Charlotte

I used a photo from the newspaper as reference for this sketch - a french actress Charlotte is her name.

Main problem - no resemblance. I am not looking for a perfect match I will never be a portraitist. I am looking for a specific quality of line and "look" of the sketches. Can't really define it better than this ... hopefully I will know it when I get there ...

Portrait Monday...

... might become a theme. Only the future will show.

I was somewhat satisfied with the results of the session last week, I went back. This time, I brought the Canson 7x10 multimedia sketchbook and pens: Lamy safary EF with brown ink, Pilot Penmanship with whatever ink ships with, and Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. Watercolors too, but I was not planning to use them for the portrait session.

Five people showed up, so we each drew four faces. Nothing went as planned, of course. But am I even surprised?!

For the 3 min poses, I used the Lamy pen. Unsettling. I don;t knmow if I was reacting to the pen - sliding too fast on the page, did not like the marks - or to the fact that the sketches were horrible or both. Of course I blamed the pen... Discarded the sketches.

For the 20 min poses, I started with the Pilot penmanship. I kept 2 sketches of the same person.

I prefer the one at the left. They turned out to be about 2x3!!! I tried to make them bigger, but somehow I ended up making these itsy-bitsy sketches. I can't stand small, yet I could not make myself make bigger marks.

The colored rectangles are just to make them stand out somewhat among the other sketches that are on the same page.

The ink is not waterproof, so at home I blended it.

I still like the left one better, even if I have to correct his left eye a bit to make it more 3D. The light literally cut his face in two from the top left side of the forehead to the bottom of the left ear.

I tried to apply Loomis - but the result was very scary. I think the permanence of the pen took away the freedom of error. When I used pencil last week, it mattered less if the first layout of the face was wrong I could always erase or adjust. But with the pen, everything remains visible in spite of possible corrections.

For the second model, I used the same pen. Discarded the sketches. I of course attributed the result to the use of the pen and I switched for the Pentel Pocket Brush for the last two models.

Discarded all sketches of model nr 3. Kept two of model nr. 4.

I prefer the top one. In the second one, I tried to reinforce the shadows around the eye sockets, but that gives him a mean air.

The session ended earlier than usual, so on the way out I stopped to sketch the costumes of the opera found the exhibition currently on display at the George Vanier Cultural Centre. I had time for one - and I worked fast. I went straight to watercolor, I did not want to be locked inside!

I am planning to go back and sketch the other costumes. I thought about having a spread with all of them the way they are displayed, but with a spiral bind I don't think it would look nice.

This is all folks... in case anybody is reading this.

Goals for next week: DRAW BIGGER! I will use the same pens and concentrate on varying the marks. I am also checking the web to see how other people do it, sometimes that can give ideas on how to approach different things (shadows for example).

Portrait drawing

Last Monday, I decided to go to a portrait drawing session at the George Vanier cultural center. Every Monday, people show up and draw each other. Poses are 20 min. Cool ... I hesitated going because my drawing skills are in their infant period, but in the end I braved the cold (-25C) and went. I took a pad of newsprint and the col-erase pencils, plus some woodless graphite. I would guess the sketches bare maybe a 5% resemblance to the models. I will keep going because there are so many things I can practice - various medias, papers etc. I also started practicing the Loomis method for drawing heads. I run into some weird things with this method when I tried to draw heads in extreme angles.

Here are the results from Monday:

Self portraits

Continuing my left hand experiments, I decided to try self portraits from photos. They are not as bad as I thought, except of course for the lack of resemblance. The right one is stabilo pen and acrylic.

Flower girl

Last time I cleaned around the office, I found an old Vogue magazine. It must have been a spring issue because almost each page had flower pictures. It came to mind that I could use the flowers to collage a face. It took me for ever to do it, and it is only 6 x 6. I put a coat of gloss varnish, I think next time I will skip it.

Now I also see a black bird in the lower left corner. I will detail it a bit with pen and ink.
I have a lot of respect for collage artists, all artists really. I saw great portraits made of the teeniest bits of papers...

Peekaboo

At least once a week I cannot sleep through the night. I suppose this is one of those aging-related symptoms that nobody bothers to talk about, since forty is the new thirty, right? I eat healthy, I exercise, I cut the caffeine - nada. I spent quite a few nights this summer twisting and turning and I know that does not help. So when I woke up again at 3AM and could not sleep, I decided I needed another plan. I figures I will paint for a little while, get tired and go back to sleep.

I started working on this - canvass paper 6x6:

I still wasn't sleepy and by now, it was about 4:30AM. Hmmmm .... I decided to make fused paper using some scraps found on my desk. I used an old book page and I glued scraps of papers on both sides of the paper, sandwiching the book page.

Still no luck on the sleeping front, so I started doodling on photocopies of my journal pages and watched an episode of NCIS LA.

Hand made papers

Saint Armand is a lovely papeterie in Montreal. I did not visit the atelier yet, but I once bought a bag of left over hand made papers. Gorgeous papers, thick, textured, earth colors ... somehow I never used them. I decided it was time! I applied two layers of matte medium as the papers have no sizing.

First, I tried to make a simple face - only watercolor pencil and some graphite ... or so I thought. The papers was purple and the watercolor did not show at all, so I kept adding stabilo pen and acrylic to increase the contrast.

I was so concentrated on the contrast that I did not realized that the eyes were off; but then I liked the distortion and I decided not to fix them.

The second face is another interpretation of the star gazing theme from Illustration Friday:

The quote is by Leonardo da Vinci:
He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

28

I was bored one evening and I decided to try another profil painting. Here, I used a scrap of watercolor paper and I glued bits of paper from my leftover box. I tried to place them in a grid pattern, but I am not a big fan of straight lines and squares. It was more like tear, brush glue, slap somewhere on the paper. Then I brushed some gesso and wiped it out. I drew the face using some of the lines in the background as a guide. Coloured with crayons and zinc white. And voila ...

Blind contour drawing

This is a fun exercise. It loosens the drawing "muscles" and it helps let go of expectations about the end result. After all, when one draws without looking, one cannot be expected to "produce" likeness, right?

This is one attempt at blind contour drawing of, you guessed maybe, myself! After all, Frida Kahlo said “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”

 The backgound is a failed attempt at transfering a magazine image. I did not glue it properly and I did not wait for the matte medium to dry, so the paper peeled off and "produced" a bunch of figurines behind the focal point. Even to the right I "see" a group of people. Sometimes it seems I am a gypsy reading coffee grounds...

Collage portrait

Black-and-white type with white paint on mat board. I did not have the time to do the color one yet.

Reincarnations...

I used the paintsticks to repair some of my old portraits that I did not particularly like or that were anatomically wrong, such as this and the first one from here (not the Sleeping Beauty!).

Shiva paintsticks, image transfers etc.

Back in week three of Misty's workshop, I got to use different mediums. I do not have Adirondack inks, they seem to be hard to find in Canada and most online shops in the US do not ship in Canada. The first attempt at using Shiva paintsticks - and I did not have the right colors:

I updated my palette with colors better suited to this purpose and this is the second attempt:

The water soluble pastels - I used an older  background on canvas board.

 

Adding color

The  second week with Misty - adding color. I discovered the Stabilo pencil. A mighty one if I say so myself! |i used the water soluble graphite pencils before, but the Stabilo has much more pigment. I painted over one of the drawings from the previous week and I decided to try again the underpainting technique that I learned from Jane, with better results this time.
Stabilo and titanium white:

 

  

The underpainting:

 

I seem to be having a problem with the shadows, they are not dark enough. Like I avoid making them too dark becasue then the composition will be off, instead of darkening the shadows and adjusting the middle tones accordingly. Maybe I will work a bit more on this one.

The face of insomnia - I could not sleep once and I decided to draw...

Pencil drawings

After long hesitations, I signed up for a portrait class with Misty. Thas was way back in...January! I decided to be more careful with my money so that I can pay off the mortgage faster and eventually be able to retire and spend more doing things I like. This means that discretionary spendings, such as artsy stuff, were the first casualties. Hmmm ....this plan lasted a whole two weeks!!! In the end I succumbed to the temptation to learn more about face painting. I am not sure why I am so obsessed with portraits but here I am. I've been checking Misty's blog regularly for a while and I like her art. So in the end I figured life is short, nice things are few and far between ...and I signed up.

The first week was about pencil drawing. I did  few sketches on found papers - reclaimed postcard envelopes. It worked well, except the blending is not as smooth as it should be. I did not get a chance to make my own tortillons; blending with tortillon instead of blending stick helps achieve a smooth finish. So I am told. I will try ...one of these days.

First week's production:
This is an older sketch that I reworked, I corrected the nose and the mouth and added more shading.

 

 

 

I used this sketch in week 2 to paint over it with acrylics.

Profiles are definetely the most difficult. I went back and corrected this one, I made the eye a teeny bit bigger and corrected the upper lip under the nose so she does not look so strange anymore. I definetely need to do more profiles. And I used to think that 3/4 faces are difficult ...

Big mistakes

I recently found these at the dollar store. You have to admit, they are quite funny. Unfortunately, they do not erase past mistakes. Instead, they make a good carving material for stamps. I made these two watching House the other day. The erasers are thick enough so both sides can be carved. I think I'll buy few more and have them handy when inspiration strikes.

More faces

These are two other faces I painted lately. I keep trying different things, as there are few little details that I am not crazy about. For the second one, I did some "cloud gazing" and came up with other creatures from the paint spots in the background. I think I might become adicted to finding critters and creatures in the paint!

Monochromatic study

Homeless Heart

the road is too long
the sky is too vast
the wandering heart
is homeless at last

leonard cohen

The poem is part of the background - hence the name.

Insomnia ...

... is a symptom[1] of any of several sleep disorders, characterized by persistent difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep despite the opportunity. Insomnia is a symptom, not a stand-alone diagnosis or a disease. By definition, insomnia is "difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or both" and it may be due to inadequate quality or quantity of sleep. It is typically followed by functional impairment while awake.

In my case, staying awake for now particular reason until 6AM resulted in functional impairment while awake all right. I followed doctor's suggestions for proper sleep hygiene: reading, painting, watching TV, counting sheep ...the result was this:

Oil pastel portrait

I sketched this face few days ago on a page in my altered book. It was ment to be a test using different brushes and different strokes to see how that alters the result. Instead, I ended up using oil pastels. I would have liked stronger colors, but I don;t know how to blend oil pastels other than use white or another light color on top. I seldom use white in paintings because I find it take the mojo out of the colors. Also, the blending is less precise and I am learning to not get caught up in this. Different medium, different feel. After all this is the whole point of the exercise.

It just crossed my mind I could try using the blending stump or one of those rubber tipped blenders (disclaimer: I am not sure they are called blenders and I do not yet have one as they are not cheap. I am not sure there are any cheap art supplies sold in the art stores! There... I had to vent a bit, back to pastels ...) to see if I can get a more precise line. Just for the sake of the exercise. If it becomes too precious, I will mess it up anyway as I don't like too much preciousness ....

And at the same time, I remembered the shoe box full or oil paints reminiscent from my oil painting days. It seems now logical that one of the next experiments will be a face using oil paints. For that though I need a stronger support. Might recycle some old canvass ....hmmm

In the meantime, here is the Pastel Lady:


PS. The above mentioned rubber blenders are actually rubber shapers - ment for pushing paint around... duh...