Pastels, watercolour pencils, charcoal and pencil art

[lark_ascends]

I've only really started 'learning' to draw in the last few years (mostly off rather than on) but I'm hoping now to keep it up.

Iris.



Pencil:











First play with charcoal pencils:




My attempts with watercolour pencils:






My early attempts with the pastels:



Gum Trees


Tiger



My later attempts with pastels:









If anybody has any interest, I post my art at skylark_art as I do it.

Comments

[shinywen]

Very nice! =)

[lark_ascends]

Thank you!

[randombees]

Hey, these are a nice starting point. Are they from life or photographs?

[lark_ascends]

Thank you!

Photographs.

[blackmare]

I think my favorite of these is the black and white cat with its dramatic lighting. Those eyes are beautiful!

Pastel has a really steep learning curve. I went to a workshop to get some real instruction because I was so lost with it.

[lark_ascends]

Thank you! That cat was the first time where I kinda went 'wow, maybe I can actually do this...'

Yeah, I've definitely seen the learning curve with pastels. Still figuring it out!

[blackmare]

I can tell you've been trying out various kinds of paper, and from the texture of it I'm guessing you've done a few of these on Canson Mi-Teintes (or however the heck they spell that name). I occasionally use that paper, but I use the "wrong" side, the one that's a lot smoother. The heavily textured side bugs me. The texture is just too obnoxiously obvious in the drawing. :-/

You seem to have come to the same conclusion, because I can tell with the cats that you're using something else. You've got a much nicer surface to work on.

[lark_ascends]

Yep, I had thought about using the 'smoother' side of that paper, because the texture does bug the heck out of me! Although, I had been told that that sort of texture allows the pastel to stick to it more. Not worth it, as far as I'm concerned!

Most of the others I've done on more 'standard' paper that I've bought from an art shop (which also has a benefit of being cheaper and larger sized). It has very little texture. The water colour paper is more textured, but it's not enough to be annoying. ;-)

[blackmare]

Yeah, I know the theory about that textured paper having better tooth for pastel. However, I learned a different solution, which is this. Purchase:

Heavy Bristol paper (this comes in pads or as loose sheets in most art supply stores, and the pads are fairly inexpensive)

Acrylic matte medium. It's in with the acrylic painting supplies.

Pumice sand. I was given a jar of it by the teacher of the workshop I took, but I've also seen it for sale, and a little goes a long way.


Mix matte medium with some pumice powder, not too much, say perhaps a teaspoon of pumice to a half-cup of matte medium. More if you want a heavier sandpaper texture. If desired, add a few drops of acrylic paint to tint it however you want.

Paint this mixture onto Bristol paper with a large brush. I love hardware-store "chip brushes" for this, the really CHEAP kind. If you want brush-strokes in your texture, leave it; if you don't, you can smooth the surface by stroking a rag lightly over it when it's partly dry. Which, this being acrylic, will be in about one minute.

The surface this makes is awesome for pastels or charcoal, and if you tint it it's even better IMO. And it comes out to be much cheaper than buying ready-made pastel paper.

Also, if you leave the brush strokes you get some really cool effects when you draw over that. :-)

[lark_ascends]

THANK YOU. I will be keeping this for reference, for when I get some time.