Pastel Drawings

Hey everyone!

Well, I'm sorry I kind of dropped off the face of the earth on here for so long...I have lots of work that I've meaning to post for a long time and I just haven't gotten around to it. This semester has proven to be a very difficult one so far for a variety of reasons which I won't go into on here, but suffice it to say, I've been pretty worn out from school and life in general lately. However, that's no excuse for not posting, and I will endeavor to do much better in the future!!!

These are two pastel drawings which I actually did last semester. The first is one of the final projects that I had to do for Scott Noel's Life Drawing class and the second is a two week drawing that I did in that same class. Pastel has really become one of my favorite media to work in; I'm able to work much more freely with pastel than with other drawing media...I also particularly enjoyed getting to work in color pastel on both of these two projects. Unfortunately, the resolution of the photographs here really isn't too great which I appologise for, but hopefully you get the idea.




Anyway, I have alot of other pretty major projects going which I will try to take pictures of and post about on here as soon as possible!!! Till next time!

More of Those Darn Pastel Studies

I have been doing more research on pastels and working on my technique. In the future, I hope to clog up the blog with more of these studies. It is amazing how valuable these little studies are in the lessons that they offer.

My friend Deb, just introduced me to a wonderful sanded pastel paper called Art Spectrum Colourfix Coated Pastel Paper. It holds much more pastel than the Canson Mi-Teintes paper that I was using.

In the two versions of my red pepper (one on Art Spectrum Colourfix Coated Pastel Paper and the other on Canson Mi-Teintes paper), you can see the differences between the working surfaces. Although it may not be apparent in my low quality photos, the color of the Art Spectrum Board is richer and the texture is less obtrusive.


Pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes paper


Pastel on Art Spectrum Colourfix Coated Pastel Paper

Still Life, Figure Paintings and Pastel Drawings

WOOOOO!!!! Its that time again. Here I have some drawings and paintings done throughout the week including some previous work done this year.

Here are some thumbnails done in still life class. I think I like the composition of these, but I plan on doing a 3-4 week painting so I will be attempting the entire still life. For being small quick studies I am impressed with way they turned out.

This is my most recent painting done in Pyform's life painting class. After my class had a long discussion about wanting to paint a clothed model, our teacher brought one in. This study was quite difficult due to the dark, baggy shirt he was wearing. Also I had to break out some colors I do not have on my palette normally. I also decided to challenge myself and not use any black since I have a tendency to over use it.

This figure painting was a one week study using a wipe out technique. I had a bit of trouble with the left leg, which was never fully resolved. I am happy with how the values turned out.

This was done in my materials and technique class. The medium is egg tempera on rag board.
I had a lot of fun with this piece, but I do not think I would per fer this medium over oil any day.

Here we have another figure painting done in one session. Our model decided not to show up and out teacher, Pyform, posed for us. The drawing is not as far I would have liked it to be but, I am pleased with the color and value control. Which from my understanding is the goal of her class.

This is the first drawing I have posted from Scott Noel's life drawing class due to the quality of the work. Even though this drawing is still poor quality, its better than most of the others.
Every time I throw another layer of pastel, the drawing get muddy. Which from my understanding is a paper issue. I hope to try out the reeves bfk to see if that improves this issue.
Here we have another wipe out done of the human figure. The torso turned out to be very flat due to the lack of dark and shadows. Overall, I am not to happy with how this painting came out. The values are off, the drawing is poor, and the composition is bad. I hope the next session will help.

Here is the 2nd session of my still life. The metal tea/coffee thing ended up getting wiped off due to EVERYTHING going wrong with it. I wish I had more time to work on it now that I know what was wrong with it.

Going Slowly

I do not really have have much work to show this week. Despite the fact that I am working non stop, nothing seems to be getting done.

This painting was completed in Al Gury's portrait class. I have been trying to let my brush strokes show, which for me is a very difficult and uncomfortable task. The urge to over blend and over model a form is very strong.

As I am learning more and more about my artistic preferences, I find that I am drawn to paintings where one color family dominates. In this painting for example, I like the pink on pink color combination.

Portraits, Still Lifes, and live figures Oh My!!!

Once again folks its time to post what I have been up to during my semester. Here are several studies I have been working on throughout the past two weeks.


This is a color/value study of a nude figure done in Jill's Basic Color class. This is clearly not one of my best paintings, but I feel one can learn just as much from a bad painting then good one. Using only a palette knife, the objective was to establish the correct pigments on the figure and cloth using only a prismatic palette and a palette knife.

This is a single session wipe out done in my still life class. Theres not to much to say for it at this stage. I think the values still need some work as well as the construction of the form, but overall I feel this is a good start and im looking foward to fixing my mistakes next class.

This is my most recent figure painting, done in Jill's Basic Color class. This pose will be lasting for three weeks. Todays goal was to construct the form, decide our composition, and establish the background, which was resolved, but this photo was taken before I finished for the day. I am happy to see some strong figuritive anatomy in this under painting. Next week I will focus on tweeking my proportions and throwing down some values into the painting.

This is a single session painting done in Pyform's Life Painting class. This particualr study lacks in some proportion which can be seen in the feet, arms, and torso, but overall her motion is captured and most of the values were pretty close to what they were.

This is another single session wipe out done in my Still Life class. I feel some of the forms have trouble sitting on top of one another, but that seems to be due to some poor perspective choices. These will be fixed once I begin adding more paint to the surface.

And last but not least. This is a portrait done and the most recent Dirty Palette Club meeting. I struggled hard with this painting, mostly due to the surface rejecting my paint most of the time. All in all I like the final effect. Its not really how I would normally go about a painting, but
I like it none the less.

Ecorche and an Oil Painting Portrait

Aaaaaand the beat goes on. Here we go with more cell phone pics. I'm sorry but the fact is I never remember the damn camera. If I do wait until I remember the camera it takes me two weeks to put a post up.


The setup for this portrait was troublesome for me because it was such strong artificial lighting and a boldly contrasting costume. Without getting too deep into apologizing for the picture quality I would like to state that this photo does NOT depict the parts of the painting I am unhappy with. Somehow this feels patchy and disjointed to me. I am also struggling to maintain the purity of color in this that I would like. It began as a pickout, followed with direct color application. I intend to experiment this semester with a process far more dependant on the underpainting....but, I'll explain that if I ever get around to it.


I LOVE Ecorche. This class is so entirely laid-back while still remaining intensely informative. You just let that flow wash over you and push along. I wish I could accurately describe the environment in one of John Horn's classes... that's gonna have to do.

*Added more crappy cell phone pics*

Jan Baltzell

Here is a 2 week charcoal drawing, 22x30, that was done for Jan Baltzell's Thursday morning drawing class. The pose was quite a challenge; she requested that the model alternate sitting on two chairs on opposite sides of the table, every 10 minutes. So the model's right arm is shown twice in my drawing. We did this type of one model/alternating pose the first 2 weeks as well. This exercise really helps to hone our sense of spacial relationships, the way we deal with memory, and deciding what is necessary for the completion or success of a drawing. Jan Baltzell is an excellent professor who encourages and helps us to explore what we are most interested in terms of drawing or what makes us tick, whether that be an interest in line, atmosphere, texture, etc. She emphasizes what she calls "passages" within our drawings, pushing us to create pockets and inlets and outlets through which the eye can travel.

Next week she is taking the whole class to Philly's famous Reading Terminal Market (famous for its Amish pies and donuts, cheesesteaks, produce, and everything else you could ever want to eat) to do some sketching, I suppose for a larger drawing. It's going to be something else to try to pin down a composition in all of that commotion. Perhaps I'll go for Duchamp's futurist Nude Descending the Staircase approach and attempt to depict all of the hustle and bustle at once.

The above charcoal was done on Rives BFK paper, which is pure heaven. During my year at the Maryland Institute College of Art, it was the only paper I would work on. It holds the charcoal like no other and feels like velvet to the touch. I've come back to working on it now, because even at 5 or 6 dollars a sheet, Rives makes all the difference.