Tibetan lady finished and a pastel painting

The pencil drawing of the Tibetan lady is finished. I decided to leave the lower part of the drawing unfinished. I like the effect of doing that. I am quite pleased with it and really enjoyed doing it. So much so, that I have started on another drawing of hands with prayer beads. Have not got very far with it but have posted a picture of it anyway.

Tibetan Lady. Graphite

Hands and Beads. Graphite

I did another workshop with Penny last Thursday and decided to use pastels. About 3 years ago (I am ashamed to admit) I promised a friend a watercolour of the Old Harry Rocks, Dorset. And a promise it has so far remained despite constant badgering and reminders from friends! I did make a start about 6 months ago and came across that start a couple of weeks ago. Having just purchased and excellent book by Bill Creevy on pastel painting and bought a selection of pastels I thought perhaps I could “finish” the watercolour with pastels. Below is the result. I am not totally happy with it but as I have not done much pastel work I guess it is not too bad. I did not really enjoy working on the rough watercolour paper with the pastels so plan to do another “Old Harry” using pastel paper, probably Fisher 400 as I have done some practice work on that and liked the effect.  Watch this space

Old Harry Rocks. Pastel over watercolour

New work

Some while ago I cam across this photo on the internet and something about it grabbed me and told me that I should recreate it as a pencil drawing.

That was about 6 months ago. I have now started work on it and the results are show below. It is about A4 size and is quite a challenge, not least the hair and wrinkles….but the satisfaction of working on it and seeing it come alive on the page.

 

I find working with pencil, especially with graphite where you are just concerned with tones, extremely satisfying and relaxing. I guess it requires a degree of patience, gradually building up the tones but, equally, because it requires a degree of concentration, it puts all other concerns from your mind, albeit temporarily. And sometimes that is all you need to refresh your mind.

I will publish updates on my progress as and when.

My latest work of art!!

I attended one of Penny Wilton's excellent workshops last Thursday. This one was held at Holt Village Hall, a venue Penny uses regularly and is a very good venue....a large hall, plenty of tables and chairs and a nice kitchen. It is also rather nice for painting outdoors should you wish and the weather is appropriate.

I had no idea what I was going to do at this particular workshop so I put some brushes, canvases and acrylics in my bag. At the last moment I picked up a book I had recently purchases about still life and decided perhaps that would be what I would do. I had also grabbed a handful of pictures which I had recently printed hoping for inspiration. En route to Holt I decided to do a still life based on some pictures taken at Hampton Court of Tudor goblets, plates and boxes.

Unfortunately, when I unpacked my bag, I discovered none of those pictures were in the handful I had brought....in fact none of the photos were remotely what you could call "still life." Fortunately, Penny had brought some of her objet d'art and some fruit plus a cloth so I was able to arrange them and use them.

This is the result. It was an attempt to paint in the style of Paul Cezanne who I greatly admire. I was moderately pleased with it although I think I may do a bit more work on it. Incidentally, I used a linen canvas rather than the usual cotton and found it very pleasant to use. I shall certainly use line canvases again. The figure is supposed to be a cat although looking at it it resembles a pig...a long skinny pig, if such a creature exists. Maybe I had better to a bit more work on it.