DrawWithMike.net

It seems the time is UP to get back to pastels again...
Lol...
What a life
At least I'm VERY STABLE in my relationship
For some time I was interested to put some colour in my art, for example our dear expert Linda is creating wonderful arts, beautifully complimenting the graphite with some colours in it...
I'm not going to copy the above, but I'm after to use blacks, and colours as well.
As you know, we can create different kind of mood on our arts (photos-when we do photography) just by playing with colour, or black&white or with shadow and light...
Being drawing with graphite I'm missing sometime the benefit of adding colour.
My personal preference is to stick and to master one media at a time.
Maybe I'm getting older , or it's just me, and the way I'm developing my likeness?

...Following my internal intuition I have started this pastel portraiture today.

It's my nephew Michal.
He's 14, and his mom just posted couple of promotional photos taken at the day of finishing the school (how to properly call it?).
She doesn't know about my attempt, I like to surprice them, if my drawing turns up nicely enough, to make it as a gift

It's going to be drawn with CarbOthello pencil pastels, on A4 sheet of PatelMat white paper.
I'm thinking of using my graphite pencils too, or charcoal as well...

I know I'm going to enjoy watching this one develop.

Just a quick observation: watch the shape of the bottom of the eyes. It might not matter, but they have more sinuous curves than in your guideline drawing.

Mike Sibley wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 11:45 am but they have more sinuous curves than in your guideline drawing.

Thanks Mike for it, I'll try to make the eyes matching the reference as close as possible...
It's been a while since I left pastels, so I'm a bit worry of how to proceed the drawing, and more importantly - how to seal it safely, to post it for example...
The trouble is, there's lots of fixatives out there, they mostly all say - clear, invisible coat, not altering the colour...
I did follow couple reviews, to find out it isn't true.
If I make a pastel drawing, and if I spent time to achieve light blue sky..., I don't like it become dark blue after fixative has been applied...
I'm trusting SpectraFix Degas fixative so far.
I saw comparison to few other, and this one did best regarding unaltering the colour...
I'm interested in other product from this manufacturer too.
It's Natural Glass varnish, it makes transparent film coat.
I need to test it myself, or I may be lucky to find somebody else who tested it already, as the application is by brush...
I don't want ruin the drawing by smudging it all over with the brush, do I?!
If I could use that "glass" over pastels, it would be brilliant for final varnishing, before postage, or without need of placing the drawing behind the glass...
https://www.spectrafix.com/product/natu ... nformation
Yeah...
Many things to concider, but I even didn't start the drawing yet, because of weird shifts I have...

It's been very hot day, tomorrow might be even hotter, and I'm at work till 4pm!
Nevermind, I've been waiting so long to start this drawing, and I did!
Even one hour is good before bed time
Because I need warm up a bit with pastels, I decided to start with background first...
I've been slowly making strokes with blue, blending it with wet brush (first time ever!), then I was layering the black pastel over it...
Very soon I realised, the solid background covering will eat up my black pastel in no time
So I took soft charcoal stick ...
Stroke by stroke, gently...
I realised it's covering the area so well!
So I went over the small area of blue/black pastels as well, blended it with the finger, and I ended up with total, smooth black background
I couldn't ask for better effect!
Next, I'll try to achieve some blurish effect of the trees behind Michal, by adding green here and there...
Let see how it goes...

What a super-smooth surface!

Pastels, charcoal... I don't think I've ever tried either of them. Far too messy

I know Mike, lol - super messy medium
I started adding layers of flesh tone.
I'm trying not to rush, so the process is slow...
After placing the strokes, I'm blending with the brush, so I'm losing the contrast, and I'm adding some colour again, and blending, and so on...
Don't ask what colour I'm using!
I don't know
Just picking up the pencil I believe might work
There's numbers only on these pencils, I bet I need to find out some description of what numer is what colour
I didn't seal the charcoal background, and I see I'll need to apply it again to cover imperfections, that I've caused by blending the face (edges).

Well...
I moved on his jacket today.
I wanted to see an addition of the blue(s ).
Step by step I was trying to build up some shading, more work is required obviously.
Because I'm very weird, and I'm leaving eyes to be done last , at least I did mark that they ARE there , then I carried on improving the face features.

Nothing to say... except I'm enjoying watching this grow, and begin to live.

Mike Sibley wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 12:19 pm except I'm enjoying watching this grow, and begin to live.

I'm very appreciate your keen commenting Mike
Just trying my best drawing a portrait, that's out of my comfort zone...
I wasn't using colours for too long, now all I'm doing is my lucky guess of what colour to put on...
Thank you...

A bit more (am I boring by frequent updates?) face improving ...
I been adding darker tones around, to achieve a little bit of depth and improve shadows.
Thank you for watching