Pastel Art

[noludoru]

I suck at pastels, but it's getting better.


IMG_5954 by noludoru, on Flickr

Jennifer Garner - drawn for an assignment

[Sweet72947]

I think its pretty cool.

Although, admittedly, the hair on the left doesn't look right.

But the rest of it is good. Much better than I can do.

[smkie]

Not an easy angle for a portrait and the fact that your photo is not straight on skews the perspective. A really really good attempt. There is nothing harder to figure out than skin tones and that is why so many artists avoid it like the plague. Keep at it, you obviously have some feel for pastels or you would not have been able to make this.
When painting I had read that red violet was the secret ingredient for puffling life into the skin, hard to find but well worth the search. I used it on my assignement. I don't know what answer that is for pastels. You also want to add a little blue or such into your shadows for your skin. It takes such a minute miniscule, partical, dram, speck of it, but it is necessary. Not grey. A guy painted my portrait in our Illustration class at the tute and he used some grey and was chewed out royally.

If your going to pursue this, the library should have some good books to help you along the way. Ours has the watercolor bible, the Glaze Bible..and so on. All are priceless in the secrets they contain.

[noludoru]

The shadows are all in sky blue and grey shades, smkie. It doesn't translate through the camera, though.

I'll see about a book for it - I have a giant set of pastels and I may as well use them, U suppose. Thanks so much.

Cristy - her hair goes out a smidge too far, but it was actually like that in the picture (kind of blown out and curled) so I went with it. I'm more disappointed that I still can't do proportions in a face. LOL.

[smkie]

A really really good exercise to help you get all the minute shifts in line is to draw the face all in planes. Starting with your own. Put your finger on your forehead to find the first plane, and work your way down. My work significanty jumped after doing this first with a cat, and then myself. It's hard, and there is a tone of erasing, but if you do it right, it will all come together in a surprising way. AFter that you won't just see the line of the mouth, you will feel the shape of the muscles and your lines will be more accurate.

[Laurelin]

Really nice! Pastels and I do not get along at all. I got some thinking they'd be like charcoal but in color.... nope. I cannot for the life of me get them to do what I want them to! So I have a lot of admiration for anyone that can make pastels work. Not the medium for me lol.