There's been quite a gap since I last posted - it's largely because I've been indulging my other interest - which is music.
I've been doing some recording with some friends, which you can check out here,
given that you have the time.
But for now I'll get back to some blogging on painting.
N.B., Click on images to zoom.
Contemporary, portrait, landscape, painting, best, top ten, paintings, oil, artist, artists, gallery, life, figure, graphite, sketch, Snowdonia, drawings, pencil, Art, geometry, composition, Master, Masterpiece, Welsh, Wales.
Life drawing (detail)
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
I don't know about you, but when I'm doing a life drawing, particularly when I only have a very limited time (less than an hour or so), I tend to skim over a detailed representation of the facial features - so the drawings aren't necessarily good portrait likenesses, but more like rapid impressions.
As in the drawing above; in which the features are broadly sketched, highlights are sparsely indicated, - but hopefully with enough info to suggest the main shape and alignment of the head, the general lighting, and so on.
Life drawing (detail)
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
Here's another, also fairly time-limited, drawing. . .
Life drawing
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
In both the two drawings above, I started by stretching my paper and colouring it with a mid-toned green (in acrylic paint).
I've noticed that occasionally people will make the mistake of working with oil pastels, or dry pastels, directly onto white paper.
This can create problems, - as when the white of the paper jumps out through the gaps in the colours, - and this makes for a very disjointed image.
The choice of a base colour is, of course, unlimited, however I often use green or blue as a colour for life work.
The choice of green echoes the use of a green base (called verdaccio) by many early portrait or figure painters, who then overlaid the base colour with glazes of warmer flesh colour.
'As any artist can tell you, achieving realistic flesh tones is one of most challenging aspects of painting in color. But even early tempera painters of the Middle Ages knew that if they painted their figures first with a greenish hue, the flesh tones painted on top of them would "pop out" more convincingly and realistically. Green is the complementary color to red, and placing these two hues close together or on top of each other in a painting can create dynamic effects. The green can also "kill" some of the intensity of pure orange/pink flesh tones which can otherwise look plastic or doll-like on a painting. From these early realizations came Verdaccio underpainting techniques'. Nicole Pellegrini.
Seated Figure (detail)
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
And here's a quick drawing in which the base colour is a fairly darkish blue. As can be seen, the blue acts as the skin colour (i.e., the parts which are in shadow) over quite a proportion of the face.
There's been quite a gap since I last posted - it's largely because I've been indulging my other interest - which is music.
I've been doing some recording with some friends, which you can check out here,
given that you have the time.
given that you have the time.
But for now I'll get back to some blogging on painting.
Life drawing (detail)
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
N.B., Click on images to zoom.
Contemporary, portrait, landscape, painting, best, top ten, paintings, oil, artist, artists, gallery, life, figure, graphite, sketch, Snowdonia, drawings, pencil, Art, geometry, composition, Master, Masterpiece, Welsh, Wales.
Life drawing (detail)
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
I don't know about you, but when I'm doing a life drawing, particularly when I only have a very limited time (less than an hour or so), I tend to skim over a detailed representation of the facial features - so the drawings aren't necessarily good portrait likenesses, but more like rapid impressions.
As in the drawing above; in which the features are broadly sketched, highlights are sparsely indicated, - but hopefully with enough info to suggest the main shape and alignment of the head, the general lighting, and so on.
Life drawing (detail)
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
Here's another, also fairly time-limited, drawing. . .
Life drawing
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
In both the two drawings above, I started by stretching my paper and colouring it with a mid-toned green (in acrylic paint).
I've noticed that occasionally people will make the mistake of working with oil pastels, or dry pastels, directly onto white paper.
This can create problems, - as when the white of the paper jumps out through the gaps in the colours, - and this makes for a very disjointed image.
The choice of a base colour is, of course, unlimited, however I often use green or blue as a colour for life work.
The choice of green echoes the use of a green base (called verdaccio) by many early portrait or figure painters, who then overlaid the base colour with glazes of warmer flesh colour.
Seated Figure (detail)
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
Seated Figure
Oil Pastel on Paper, 80 minutes, A2 size.
I've seen and bought several books on this topic and I haven't yet seen one which I think does the job, or even shows good examples of work.
Maybe you can recommend one?
'Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock'.
And the weak suffer what they must?
A titanic battle is being waged for Europe's integrity and soul, with the forces of reason and humanism losing out to growing irrationality, authoritarianism, and malice, promoting inequality and austerity. The whole world has a stake in a victory for rationality, liberty, democracy, and humanism.
In January 2015, Yanis Varoufakis, an economics professor teaching in Austin, Texas, was elected to the Greek parliament with more votes than any other member of parliament. He was appointed finance minister and, in the whirlwind five months that followed, everything he had warned about-the perils of the euro's faulty design, the European Union's shortsighted austerity policies, financialized crony capitalism, American complicity and rising authoritarianism-was confirmed as the "troika" (the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, and European Commission) stonewalled his efforts to resolve Greece's economic crisis.
Here, Varoufakis delivers a fresh look at the history of Europe's crisis and America's central role in it. He presents the ultimate case against austerity, proposing concrete policies for Europe that are necessary to address its crisis and avert contagion to America, China, and the rest of the world. With passionate, informative, and at times humorous prose, he warns that the implosion of an admittedly crisis-ridden and deeply irrational European monetary union should, and can, be avoided at all cost.
Amazon Review.
To subscribe to free email notifications
When you receive the email, you can go to the site itself by clicking on the blog title.
quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz “details, details............” quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz
Who painted this and in which painting?
(The answer will be in the next posting.)
And here's the answer from the last posting -
by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, 1740, Uffizi Gallery.
quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz “details, details............” quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz
"Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
Gilbert K. Chesterton
_____________________________________________________
. . . . and now, a Recommended Read . . .
Yanis Varoufakis
This is a book which should interest anyone who is thinking about the nature of the European Union. Written by a still-committed europhile, it will give pause to anyone who thinks they understand the true character of the Union. The EU was always an American project - a fact which is rarely explored. But here Varoufakis documents the birth and growth of 'the project' with some bitterness, and with a somewhat compromised optimism.
In January 2015, Yanis Varoufakis, an economics professor teaching in Austin, Texas, was elected to the Greek parliament with more votes than any other member of parliament. He was appointed finance minister and, in the whirlwind five months that followed, everything he had warned about-the perils of the euro's faulty design, the European Union's shortsighted austerity policies, financialized crony capitalism, American complicity and rising authoritarianism-was confirmed as the "troika" (the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, and European Commission) stonewalled his efforts to resolve Greece's economic crisis.
Here, Varoufakis delivers a fresh look at the history of Europe's crisis and America's central role in it. He presents the ultimate case against austerity, proposing concrete policies for Europe that are necessary to address its crisis and avert contagion to America, China, and the rest of the world. With passionate, informative, and at times humorous prose, he warns that the implosion of an admittedly crisis-ridden and deeply irrational European monetary union should, and can, be avoided at all cost.
Amazon Review.
Published on The Bodley Head, London
_______________________
_______________________
To subscribe to free email notifications
of my newest blogs, please go to the pull-out menu (on the right side of the main screen).
'Select 'SUBSCRIBE' and input your email address.
'Select 'SUBSCRIBE' and input your email address.
When you receive the email, you can go to the site itself by clicking on the blog title.
You can un-subscribe at any time.