Author: cathmary1030

Drawing Hair…With Willow Charcoal

| cathmary1030

Today I watched a “Drawing Together” ArtistsNetwork video on YouTube about drawing hair, which is something I have trouble with — I typically draw “spaghetti hair” which, of course, is totally wrong. Now I’m learning to more accurately draw hair by drawing the shapes and masses, then just adding striations.

The reference photo is here.

This study was done on Strathmore drawing paper, using only medium willow charcoal (Winsor & Newton) and my trusty kneadable eraser. I used a paper towel and my finger for blending. Willow charcoal, it turns out, is awesome! So easy to erase or rub out and start again!

I was not focused on replicating the profile, but rather getting a sense of the hair mass.

Christmas Ornaments: my own version

| cathmary1030

I used a Hahnemühle non-sanded pastel paper from my sampler set to draw the pair of ornaments taken from my fireplace decorations.

I took a photo of the entire easel scene; you can see the reference objects on the left. I also took a photo of the ornaments, and the color palette I used.

I was painting from life rather than the photo reference; the photo looks somewhat bluer and I was standing at a slightly different position taking the photo than when I was actually pasteling.

Christmas ornaments: Follow-along with Marla Baggetta

| cathmary1030

I watched Marla Baggetta’s YouTube video from December 2019 in which she did a pastel painting of Christmas tree ornaments. I then attempted to copy her work to get a feel for how she laid colors for each ornament.

My copied work was done on Canson Mi-Teintes (the Red Earth shade) on the “honeycomb” textured side because I messed up the initial drawing on the smooth side. The initial drawing was done using vine charcoal, and then I used the sticks shown below for color. It looks best from far away!

Next up is trying a painting using some of my own ornaments.

Figure Drawing

| cathmary1030

I was reading Mary Whyte’s book Painting Portraits and Figures in Watercolor (pub. 2011 by Watson-Guptill) and in it she talks about how imperative it is to watercolor painting to have good drawing skills, particularly if you are painting portraits or human figures. I suppose the same is true for other media, like pastel or oils. So, to that end, I did some drawing today.

From The Complete Book of Poses, page 149

Based on Pixabay photo by Roy Clarke

Based on Pixabay photo by Sasin Tipchai