Drawing

Drawing A Rose

| cathmary1030

I had so much fun drawing this rose from life (“en plein air”) that I ended up drawing it a second time, in willow charcoal, and then using my NuPastels. This is the original drawing, done in graphite (2B) on ordinary drawing paper. (Pencil marks are terrible to view on the website).

Sometimes I get dissatisfied with the pastel landscapes I’m doing. There’s not a lot of drawing involved, and these fat sticks are irritating. I’m more and more inclined to draw and perhaps “color in” (as needed) with, say, watercolor.

ArtTutor.com is Closing its Virtual Doors!

| cathmary1030

ArtTutor.com, the website based in Liverpool, England, where I got most of my drawing training in Phil Davies’ Drawing Essentials course, is shutting down as of the end of March 2022. This is largely due to the pandemic lockdowns, etc.

Many of the courses offered are currently being made available for purchase at a discount to monthly members like myself and at a smaller discount (for a short period of time) to a la carte users of the site.

If you previously bought a course from that site, or if you think you might want to, you have until the end of March to download that course. Downloading can only be done to a laptop or desktop computer, not a mobile phone or a tablet.

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.

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