I have started an actual watercolor, but it's just a sketch and still too pale to show up.... so you'll have to wait until next week to see more. Meanwhile, I've been working on portraits. I've taken a page from Sara's book and done value sketches as well as direct watercolor sketches. But I've also used my black watercolor paper with oil pastels. It's a totally different process... you're painting with highlights instead of going from light to dark. Here's my first one, based on a B&W magazine photo. Same subject in both, one traditional value study, one a "highlight study."
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| 4" x 3" 10"x8" |
From there, I used the same reference to do a direct watercolor. It's interesting how your mind jumps back and forth depending on the different things you are looking at in each style.
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| approx. 5" x 4" |
Here's another one; first the value study in pencil, then the oil pastel on black watercolor paper. I gridded the first one and direct painted the second and I think I got a better likeness in the second, oddly enough.
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| approx. 4.5" x 3.5." 10"x8" |
Finally, a direct watercolor sketch with a limited palette. I have to admit, Ken, that I did find it confusing every so often, painting lights vs. painting darks. In the end, though, I think it may be making me look at things I didn't before.
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| 8"x5.5" |
The varied ways to approach a subject re really broadening your visul vocbulary!
ReplyDeleteIs that Marlon Brando and Derek Jacobi? That second direct watercolor is outstanding as are the sketches. Actually both watercolors are great.I never thought about the process of using black paper...it wouldn’t work if you followed a traditional value plan? I guess it would look like a film negative then...
ReplyDeleteIt is Marlon Brando! I can't believe you recognized him. The other one is Marc Chagall. I had a little trouble recognizing them in the photos myself--a very young Brando and an old Chagall, both with dramatic lighting. Sadly, my Chagall looks a little like a cross between Gene Wilder and Lori Lightfoot, with a touch of Kurt Vonnegut. I don't know about a traditional value plan... since the background was already black, I just looked for the whitest highlights and drew them in and all of a sudden, a face was there.
DeleteWell something is working for you. That last portrait is just fabulous.
ReplyDeleteThose white on blacks are certainly dramatic, well they don't seem to have any grey. I guess, you could use lighter and darker grey pastels, or maybe a little raw and burnt sienna, because I do like color, or maybe you could just go with the drama, I like drama too, A nice portrait of Chagal to with that bold blue eye and that hawk nose and the rest all billowy like a cloud tossed summer sky.
ReplyDeleteI knew that watercolor was Marlon, and he looks fabulous. You can tell each media gives you a different way to see and express what you see. It's very exciting. Especially so in the second set of pencil and oil pastel portraits. They're each rich and descriptive in their own ways.
ReplyDeleteI am having an issue learning to comment. The comments I’ve made have all disappeared. The IT guy is not always available.
ReplyDeleteThe Chagall on black paper looks like something from the Renaissance. WC of Marlon And Marc both excellent. Use of color on Marc reminds me of Charles Reid as he applied color to portraits. Hope to some day get to where u have arrived.
I had the same issue for a while. You always have to be signed to comment. The reply as box should have your sign in name in it. I solved that problem by never signing out.
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