This time at Life Drawing Group we had our model pose as a man shoveling snow. Hard Pastel on Brown Canson Paper 12×19″
Monthly Archives: November 2011
Yellow Rose in Pastel (WIP)
Nearly finished, I have a few adjustments to make. Now that I have gotten more adapted to using this surface I like it, and I like the smooth look. Still, I want to try something with more tooth to see if I like it better, although i think smooth is a benefit for a rose. I have found that blending the first layer of Neopastels with a blending stump, and then going over it with the softer Sennelier Oil Pastels gets the best results. Oil Pastel on Sanded Masonite 8×10″
Yellow Rose in Pastel (WIP)
Second sitting of Yellow Rose. I have the Rose done for the most part, but there are a few things I need to adjust. Sometimes I don’t see them until I take this photo. This surface, sanded masonite is just a little too smooth, and dark. I’m still trying out substrates. Neopastel on sanded masonite, 8×10″.
Female Nude Pose (Final)
I liked this pose, except I wished I would have moved more to the right, to get a more side view, because of all the foreshortening of the arms and legs, but that’s what makes it a challenge. Hard Pastel (Conte’ Crayons) on 18×24″ brown Canson Paper.
Yellow Rose in Pastel (WIP)
This is a Yellow Rose from my garden, the one with magenta edges is my favorite color of rose to paint. I thought I would do one in Neopastels on a coarsly sanded piece of raw acid-free hardboard 8×10″. I like this surface it’s like working on sanded brown paper. The different petals show various stages of application.
Clouds in Pastel (WIP)
This is the second and final layer, of the Sennelier Oil Pastel on Brown Paper version. It really is practice for how I want to proceed on the version rendered on Pastelbord. Which media to use and how. I’m hoping I will like the pastelbord better than paper.
Landscape in Varying Mediums (WIP)
How would a landscape look rendered in three different material combinations, varying mediums and substrate? For now I am interested in clouds because of the limited colors I have available in some media. Plus, I just like clouds. 🙂
First Layer, Sennelier Oil Pastels on Brown Canson Paper 10×13″
First Layer, Neopastels on Brown Canson Paper 10×13″
First layer, NeoColorII (watersoluble crayon) on a white Pastelbord (masonite with sandpaper like ground) 11×14″ This layer is an underpainting for oil pastel.
Maybe I should paint one in Acrylic on Gessobord or Canvas Panel too? and/or a hard and soft pastel version on Pastelbord?
Female Nude from Life (WIP)
I took a smaller piece of paper with me to Life Drawing Group, and used pastel pencils. This is what I got done tonight. A standing pose is more challenging with proportions, especially the hips in this case. Next I will do the shading. I roughly mark where the shadows and highlights are, and I’ll finish the work at home without the model.
Nude in Oil Pastel
This is the same figure same size rendered with Sennelier Oil Pastels. I didn’t work with the background as much.
When I did the oil pastel (right) I didn’t take the Pastel Pencil version out until I finished. I was shocked how much brighter the oil pastel looked. Soft Pastel should have more intensity than Oil Pastel, because soft pastels have more pure pigment by the nature of the media, but Pastel Pencils are a hard pastel, they need more binders to create the pencil form. Alone though the Pastel Pencil version has great intensity, and the texture’s softness lends itself to flesh, and it was faster because the pencils were easier to handle blending. So, I can see them both for different purposes.
Nude in Pastel (Final)
I put in the highlights on the figure, and a background of greens, blues, purples to make it stand out more. Ordinarily it’s good to work from back to front, but if I do the background last in this case it will be in better harmony with the figure. I liked using the Pastel Pencils for this task, I might try the same figure in oil pastel and see what I like better.
TracyB.art 