Earlier this year I came across on YouTube a recommendation for a video by Karen Campell. I liked her verve and bubbly “can do” spirit. I drew a couple of faces, but in all honesty, the drawing lessons there are not really what I’m looking for at this time.
The drawing on the left was done using regular graphite; on the right, I used the water-soluble graphite (Staedtler), applied a wash, and then colored her eyes with the Arteza Real Brush in cocoa, I think it was.
I keep trying different media, and then getting bored or frustrated with the tools (soft pastels, watercolor, colored pencils, pastel pencils, etc.)
So I bought some Arteza “Real Brush Pens” that can work as markers or brushes (and with water applied, it looks somewhat like watercolor.
I drew this slice of yellow cake in my Arteza Art Journal with those pens earlier this year. Haven’t used the pens since.
I had checked out Carla Co Chua’s Creative Acrylics from the library, and did these small paintings. The flower and mountains are on 6×6 canvas; the sunset is painted on a 6×8 gessoed wood panel.
I recently discovered @paintcoach on YouTube, and signed up for his Patreon page after viewing about a dozen of his videos.
One of the first paintings I did was a still life. (I still need to learn how to photograph my work; the glare is from my desk lamp — my “studio” is the same dining room table where I worked my job during the Covid lockdown.)
I like the cup the most — except for the messed-up lip (way too light!). I think I did a better job mixing colors for the lime, but the lemon is completely messed up. I kept fiddling with it, and made it worse.
Bottom line, I’m satisfied with my drawing (though why on earth did I choose Red Oxide as my color?). The downside of drawing, though, is my tendency to paint within the lines, which is part of why my value transitions are so darned harsh.
Color mixing is also difficult when I’m using white freezer paper (an old roll hanging around from years ago) as my palette paper vs. painting on a toned canvas. Just when I thought the color mix looked right (on the “palette”), it looked awful on the canvas. Ugh.
Brushwork is also a challenge.
I don’t recall the source image of this quick study I did earlier this year. Compressed charcoal stick (Blick’s brand) on toned paper.
I worked on this figure (from the reference shown) last year, but never completed it. Maybe later…
Lesson 1 of Charcoal Like Mad (by Kara Bullock) was to draw a portrait on cardboard (!) using the reference photo provided, and compressed charcoal (black and white), and charcoal pencils (black and white).
I only had corrugated cardboard available so I used that. Not crazy about the ridges, but hey, it was just play! This was fun — but I pressed too hard on the nose and busted a hole in the cardboard!
The main difference between this portrait and the one I posted a few days ago — besides the color of the paper and the lack of sticker residue — is that rather than using the white “charcoal” pencil, I used the eraser to lift the color for the highlights in the eyes, and the earring.
The image is from Anastasia Gepp on Pixabay.
BetterLateThanNeverArt 