Practice from live model thread - 2012 - Page 6

dustonpaper · #76 08-05-2012, 02:05 PM

Hello all,

I have not been posting for more than 2 months. Reason is I was really unhappy with my progress and there where times when I even thought about stopping all this rubbish and get a real hobby, like drinking beer and watching soccer.
My oils did not get any better so I began to only draw during the weeks and oils on the weekend, also because cleaning up the brushes after 10pm is annoying when the clock rings at 6 am to go to work. Also began with plein air occasionally (only like 4 times or so, except 2 all wiped off because they are so bad and the ones I kept where not much better either, plein air is harder than portrait). Did a still life, been painting an egg like Kevin suggested a while back in this thread I think. Well, not much has happened since, I did a number of portraits in that time ... the one from today came out somewhat more pleasing (still pretty bad though) than the usual level I creep along

... so I thought maybe to start posting again. I still wont have much time to comment a lot at WC, I'm either working in the dayjob, practising to paint or sleeping.

30x40 cm ... about 5 1/2 hours working time, from live model, a very pleasant one to paint

.

High Resolution:
http://dustonpaper.smugmug.com/Art/P...SJv9d&lb=1&s=O

The white border comes from tape I do around it for painting to not smear stuff on my easel so much.

C&C always welcome.

dominika · #77 08-05-2012, 03:17 PM

Hello Duston, your works are great and I love the last one. You did very well. I think you're too demanding for yourself, perfectionism isn't good thing. It pushes you forward but you can never reach the aim. You should be proud of your works, and I'm sure that I'm not the only person who says so! Just a thought, I hope you don't mind.

beetee · #78 08-05-2012, 06:20 PM

Good to see you post again,was wondering where you had gone,portrait
looks good to me.

Brian

**bethanyt** · #79 08-06-2012, 02:32 AM

This is a really accomplished work, Sacha! You need to look back at your first painting and see the progress you have made- give yourself some credit.

dustonpaper · #80 08-06-2012, 04:53 PM

Dominika, Brian and Bethany - thank you so very much for your encouraging comments. I'm glad I began to post at WC again.

Here is todays practice drawing, about 2h 40 minutes or so, on A3 paper from live model ... only willow charcoal except a few darks in the exes with charcoal pencil:

I'm not so sure about the alignment of all the features. Seems not consistent, like the nose is straight to the front, eyes more turned to our right, and I'm not sure about the mouth either. That is a problem I often have recently, that I think something is not working correctly but I cannot make out what exactly it is. The eye to hour left seems a bit high too ?

On a side note I wonder why photographing drawings is so hard. Even harder than oil paintings I think. There is glare in oil painting, OK ... but with drawings the photo messes with the subtle values.

Do you guys fix your drawings with fixative ? I think I so it right (spraying from about 50cm several times very thinly ... but it changes the drawings always ... sometimes to the better, sometimes to the worse.

Thanks for looking, C&C always welcome.

lovin art · #81 08-06-2012, 05:10 PM

Umm .... drinking beer will only send you broke and not too mention sick ..

... I think much better to do this and spend those hard earnt dollars on some paint ....

I love that first one hugly Beautiful !!!

.... I see that level of jump in you , just like u see in me too .... It's inspiring to know you think a lot of me Sacha ... I'm touched deeply

...keep this up ....you work has always appealed to me and always will ...As to the last I think you have to much length going on in the face in general ... And I fully understand this habit , i am constantly struggling with that myself , but i think what happens as we progress we start to see these things as rather straight away in our minds eye ... The mistakes --I'm at this stage but its still there and we really have to be relentless as Kevin elegantly has said to me in the past to push on through ... It only gets better the more we do !!!

Ps , would love to see ur plein air work also ...post it in oils plezzzzeee

dustonpaper · #82 08-06-2012, 05:40 PM

Hey Sandra ... yes, you're right. I really exaggerated the lenghts of her face I think. Here is a tiny image of her, a few years old photo though, posted with permission:

She doesn't have the usual rule of 3rd proportions but I usually tend to exaggerate it. Maybe the photo can help in finding the errors better, even if it is a different pose. I think I made her face too slim and the node too long ? Maybe should have pulled it all up a little ?

lovin art · #83 08-06-2012, 05:54 PM

Defiantly !! The eyes are closer on the real her and the nose is smaller then you have , and the length in general as I said earlier ... But yes I agree for sure she has a slightly longer philtruim going on ... Given the ref is not the same pose but it's still gives a good indicator or what's happening here ...

dustonpaper · #84 08-06-2012, 05:58 PM

Thank you so much Sandra, this is very helpful. To analyse that way. I cannot post pictures of every model, but it sure helps to have others have a look at them if I'm allowed to post an image.

Bedtime here now, thank you and goodnight to the other end of the world

sketchZ1ol · #85 08-07-2012, 10:12 AM

hello
good to see your posts/paintings again .
i'm also glad to read that you took a break and did something totally different which you enjoy .
- it is good to relax the mind .

both of these pieces have well defined features , and
a sense of personality -> very difficult to convey .

most important is the personality of your brushstroke/mark .
these paintings have character and appeal .

remember that ' rule of thirds ' and other methods are guidelines .
adjustments are almost always made because most faces do not precisely fit the ' classic ' proportion or geometric model .

taking a break during portrait sessions is perhaps more important for the painter !
that time allows the mind to rest/shift attention , and
something elusive may become more obvious when returning to the sitting .
> i've seen that happen at live demos given by world famous artists .
>> they realize that something is off , work on another aspect until the break ,
and resume the session with more confidence to make the correction(s) .

most important , they accept imperfection - they do not condemn themselves .

look forward to seeing more of your work !

Ed :}

ps i've edited this post to make corrections

dustonpaper · #86 08-07-2012, 04:22 PM

Ed ... thank you very very much for the tips and encouragement. You said a lot to think about.

Here is todays drawing ... not a very good likeness though. I had to correct stuff in the middle of the thing at a point where corrections where not really well possible (couldn't erase very well since the paper was already filled with charcoal). I have to slow down during the start and then go darker and work the charcoal when I am sure all is correctly placed.

Bedtime in Germany now ... C&C always welcome.

sketchZ1ol · #87 08-07-2012, 07:59 PM

hello
your work with charcoal shows detail/proportion and the marks are confident .

the material can do things which are immediate .
it is not merely a tool for some other media ...

Ed :}

dustonpaper · #88 08-08-2012, 05:07 PM

Ed - thank your very much for your comment. I found charcoal very difficult when I began using it and hated it, but I hope to have found a basic skill in manipulating that dust on paper

. What I need to get a lot better at is with the proportions and measuring and anatomy ... but I'm hoping when all that skill comes together to be able to make some nice stuff with charcoal. I now love charcoal and want to get really good at it. It is the only drawing medium I know to give the effects I like to get good at, my idols of charcoal medium are Zhaoming Wu and Henry Yan and I find a charcoal drawing at their level is just as beautiful as a good oil painting.

Today the model only had two hours time and we started a little late. I wanted to try something I only did once some time ago, gesture paintings. I got the idea from a Jeffrey Watts video and I think they are excellent practice for color and study light effects. He has a new gesture video out there btw. which at the moment is 95$ but will be 150$ after September 15th I think.

In the gesture he says the main aim is color and value and drawing and likeness should be the stand behind. Of course as a living master he gets good drawing and good likeness in his video, still I think it is good practice for a beginner like me to do these, even though my drawing skills are not good and fast enough to get something nice looking in the short time.

So the practice from today looks kind of funny to put it mildly, I did not care at all about the drawing part and was just studying color mixing, light effects and stuff. So the features are off by inches here. They really look terrible, but I'm confident they will get better over the years when supported with continuing drawing. I plan to do gesture studies now at least once a week.

Same model as the last charcoal (you wont recognize her though), 24x18cm canvas panels (cheap ones). Between 30 and 40 minutes each.

#1 ... light source from above front, full palette (the usual stuff everyone uses):

#2 light source from pretty much over the head, she had a pink/white shirt so there were all kinds of interesting reflections from the bottom. This was done with a limited palette (ivory black, cinnabar red (PR255), yellow ochre and white):

#3 light source from the lower than the head and a bit from the back and side and very close (only like 60cm away from the model, I have transparent paper in front of a 4000k LED bulb to diffuse it a little. Normal palette:

They really look weird but I'm convinced they are important practice. Also to lose up a little and to get used to not get lost in details. It took me a bit to get myself to try these because I always think "I pay a model so I want something out of it that will look like a real painting" ... but now that I did them I'm glad I tried because I think they are worth practising and the best of all I find they are really fun to do.

I plan to get some more different lights, colored ones and whatever I can get my hands on to practice these will all kind of light effects, that will be fun.

C&C always welcome.

dustonpaper · #89 08-09-2012, 04:47 PM

Today I tried to work faster and with a broader charcoal technique I read about in the Henry Yan book. Tried to leave out detail and go for the larger shapes, with the aim to get good at doing quicker more expressive charcoal drawings. Well, not much good came out of it. I had the model and light not changed in the hope to get it right at least once, which did not happen. Still it was good practice I hope.
I believe that I have a tendency to stretch the head too long , it seems the lower area especially, so I guess now that I need to be careful about that ? I still need to learn a lot about the construction of the face I think.
The model liked the last one best, so do I. But it still is miles away from where it must be (in a few years maybe) and not a good likeness at all. The technique itself I like very much, just using a big chunk of charcoal and put in the darks I see while squinting, then wipe over the charcoal to the light areas to, then pick out with the erase and darken other parts.

1st try:

2nd try:

3rd try:

C&C always welcome.

**kevinwueste** · #90 08-09-2012, 04:57 PM

I like the last two ( of three) paintings - really coming together there and the final drawings are solid. I wonder how much time you allocate for the drawing - getting the block-in well done - vs the rest - maybe even a bit more for that first part of the effort ( the hardest part) will help you develop more consistent shapes.

Kevin

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