The reference image for this charcoal study is by Nadine Doerlé from Pixabay.
I’ve used this same image for a work in pastel.

The reference image for this charcoal study is by Nadine Doerlé from Pixabay.
I’ve used this same image for a work in pastel.

This is another piece I did, based on the ArtTutor.com class “Studies in Charcoal” by Joann Boon Thomas. Same vine charcoal, and toned paper. This reference photo was one of the instructor’s based on a life drawing she did. I need to find a life drawing class myself, although with Covid, it might be an online/Zoom version.

This piece, like the one posted yesterday, is also from the “Studies in Charcoal” by Joann Boon Thomas. Same supplies — vine charcoal and toned paper. I definitely need to practice hands and feet.

I was uneasy about my color selection for the little boy’s rubber boots — the part in shadow. The color constancy illusion would lead one to think the entire boot is yellow, but if you squint and then look at the photo, the boot in shadow is clearly not the same yellow as the boot in sunlight. So, at first I used a bluish-gray for the boot in shadow.
Then I remembered, I have the “Color Grab” app on my Android phone! I can check the suggested color, and then see if I have a pastel to match.
“Color Grab” showed the shadowed boot to be a yellow green, as shown in the first screen grab (see the small and larger white circles). Then you click on the Hex code for the color, and, if a listing of approximate paint colors is available, they will be listed. That display is what I used to approximate a pastel stick color.
I then added the yellow green color to the boot, but I need to blend it in.



In addition, the sunlit part of the boot is actually a whiter (paler) yellow, as shown by the screen grab, so I will need to adjust as appropriate there.


This pastel painting was based on an image by Nadine Doerlé from Pixabay.
I used one of the assorted gray shades from my pack of Canson Mi-Teintes paper (the smooth side). I used graphite for the drawing, and pastel sticks from Blue Earth, Unison, Blick, and Sennelier.
This is the first time I’ve done a pastel of a human figure.





These sketches and figures are based off poses found in The Complete Book of Poses for Artists: A comprehensive photographic and illustrated reference book for learning to draw more than 500 poses, by Ken & Stephanie Goldman (Walter Foster Publishing, 2017).
I left the center-of-balance line in the sketch of the boy with the basketball; in the first sketch he is way off kilter in an unnatural pose.




The drawing done in charcoal — darkest lines — is based on a photo of a model in the pose of the painting. The other two drawings — in graphite — are based on a photo of Degas’ painting.



