An Attempt with Oil Pastels, Sorolla, and Charcoal Dust
This week began with the luxury of having two models in “Drawing a Head”, and the session started off with a quick succession of sketches (5 mins each). It was an incredibly small amount of time to actually get much detail in, so I stuck to loose, quick mark-making:
Quick Morning Sketches, Pencil on Paper
For a while now I’ve been pondering on the use of pastels as they’ve been suggested to me by both tutors and my fellow peers (both on and offline). Tutor Ishbel Myerscough generously brought materials in for us to use so with no excuses left, I picked up a load of oil pastels and got to work on a longer sitting:
Oil Pastel on Paper, Longer Sitting
I’ll be honest and say I think this drawing is rather foul, so I apologize to those who thought I might hit it off with oil pastels. The difficulty I find with pastels is the fact that I just cannot control colour in a subtle manner whatsoever. I don’t think that a pure use of oil pastels is the right direction for me, but I could see myself using them in combination with other mediums. I ended up ordering some oil sticks from Cass Art to combine with oil paint so we’ll see how that goes once they arrive.
Two Sitters, Gouache on Paper
For the afternoon I surrendered to my gouache paints and Ishbel agreed that gouache worked a lot better than the pastels. She also explained to me the unfortunate reality that the more expensive pastels you buy, the better the colour sits (sorry but Winsor and Newton already have all my money haha).
Returning to The Master of Light
Those who know me know I’m a hardcore fan of Joaquin Sorolla, so when his painting “The Drunkard” showed up on our study list for this week at the National Gallery I jumped on it.
Study of The Drunkard, Pencil on Paper
I know this isn’t really an iconic piece of Sorrolla’s, he’s more known for his stunning paintings of the Spanish beaches, loose sailing boats and dynamic figures in elegant dress, but it’s always a joy to get a close look at his masterful expressive brushwork that creates such convincing paintings. I also happened to be sitting alongside 5 of my classmates who also took interest in the painting, and we ended up drawing a lot of attention to a work that is probably overshadowed by its Monet and Renoir neighbours.
The Toilet of Venus, Detail Study
In the afternoon, a hidden National Gallery witch cast a spell of drowsiness on my poor soul so the momentum of the morning slowed down dramatically. For those who have been following this blog for a while, mirrors, portals, entrances, exits etc. are elements I like to study and bring up in my own work so I studied a section of Velasquez's "Toilet of Venus" in my sketchbook. As I slowly built up the rather ambiguous image, I overheard that apparently the painting had been previously slashed 5 times and what we’re looking at now is a flawless restoration.
Drawing a Story?
Due to different circumstances this week, “Drawing a Story” was not so focused on drawing imagery from any sort of text and actually none whatsoever throughout our morning session. I was a bit disappointed because I felt that the morning ended up as a simple life drawing lesson, and throughout the afternoon we also didn’t have a model to work from. I was grateful for the National Geographic references I had brought alongside some artist works such as the charcoal drawings of William Kentridge.
Charcoal on Paper
After disposing a horrific start to the afternoon, I ended up with this drawing at the end of the day. Overall I don’t think the composition works very well, it started off in a landscape format but I tore it down to a portrait format because it looked odd. There are elements of the drawing that I do enjoy though, such as the texture I managed to create in the mountains by grinding charcoal down with some sandpaper, and also the sharp contrast in the hats worn by the figures.
