A Pastel Portrait from Yesterday

12" x 9" Pastel on Coated Paper

Last night at the live portrait session at Howard Lyon's studio, the model was fair skinned, with fairly light hair and very dark eyes. After using charcoal or oil paint for several previous sessions, I decided to get out the pastels for this one. The picture leading off this post shows my drawing from yesterday evening's session.

For more about drawing and painting sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

Woman with a Mother of Pearl Earring

15" x 11" Charcoal on Paper

The weather's getting nicer and I'm thinking more about plein air painting again, but in the mean time, my mind seems more occupied with drawing and painting people from life. Plein air paintings are coming, I promise. For now though, here's a portrait from life I did this week. I didn't want to do another profile of this model, but when I saw her hair up in that funky bun, and that big disk of mother of pearl earring, I picked a profile angle again.

The drawing was made on watercolor paper toned with compressed charcoal. The darks were applied with a charcoal pencil and the lights were done with a kneaded eraser and a "charcoal white" pencil.

For more about drawing and painting sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

Two More from Last Week

15" x 11 1/2" Charcoal on Paper

After sketching at Masterworks Frames last Tuesday (which I posted about here), Wednesday I went to Howard Lyon's studio and did the drawing shown above. Thursday's session was at Casey Childs studio. The originally scheduled model wasn't able to make it, so we painted (or drew, in my case) the son of one of the painters who attended the session. My drawing of him is shown below.

10" x 8" Charcoal on Paper

For more about drawing and painting sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

A Quick Portrait Sketch

10" x 8" Charcoal on Paper

The two open portrait sessions I attend most every week in Pleasant Grove are about doing a single three hour long pose (with breaks) each session. I like doing that, as it allows me to more carefully work out problems and also work on finish. There is a new drawing session starting up at Materworks Frames in Orem, however, that is more concerned with doing several shorter poses in a session. It's perhaps because of my obsessive-compulsive nature that a bunch of short poses is not my favorite way to spend a drawing session. It is, however, a good way to learn how to edit, simplify, and not dawdle. Practicing that in sketches from life can have a positive effect on your finished works. Between sessions with a single long pose and those that have several shorter poses, is one better than the other? It may depend on what you want to do, but I don't think so. Skills developed in both methods of drawing practice contribute qualities that support each other in finished works.

The picture shown above is the final sketch I did at yesterday's inaugural session at Masterworks Frames. It took a little over an hour. If you're interested in attending any drawing sessions at the gallery, just click here for more information.

For more about drawing and painting sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

Dark on Light - Light on Dark

16" x 11" Charcoal on Toned Paper

The weekly portrait sessions are places to practice drawing, and to try different things. These two contrasting drawings are from last weeks sessions. The results of my efforts on Thursday are shown above, and Wednesday's are shown below. The first drawing is pretty straight forward; charcoal on warm-colored toned paper. A very light pastel pencil, the same color and value as the paper, was used to help pull out highlights in the drawing. 

14" x 11" Charcoal on Paper

The second drawing I wanted to do on dark toned paper, but my supply had run out and I forgot to get more before the session. I did, however, have several sheets of watercolor paper, so I took a sheet of that and rubbed a charcoal stick all over it. That gave me a sheet that was not only dark, but also had sort of a visual texture. I worked into that surface with a dark charcoal pencil. Light areas were lifted out with a kneaded eraser. A "charcoal white" pencil was used for the highlights.

For more about drawing and painting sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."