thanks everyone
davidb i love the portrait. she is adorable!!! nice work with pastels, i have tried them and didnt turn out right but i may get them out again and try again.
man kim i have to say again, love that portrait. awesome work especially the hair. maybe a new tutorial for that hair?!! wow love it
Lori

Brian,
the portrait is excellent! What a cute little girl Your daughter?

David I must say hun that portrait is so good ....and how you manage to do it so well in pastels .. I have used pastels but I have no control with them and could never do what you just did...awsome job

Thank you all so much it means a lot to me I havent been using pastels for long but I think I have found my niche I love them, some people pick a pencil up and find it really easy to draw, some with paint and some with other media I just seem to find pastels easier than other arts that I have tried, the picture is of my grandaughter leah,

Rose I started of doing the eyes and other small details with the pastel pencils and then started doing layers for the skin first with the lightest colour I could find, my pastels are not expensive ones they only cost about six pounds for sixty four and they dont have any list with them of what the colours are called so I just find the ones that are skin coloured and use the lightest and use my fingers to rub them in then use a couple of darker ones for the shadows and then a red one I used very lightly and sparingly on the cheeks and rubbed that in really well I used black and a light yellow for the hair and finally a pink for the cardigan I know this is not a very good expanation but I just start on a drawing and it just somehow all comes together I have seen you master everything you have tried and I know you will be brilliant at portraits in pastel as you are with every other media. all the best to everyone and thanks once again.
dave

Wonderful picture, David. You really did it well. Pastels are terrific for just about everything. The only drawback I can see with them is storage and framing because of the chalkiness of them. But that shouldn't stop you from continuing using them. they are a fast and easy way of getting color onto paper and the colors are pure pigment!!! I hope to see more of your pastel works.

Hi guys,

I've done a few of Brenda's lessons now and thought I'd extend myself....
I got the photo 'The Shark' from vidi.deviantart.com.

Now for the technical stuff: It's a 11x8 inch drawing with mechanical pencils 0.5 & 0.7 in 2H, HB & 2B on heavy weight (225GSM) cartridge paper.


The photo of the drawing has come out more grainy than the original, I'm afraid.
I found it quite challenging and would welcome comments on how I could improve it.
I wasn't sure about the background!

Sorry wasn't sure if I should put it here or the critique thread!!!

Thanks

Andrea
[attachmentid=4345]

OMG what a powerful subject Andrea!!! I love how it can make you think of so many different things. In thumbnail I thought it was a pair of hands holding something.... opening it i thought it could be a strange angle of a shark...and then I realised it was a human form! Tremendous!

Lovely, lovely drawing! And excellently done too!! Brava!

Thanks Rose, it was seeing your powerful figure drawing that inspired me to give it a try!

Andrea

Andrea I think your drawing is absolutely outstanding and I dont think you could do anything to improve it.

Thanks David , from a fellow previous Yorkshire person! (Leeds).

Andrea

wow awesome awesome work, i just cant find the words. that is fantastic.
Lori

Rose, Andrea, and Everyone Else that may be interested: I am starting a figure drawing class of the basic fundamentals of figure drawing hopefully this Sunday night. I hope both of you will join in and participate in the class and offer your exspertise so to say in the class. I am very new and have never taught anything before. Jeanette, was suppost to originally put together and host the class but things are very hectic for her at the moment and she doesn't have the time right now to do it and said she probably wouldn't be on much. So even though I came up with the basic lesson and information for the class we will all be learning together, that includes me. Also, if you or anyone here on drawspace have any semi-nude pictures to be used for references for the class please feel free to email them to me at Godess4883@aol.com..I am trying to see if I can get one of my friends to do some poses and shots for me, but have yet to get into contact with her. Thanks All, I really appreciate it.

Brilliant Venus, I'll look forward to it. I have already started on my second figure drawing, hopefully I'll have finished by then. Although it seems even more technically demanding than the last one, so we'll see!
I found that deviant art had a load of semi nudes in their photographic section; is it okay to use those (copyright issues etc)?

Andrea

Andrea, that is just too cool. Such drama!

This is the son of a friend of mine. I believe he's just pretending to climb this wall. The likeness is not terribly good, as it's hard to get a good likeness in a face drawn this small, but the folds of the shirt and the locks of hair were just too much fun to draw. Wood pencils 2H-6B, Strathmore Bristol board, drawing area about 6 by 7 inches. A little blending on the shirt (sorry Jeanette).

[attachmentid=4354] [attachmentid=4355]

Ernest, I think it does resemble him! As you say the folds are fab! I think you did a good job on the foreshortening of the bent fingers too; I'm struggling with this on my present drawing. In the photo he's looking at the camera but not in the photo, but that isn't important.
Brilliant job

Andrea

David - pardon me for not thanking you before for your little tutorial. A portrait in pastels is still very much on my cards but I think I need to go and get myself a few more skin tones. My set is only 36 pastels and 9 or those are green!

Ernest - nice drawing.. sounds like you had a ball doing it.

Venus - good idea. Shame that Jeanette cannot participate. Still I think we can still do a good job of practicing and helping each other. I will try to participate to the extent that I can...on one condition though. If anyone is to learn anything out of this then we must all be prepared to point out anything that we deem incorrect and that can be improved upon with a bit of effort - nicely and tactfully of course and with an eye on the good as well as the bad. And all participants must be ready to accept critique graciously and in the same spirit as it is meant.

Also, you might care to approach Paul (horesewhisperer) - I think he might be able to help a lot.

Rose very nicely said and if you dont mind I think I am going to add part of your condition to my opening statements of the class. I totally agree with you.

Andrea, using images from other sites is ok to use on their sites and if you have permission from the person who took the photos. I am also a member of Deviant so I will go have a glance and see what types of pictures they have, as well as what Wetcanvas has..LOL. Hopefully my friend pulls through, she said she is going to try.

Of course we could all take turns posting our own semi-nudes. Or maybe we could get one of the spammers to come back...


(Blade ducks and runs away...)

Shoot Blade! You're so right! We had a quarry and we chased it away!!

LOL Blade and Rose!!! Thats tooo funny. Actually, I am in the mist of working on something...sooo lets see if it works..shhh its my secret...

just somthing I did for my cousin after she sent me a picture of her daughters cake fight with her self lol .

Venus I am sorry to hear Jeanette backed out ...but like Rose I think you will be fine ...and wish you luck and cant wait to check it out .

I just added another drawing .. I am really liking doing the darker tones .. i still have a lot to learn

Rose if most of your pastels are green you could allways draw the incredible hulk

Ernest I think you have captured the likeness very well for such a small picture

Kim I put a comment in your gallery but your pictures are great and getting better all the time

Hello everyone,

Kim I love your pictures, especially the blonde highlights and expression on the little girl.


Have just finished my second figure drawing and would appreciate any comments/criticisms.

It's a 9x6.5 graphite drawing using .5 & .7 mech pencils with 2H & 2B lead on heavy cartridge paper.

The original is a digital photograph but was later edited after printing with a scalpel, and is called Mutilation by Nattenborough.deviantart.com.

Another challenging one, especially creating the scratched effect. I tried various white pastels & a china graph pencil to get the effect but in the end I had to scrape it with a scalpel!

So, what do you think? Please be honest.

Andrea

Andrea I really like this drawing .. very nice shading .

Thanks Kim.

Andrea

Kim,
these two children are such lovely! As ever your portraits are great.

Andrea,
a very particular picture. You rendered it very good. Somehow creepy - it gave me gooseflesh

--------

Because of all my goosflesh I forgot to add my quick sketch of a spring tree. I made it by mind - it is a tree in a nature preserve called "Schwarze Berge" (= Black hills) here in northern Germany.
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to even draw a tree impresses me .. I myself have tried and failed each time lol .. nice job on yours

Martina, sorry to have freaked you out!
Perhaps I have a slight dark side as the picture appealed to me

I think your tree is very good, especially as it is from your imagination.
I particularly like the leaves. The thought of doing trees scares me as I have not done them before! Well done.

Andrea

*laughing* Andrea - you made my day!!!! I am sure everyone of us have a liiiiiiiittle dark side....

THANK YOU Kim and Andrea.
Foliage always made me nervous too when I had to draw but after a little tutorial I am on the way to get it I think.


And - shame on me - I forgot to add the size:

About 7"x7" on smooth papaer with mech. pencils.

wow kim awesome work. you are doing great stuff.
love the scene martina. also great work
here is another portrait i did, not sure about, critique and comments always welcome
Lori

Lori nice drawing .. you really have the bone structure down well .

lori,
I like this drawing. He looks very proud as american natives do.

thanks--i wasnt sure about this one--if i liked or not. i think i am more and more as i look at it. that bone structure was pretty difficult to get right. still isnt perfect but it stays the way it is. i signed it and sprayed it so....
Lori

Lori, I love your indian portraits!!! Makes me wish I knew what linage of indian we had in my family from my dads side.

Its been quite awhile since I have posted any of my work in here. I did a new colored pencil picture on Canson textured Montaval Acrylic paper. I really like the textures of it. The drawing itself is 7 1/4 inches by 8 1/2 inches. Ok here is my new pic called "Spring"....

Very nice, Venus.

Venus very nice job .. I left you a comment on the drawing .. the bird is just beautiful .

Here is another one of my tries at darker skin .

Venus,
this is such a lovely drawing!!! I love this little bird.


Kim,
Wow - and again I am deeply impressed - you have aneye for dramatics.

Very nice, Kim. You are coming along great on these. This one doesn't seem to have the glow to the skin like the others though. Maybe its the scanner. I really like them. Are you using reference pics?

Venus,
I have always wanted to do a serious study of that very subject on which you are working. Great idea! I told my wife I had always wanted to draw a picture of a boob, and without nary a smile, she says, " Why, the self-portrait class is over!" Women.... can't live with em, can't live with em, LOL !! Hope you get something going. I doubt if my wife would be willing to pose, but I can ask........ YEAH RIGHT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think you will do just fine, and the class will be a winner, just like you!!

Jonsie

Hey Jonsie - haven't seen you around the boards for a while. Check out the Drawing challenge, there's some civil war stuff on there. hehehehehe

the skin is darker in this drawing .. I think I was afraid to go so dark .. her skin was a funny color ...I think she was ill.....

venus- your drawing looks great. i always kept an eye out for one for your pieces and havent seen one for awhile. glad to see one again. you always do great. the native american is on my moms side. her mother was part cherrokee and her father possibly black foot. he was adopted and family did a family history and found out his real father was native american- probably black foot.
kim love the new portrait. wow that is just beautiful. i think that one is my favorite so far. you are really inspiring me to get out the color pencils and try a portrait in color again. i didnt think i could get a dramatic feel with color but you sure did it with this one.
Lori

Thanks, Everyone for the compliments!! I love hearing them..

Lori, I have absolutely no clue what kind of indian is in our family. I have tried looking on ancestry.com do see if they had any information on my grandmothers side of the family and my grandfathers (her husband) and it just comes up with the earliest is the 1920's and I got their parents name, then its zitch, nothing after that. I know my great grandparents oone was french canadian and the other was canadian indian of some sort and I want to say it was my great grandmother. Not sure. See I know both of them had heart problems and died in their early fifties. Other than that I know my grandmother had a falling out with her father shortly before he died because he changed his will and left everything to his 2nd wife. She was upset because he had demensia and knew he didn't know what he was doing and I guess he was pretty wealthy. (Wish it would have stayed in the family...LOL) So she ruined any type of documentations of her family linage. Her husband stopped talking to his parents as soon as he was old enough to live on his own so I have no clue on them neither does my dad or his brother. They never met anyone from their dad's side of the family. So it sucks. Now my mom's family, that tree goes into the early 1300's, and all the way to whatever king of Scotland was great-grandfather..LOL. Ohhh well..may never know.