I did the follow-along sunset from Marla Baggetta’s course on the Canson Touch paper and also the Pastelmat paper, without doing any more of the underpainting than the light touch test I did on the papers earlier.
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.
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.
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.
BetterLateThanNeverArt 