Playing with Color — Apple

November 16, 2021January 30, 2024 | cathmary1030

I don’t recall what pastel paper I used; the pastels here are mostly Blick Artist’s Soft Pastels (half sticks) that are, obviously, brand-new. I had a lot of difficulty laying down color in the way I wanted!

Afterwards, on one of Marla Baggetta’s YouTube demos in which she uses Rembrandt pastels, she mentions that the pastels are new, and she gently abraded them against the sanded paper she was using.

I have some Rembrandt half-stick pastels as well as Blick Artists pastels; they seem similar in look and feel to me. So, I used some scraps of fine sandpaper to abrade some of my Blick pastels. I hope that will help in my next painting!

Signed up for Pastel painting lessons with Marla

November 15, 2021December 7, 2021 | cathmary1030

Today I signed up for Marla Baggetta’s “Pastels for the Serious Beginner” online, work-at-your-own-pace class. I’m definitely a beginner, and I’m serious to finally get busy using some of the pastels I have, in addition to my daily drawing.

While my ultimate goal is to paint portraits and human figures, I like Marla’s work, and have watched a few of her demos on YouTube.

Portrait Study: From Unsplash photo

February 15, 2021December 7, 2021 | cathmary1030

Here’s another portrait study from an Unsplash photo. Again, shading is a major issue. I also don’t have the shape of the subject’s chin and cheeks quite correct. The mouth is fairly decent, but not shaded dark enough.

Portrait in Graphite — From unsplash

February 3, 2021January 25, 2022 | cathmary1030

Here’s my attempt at another portrait. I need much more experience in properly toning and shading darker skin. While I did some shading on the subject’s neck, the shading on her right and left cheeks is entirely absent, and around the bridge of her nose is much lighter than the reference.

I could say the same regarding the white shirt.

Based on a photo from Clarke Sanders on Unsplash.

Charcoal Portrait: Arttutor.com class

February 1, 2021December 7, 2021 | cathmary1030

Here’s a portrait I did from a photo reference in an ArtTutor class.

Charcoal study: Life Drawing

Image | December 31, 2020December 7, 2021 | cathmary1030

Curly Ginger Hair Study

December 20, 2020December 21, 2021 | cathmary1030

Practicing drawing curly hair using a tutorial on Youtube from Kirsty Partridge, and trying to find a good blend for light red hair. Prismacolor colored pencils are used here.

For the lighter strand, I used Burnt Ochre, Goldenrod, Yellow Ochre, Sand and Cream. For the darker strand, I used Terracotta, Yellow Ochre, Mineral Orange and Beige.

I am not overly satisfied with either.

Eye Study

December 19, 2020December 21, 2021 | cathmary1030

I have a set of Derwent pastel pencils (36-count tin), and am taking Phil Davies’ “Portraits in Pastel Pencil” class on arttutor.com. I was less interested in exactly matching the reference photo than I was in determining the best 10 colors to use. (We’re limited to a palette of ten, per the instructor, and he uses Faber-Castell Pitt pastel pencils.)

The first drawing was done on Rembrandt Talens pastel paper, and I dislike the look of the honeycomb hatched paper. Utterly ruins the drawing for me! The other paper used was Canson Mi-Tientes (smooth side). In both cases, a tinted gray paper was used.