Le pastel de Carla, je trouvais que son visage n’était pas tout-à-fait réussi, et tant qu’à faire aussi bien travailler tout le reste…
I wasn’t happy with her face rendering on the last session, so I decided to try to get it the way I want it, not sure it is quite there, but not far, and since I was working on her face, may as well work on the whole thing….
437-29 Carla Brown, pastel, 25,5×19,5 po/in (65×50 cm); 2014-08-17
I love it… I saw your comment and might add that the left arm where it meets the dress, the dark line is a little too long in the shadow area. Looking at the picture it seems very slight but in the your rendition it seems to narrow the shoulder and arm making them out of kilter. As for the face the only thing I noticed is the nose – at least in this version for the web (since I do not have access to original) seems to splice into the left side (her facing side to us) without a distinct line. It may be the white is too prominent? Not sure on that. Otherwise looking at the mouth region I see that you’ve closed the dark areas off, rather than revealing a little blackness at the extremity within the left and right area where it connects to the lip. Otherwise I think you’ve done a superb job here. Takes a lot of effort working with pastel. I do water color, but my sister works with pastel/acrylic and loves it. I think its my big hands… cumbersome and I press down to hard on the chalk. 🙂
Thanks! you did make a good analysis there, I’ve been struggling on this one with all the points you did mention, I am to the point now, do I try to correct, it can improve or sometimes I can loose something trying to correct it, or just leave it alone and pass to the next one…I don’t back off easily, so I will probably risk it…:)
I find details in pastel hard to achieve, I will often use conté and square pastel, they are harder but can refine details, but not that easy, for me at least,
I am impressed by watercolor painters, I tried it a few time, but I found I have much difficulties controlling it, but I like the way the paint flows and behave, anyhow thanks for the fine remarks you made, I will look into it the next time I work on it, so I guess I won’t leave it alone…:)
I think the mouth I’d leave alone since it could bleed into teeth or lips to correct, but the shoulder area could be fixed easily, since it is a flat surface and doesn’t connect to any details that might be affected otherwise.
Hope that helps… yes, I love working the water colors, preparing the paper, sitting in zazen meditating, the with a clear mind approaching the blankness and letting he brush weave its magic. Its like a flow and jazz to me. Of course I will at times use colored pencils to add certain highlights to give distinction and measure. Sometimes abstract at others figural paintings, depending on mood… like my poetry it’s a sort of daily ritual. 🙂
Yes I just went to look to your site, you are a talented poet, are the watercolors shown with your poems are yours, I saw some really nice works there. I like to switch to different medium, oil, pastel, and sometimes watercolor, gouache and different drawing mediums; but writing is something I found so hard, I can write descriptive storys for my photos, less for my paintings, and oddly poetry or any kind of artistic writing is not something I can do, I probably could try of course but not sure it would work out, maybe I should give it a try sometimes, need more time…:)
No. I need to afford a digital machine to do that though. Being on a tight budget, retired, not much in social security and having used up a lot of my savings for personal reasons I’m hoping to add the ability to do that and have voice on the system some time soon. Would be nice!
Hope you do find a way, it is always a struggle, money vs what we need to pursue our art, recently things have been better, found a good job, but it is taking more time and leaving less for painting, always a question of balance, and of course it goes, more than often, not always though, from one side to the other….well follow each other works, look to read and see more of your fine works!
Same here. I understand as well. I seem to go in cycles between art forms. Right now has been a big surge in writing poetry, at others I go into essays and short stories. Been working on a crime novel or noir fiction as well set in my Southern worlds between Texas and Louisiana.
The water colors seem more of a weekly affair for certain days. Clear the mind of distractions, empty out my thoughts and let the canvas sing its own tunes. 🙂
ce que j’aime bien quand tu fais des pastels, c’est que la peinture va suivre 🙂
dans un an ou deux ou mois selon le rythme de travail….