Basic 102: Class 6 - Portraits in three-part harmony

[alfredart]

Hey guys and gals, welcome to…

BASIC 102 - CLASS 6

Portraits in three-part harmony…
add a little color to your life”.

First of all I want to say Welcome. I’m really glad some of you chose to sit in on this class.

Let me start this off by saying to ya all… I ain’t no teacher. But, I’ll show you what I do and how I do it. If you have any questions along the way, I’ll do my best to answer them for you. If you run over the two weeks of this class… it’s okay… I’ll be here with you.

Okay, let’s get started!

I trust you all have picked up the items that Jay-D and I have been talking about right?
Good.

Now lets take a minute and go over a few items.

WHAT YOU NEED:

First thing is… the pencils…

Here’s what Derwent has to say about them…
This highly expressive drawing instrument has a soft beautiful creamy texture. Not unlike a very soft wax crayon, Derwent Drawing is produced in six earthy colours. Ideal for nature and life drawings.
Derwent Drawing has a unique, creamy texture producing a rich, velvety finish. Ideal for life and nature studies, the newly expanded colour range includes soft greens, blues and grays as well as traditional sepia tones.
·A 8 mm diameter pencil with a 5 mm waxy strip.
·Available in 24 beautiful colors ideal for life and nature studies
·The creamy extra wide strip encourages loose, expressive tonal drawings.
Okay, I know some of you are scratching your heads and wondering about the colors you haven’t see in the stores where you got yours. The 24-color set in only in the UK right now and have not made it into the US. as far as I know. But for now we don’t have to worry about those anyway. Right now we’re only going to use three.


I’m sure you all have played with them a little already to see what they’re all about. The large core is soft and creamy which is the reason you need a hand sharpener as they will dull real quick. Which means it you want to get any detail at all with these you will sharpen these puppies every two seconds or so. (ha) But as your read above “The creamy extra wide strip encourages loose, expressive tonal drawings” Key word being “loose” here folks. “Expressive tonal drawings” is another key point. The good part of these pencils is the fact that they cover quickly so you can cover a large area fast.

Next the kneaded eraser… You can use to erase your graphite sketch lines and to highlight your portrait. If you already have one of these it probably looks like this.


I have a hard time keep a hold of these as I have a dog that steals mine when ever he get a chance and chews on it. One good thing, he keeps it cleaned for me. (ha)

Okay, as far as trying to erase any of your Derwent work… don’t make mistakes because these bad boys don’t erase well at all. They smear and you end up tearing up the tooth of the paper. When you try to go over it then it discolors and it’s about that time that I tear the piece up and begin again. You can use your eraser to lift some of the color but that’s about as far as you can go with it. Also, don’t get any water on your work. These pencils don’t play nice with water.

Okay, pencils, eraser and… oh yes the hand held sharpener. Reason for this is you’re going to sharpen a lot so you want one handy. Another is that these pencils won’t fit in most electric sharpeners and they won’t last long if you use one.

The paper… I use Strathmore Drawing Paper, 18X24 when I work with these. A couple of reasons…
1. It has the tooth for them.
2. It’s not a bright white paper so the sepia tones look really good on it.
3. It’s cheap! (Real good reason, that should be #1)
4. You have to draw big. Remember the loose part? If you want to get any detail at all with these ya gotta go little larger.

Now you can use any paper except anything that’s smooth. They don’t work well on smooth. They need that tooth to pull the wax onto the paper.



Okay, here’s my setup along with a pencil extender. I get all the miles I can out of these pencils.

Alright, now that we have that part out of the way…

FIELD TRIP!!!!!!

Sorry, there won’t be a field trip. I did a couple of searches on the net for artists who use Derwent Drawing pencils. Only thing that came up was me.
We could be breaking new ground here guys.

Now I did find a new product that you might want to check out. It’s called Zest-it and it’s used for blending Derwent Drawing pencils. I haven’t tried it yet (but I plan on it) you can check it out at… http://www.jacquiblackman.co.uk/blending.htm

Okay, before we start I want to show you what you can do with these and the range you can get with these pencils using them the way that I hope to teach you.

These were done using 3 colors.








The next one was done using 4 colors. I’ve added Chocolate to the palette.




This one was done by replacing the Venetian Red with Chocolate. So it’s still 3 colors, but what a difference.



You can draw them light…



Or layer them and make them dark…



Or try adding a background using 1 color to give a whole new effect...



These are a few ideas of what you can do with these pencils and the values you can achieve with them.

CLASS ASSIGNMENTS:GETTING STARTED

I would like to break this class down into three parts as follows:

1. Getting used to the pencils. (Drawing practice pieces.)
2. Doing a portrait of my choice. (I get to pick one for us all to do.)
3. On your own, doing a portrait of your choice. (Having fun with it.)



Okay, the first thing we want to do is get used to how these pencils act, see how they work, see how they cover, see how they blend. So, with that in mind I would like you to do a few quick pieces. Anything you want, it can be a coffee cup, a vase, and egg… you get the idea, anything you want, even color fades and layer overlaps.



I’ll give you a hint when using these and we’ll go over again later on in the class.

To start with use a light touch. Draw with light layers, it’s much easier to do than one dark layer. You may go over a section several times to get the tone or value that you want. But that is better than getting it too dark and not being able to do anything about it.

Start with the Brown Ochre as your base and lightest color as you’ll be working from light to dark. Then start shaping and adding mid tones with the Terracotta and finish off with the Venetian red.

Okay, ready to start? Go for it and I’ll check back with you tomorrow so post what you’ve done.

Most important… have fun.

Again, welcome.

Peace,
AL

["J"]

I hope this is what you wanted.

[Striver]

Les signing in, post later
Les

[Mary Woodul]

Good morning Al and class. This looks wonderful, I am so excited and ready to go. Thank you for this class!

[Anita Murphy]

Good morning Al - great class! Going to get to this as soon as I get home from work!

Hi Early birds!!!!

[Judi1957]

Morning Al! I can't wait to get home from work to start!!!!!!

[Sumariel]

Good morning Al, I am a bad girl. I don't drive, and have not been able to convince anyone that I desperately need the pencils you are trying to teach us to use. Gads!

I do have a question . . .is there any chance in the universe that Conte pastel pencils would work similarly enough that I could attempt to follow along until I get to the store?
Suzi

[Charlie's Mum]

I'll try to keep up Al!
I'll have to use different colours though - I bought a 12 tin on Saturday and these colours aren't in - all I could get! Bummer!
Never mind - it'll just look funny
Can't get Strathmore paper here either - so have good stuff ... costing me a fortune (but I'm a happy bunny!!!)

[JayD]

Al, I am in--I have to break away from job of building pointless paper mache' pyramids but I got my stuff and I think I have my ref picked out for the next phase of the class but I will definitely start tonight!!

[Sumariel]

Al, I don't think these are going to give me the same effects, as they are chalky rather than creamy. I am getting some interesting things from them, though. I will keep playing until I can get a ride to Michael's for the right media. This is still fun. Thanks.
Suzi

[mmdm]

Good morning Al classmates! I just got back into town so haven't gotten my pencils yet, but I am going to try Hobby Lobby for them this evening. I'v got my coupon ready.

[IslanderNL]

I'm trying to work, eat lunch and draw all at the same time!

LOVE these pencils, they're so smooth and silky.

Hi Mary and Judi and Anita, I'm glad you'll be here too. Oops, nearly missed you Jay! Hi! Wonderful that you'll find time to do this. You know, seems I'm still waiting on a finished portrait from you....

Suzi, can you mailorder the pencils from somewhere local? Most stores will do that if you ask and you'd have them in a couple of days then.

What colours are in your set Maureen? We can only get the earth tones here. Perhaps you'll have a wonderful blue or green image instead.

[JayD]

Well, Jeanette--I owe robin, anita, gavin, Mike etc... class assignment as well as an article and a Maxfield Parrish reproduction--aaaaargh!!!!! Hopefully, this restructuring that I am dealing with now will settle down in the next couple of weeks--and your portrait is at the top of the list--you have a beautiful face.

[mauricar]

Doodles -


These pencils are interesting. Very, very soft and buttery. I'll keep playing until class tomorrow.

[alfredart]

Hey guys,

Jeanne looks like you used a scanner. These colors don't reproduce well even with a camera. Hmmmmm. Looks like you've got the right idea. Can't wait to see you when we start the portrait tomorrow. So for now... play.
Hey Les glad to see ya found us.
Mary you're gonna love these pencils. Wait 'till you do fur, their great.
Anita hey, Glad you made it.
Judy I'll be checking in later, can't wait to see what you've done.
Suzi Shame on you for not shopping. (ha) The Contes look abit soft. Looks like you've got the right colors however. I hope you find the pencils soon. If not you can play catch up later.
Mum Hmmm... green or blue faces??? All the same you will get used to how the pencils work and what can be done with them.
JayD I can't wait to see what you do with these.
Jeanette I'm glad you like these pencils. I've fallen in love with them and have used nothing else for ten years now.
Midge You slipped in on me. Looks like you're having fun already. Try working on getting even layers this will help with the portraits.

Remember all, work with light, even layers and build up the the tones you want.

Keep playing and posting guys. Tonight after I get home from work I'll post the next section of the class. This is when the fun starts all.

Peace,
AL