the time! I have to-do lists for them but there's room for more.
Here is the finished jug painting/temperature study. Now I get to paint the next still life with ultramarine blue, cad yellow, and alizarin crimson- so I will actually be trying to match the color! That's very exciting, as it has been a lot of work to get to that point
Here is a still life, with cad yellow, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, and titanium white. This is my first time using a real color palette at school, so it's pretty fun
This is the color wash (except the fabric which is just blank canvas).
Then here there's thick paint down (except the fabric, which is still a step behind).
I've been keeping track of the time on this one, and it's just under 5 hours in. It's pretty slow going trying to figure out how to mix the colors.
For the figure this time I'm doing a pastel, which I've never done before either. Fun! The drawing is decently large; the figure is about 17 inches high.
Day 1- just drawing the pose in charcoal, no pastel yet (3 hours of model time)
Day 2- using the pastel now, a combination of pastel pencils and pastel sticks (4 and a half hours of model time)
Since both of these techniques are new to me, I'd really appreciate any help/input!
I think the pastel is working very well for you! Very vibrant, you can feel the light bounce off of the figure. The only thing I can see is maybe try and work some more color into your shadow areas? (There could maybe be a bit more reflected blue on his chest area instead of the greyish black)
Thanks for the advice, @Natri! I went back in and tried to put more blue in the chest shadows. I'm finding it very difficult to get color in the darks, because the color pastels are all pretty light in value. So then I rely on the black pastel or some charcoal to darken it back down and I lose the color. I feel like in this photo it's hard to even tell that I tried to add color there. Very frustrating! Any tips?
I'm also finding the still life very difficult. The most irritating thing is that I can see where the color is off pretty easily, but I struggle to mix the right color. I guess it just takes practice, but it sure is unpleasant to get it wrong over and over again.
Didn't get a chance to work on either of these this week.
I don't know if this is the case for you, but I find that in those preset boxes, a lot of times the darks and lights are missing and there's just a lot of medium tones.. It goes from black straight to mid-brown or so, no dark reds or light yellows. And then it's really hard to get those darks and lights to match up with what you see.
What I did is instead of sticking to 12 or so standard colors that come in a regular set, I went out and got a couple separate pastel sticks.
As for the color mixing in oil paints, I am right there with you. It is very frustrating to know and see you are off in a certain part, but just can't quite get the color mixed up. I get a lot of mud on my palette. Good color mixing is so much harder than one would think.
You're definitely right; none of the colors in my pastel kit have very dark values really. I'll look for some individual sticks with darker values because it sounds like that would help a lot with that problem.
I always wish I had something to say in here other than "Man, thats looking pretty good." I don't really know how to weigh in on the sort of slow, methodical realism you are accomplishing. It is INSANE to look at page one of this thread and see your improvements though.
Thanks Iruka; it's nice to hear that the hard work is paying off : )
I know my school work is kind of a specific excercise that can be hard to weigh in on without seeing the reference first hand, but now that it's summer and my life is a little more normal I want to get back on track doing illustration type things, which I could sure use a lot of help with from whoever is willing!
There are things I need to do all around still, but I think I only get a couple more sessions on it. Anything sticking out? I know the biggest concern is the bottom of the pot goes straight across when it needs to angle up.
Gosh, thanks guys! It means a lot coming from you folks
@Tam, I haven't really considered selling my school work. For one, since I only do each exercise once or a couple of times, almost all of my pieces are either the first time or the best time I did that exercise :P Also, it seems weird to sell pieces that I did without really knowing what I was doing. I'd be more comfortable selling pieces that I make after school. At which point, yeah, selling still-lifes and stuff would be dope!
After about, oh, 3 years of study, I finally got to paint the model in color!
This is just a 4-5 hour study that I missed the last sitting of, but it was super challenging. Ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cad yellow, titanium white.
Looking forward to doing more!
Thanks guys!
So this is my last year at school, and I started working on a big involved still life that is supposed to be like a badass final thing.
Here is my basic block-in drawing:
Posts
Cities & Memory 1
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
bigger:
Also finally worked some more on this dang ol' jug
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
In the meantime, I made another Invisible Cities drawing.
One thing I'm struggling with a little with these pencil drawings is getting darker. So far they have all had a pretty narrow value range, but when I try to go darker it gets a nasty texture to it. Any recommendations for pencils?
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
If you are finding a gross texture in your drawings, you may want to reassess your paper choice, though.
For the moment, here is a little anatomy studying. It has been a long time, but I actually really enjoy these studies, so it seemed like a good idea to get back into them.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
figure is about 20 inches tall
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
In any case it looks like a great start!
There is probably a better name for it that I'm unaware of, but the temperature studies we do are sort of a baby step into color. The study uses only white, ultramarine blue (the cool), and burnt sienna (the warm). You could really do it in any medium with any pair of colors that include one warm and one cool, though ideally they will also need to be dark until they are mixed with white (so that on their own you can still get very dark values). The goal of the study is not to match the colors exactly, hue for hue, but just to match the temperatures of the colors in the same way you would match their value.
To put it another way, here is how it fits into the general training of translating your observations into a drawing or painting-
We start off by learning how to draw (pencil/charcoal). The most fundamental part of putting down your observation is that your dang old marks have to be in the right place. So we practice and practice before we even get to paint, and even then, drawing is still the most important aspect of any painting and something we are always trying to improve.
Next, we start painting in black and white, in order to learn how to observe value. Without worrying about the colors, we need to make sure everything is the right level of light/dark and that the hierarchy of values within the whole composition is related correctly. I guess this happens in the charcoal pieces too, but it helps to keep working on just value while you learn how to use paint as a medium. We practice that.
Then, the temperature study is just adding warm/cool to what we are able to observe. The drawing is still the most important thing- my marks have to be in the right place. Then they have to be the right value. And now the right temperature also. Then eventually, the hue will have to match too, and that's finally matching the actual color! It's a long learning process :P
From flipping through the Classical Painting Atelier book by Aristides, she seems to include black in her temperature exercise. This seems odd because the black has a temperature, so she's sort of robbing the warm and cool colors of their role a little, and the pieces look kind of funny.
That was probably a more drawn out explanation than you were looking for, woops. Examples are better.
This landscape form the last page was me trying to do the temperature study in the park (with gouache: white, pthalo blue, and burnt sienna)
Here are some of my class mates working on the bow pose doing this study:
aaand the jug still life I am working on is the same study, too. I worked on it some more today (finally!)
It's pretty hard to worry about temperature after working in black and white for so long, but at least I have a good enough handle on drawing/values that it's my main concern! Baby steps
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I spent most of last year doing just line work and am now slowly adding in some value studies. My work isn't even in the same universe as yours but it's nice to see the process I've kinda been following be validated a bit.
I can't wait to see more of your work in this area posted! Keep up the great work!
More work on this, though the picture is kind of dark. I need to refine the front of the cloth a lot, because it has a really intricate pattern on it that is still too generalized. After that though I need to make sure the background is all soft enough and doesn't detract from the jug.
Day one painting this pose, so this is just sort of the thin washy block in. I really dislike the beginning stage with the thin paint, because I feel like I lose my drawing and it becomes a nasty mess, but then as soon as the canvas is covered it starts to feel better. The canvas is buckling near the top and I'm almost ready to give up on stretching my own canvas. These weak arms!
I also happened to make this diagram, which probably better answers Spacemoose's question from earlier.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Day 2 on the pose. Feeling good now that the canvas is covered with normal thick paint everywhere, instead of just the thin washy paint.
There are so many illustrations I want to work on, but it's hard to find time when I work so much and then prioritize school.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I'm going to draw tomorrow before work. That is the plan.
note: When the pose started his hair was in these badass braids, but that's a lot of work for his wife in the morning so now it's just a ponytail.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
For the still life, my teacher challenged me to paint the elaborate embroidery. Challenge accepted! Now that I've drawn it all out though, I need to go back and soften some of it back in and make sure that it still works with the folds of the fabric and everything. Also I need to develop the lace and the jug a bit more to match. My teacher really wants me to shoot for texture and push this one really far. So there's still a bit to go, but I'm excited about this one because apparently when I'm finished with it I get to do color
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
i like how it pops into focus whereas the front is still slightly blurry and impressionistic
how much time have you spent on that piece in total so far?
There is one more session left on each of these paintings, so if anyone has any final advice, now is the time! I have to-do lists for them but there's room for more.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Edit-
I also learned how to make gifs today!
and here is a close up of that dang old doily
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Yay, finished the temperature study for the figure
closer:
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Here is a still life, with cad yellow, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, and titanium white. This is my first time using a real color palette at school, so it's pretty fun
This is the color wash (except the fabric which is just blank canvas).
Then here there's thick paint down (except the fabric, which is still a step behind).
I've been keeping track of the time on this one, and it's just under 5 hours in. It's pretty slow going trying to figure out how to mix the colors.
For the figure this time I'm doing a pastel, which I've never done before either. Fun! The drawing is decently large; the figure is about 17 inches high.
Day 1- just drawing the pose in charcoal, no pastel yet (3 hours of model time)
Day 2- using the pastel now, a combination of pastel pencils and pastel sticks (4 and a half hours of model time)
Since both of these techniques are new to me, I'd really appreciate any help/input!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
The fruit started rotting, so I had to start a new still life! 4 and a half hours in so far.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Anyway, always an inspiration this thread!
I'm also finding the still life very difficult. The most irritating thing is that I can see where the color is off pretty easily, but I struggle to mix the right color. I guess it just takes practice, but it sure is unpleasant to get it wrong over and over again.
Didn't get a chance to work on either of these this week.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
What I did is instead of sticking to 12 or so standard colors that come in a regular set, I went out and got a couple separate pastel sticks.
As for the color mixing in oil paints, I am right there with you. It is very frustrating to know and see you are off in a certain part, but just can't quite get the color mixed up. I get a lot of mud on my palette. Good color mixing is so much harder than one would think.
Here is the finished pastel. Thanks for the help!
Close:
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I know my school work is kind of a specific excercise that can be hard to weigh in on without seeing the reference first hand, but now that it's summer and my life is a little more normal I want to get back on track doing illustration type things, which I could sure use a lot of help with from whoever is willing!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
There are things I need to do all around still, but I think I only get a couple more sessions on it. Anything sticking out? I know the biggest concern is the bottom of the pot goes straight across when it needs to angle up.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
There's more I could have done with it, but for a first real effort I'm happy with it and it's time to start a new one.
Was tough!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
are you planning on selling any of these?
@Tam, I haven't really considered selling my school work. For one, since I only do each exercise once or a couple of times, almost all of my pieces are either the first time or the best time I did that exercise :P Also, it seems weird to sell pieces that I did without really knowing what I was doing. I'd be more comfortable selling pieces that I make after school. At which point, yeah, selling still-lifes and stuff would be dope!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
This is just a 4-5 hour study that I missed the last sitting of, but it was super challenging. Ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cad yellow, titanium white.
Looking forward to doing more!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
So this is my last year at school, and I started working on a big involved still life that is supposed to be like a badass final thing.
Here is my basic block-in drawing:
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt