Four more great drawings!
MP
Let's start with MP's wonderful Prismacolour pencil drawing of her grandson Nicholas. This is done on A4 Artspectrum 300gsm Hot Press paper. MP has handled her pencils well, the layering and build up of the skin tone has nicely blendend hues and works very well. She has added just a touch of 2B graphite to add tone here and there as required but has not overdone it. All the shapes of the features are quite good. The mouth is nicely done - drawing teeth can be tricky but MP has used just the right amount of colour and shadow without making them look gray. The hair works, again good build up of different colours with the dark lines creating the shadows of the lighter hair. A touch clumpy in a few places but still quite well done and effective. The eyes individually are well done with just a hint of a sparkle and mischief to them.
The only real issue I have with drawing is the placement of the right eye. It is slightly too high - I have done a clip below showing where I think it should have been placed. Don't try to alter the drawing now MP, but remember for next time you do a portrait. In every other way this is a delightful portrait.
'Nicholas' by MP
Eye position correction
Jean
Jean has drawn a beach scene showing the simple pleasures of childhood, children building sandcastles. She has used Prismacolour pencils on Strathmore Tan Toned paper 180gsm. It is a brightly coloured and cheerful work and demonstrates Jeans style of drawing very well. Her loose and sketchy pencil strokes create shapes allowing the eye and brain to imagine the detail. Jean's style of drawing is very impressionistic, allowing the colors to build and make forms. I find it very effective. Jean tells me that she struggled to create skin tones and gave up on this drawing. Firstly, I don't think she 'gave up', but rather stopped at the right time. It can be easy too overwork Prismacolours. Secondly, not much skin tone was needed, the colour of the paper is enough - only the shadows and highlights of the skin should be drawn on this paper. Don't give up Jean! Try a few little trial sketches of skin on another piece of paper and experiment with how this could work.
'At Barwon Heads' by Jean
Monika
When Monkia was a child, her parents would read to her every night and when she saw this statuette in Japan it reminded her of her parents and the nightly ritual. She has drawn this in her visual diary (cartridge) using USA General pencils in HB & 2B. Sometimes General's have a problem with rough, scratchy bits in the core, but they are a lovely soft core pencil that gives a good, densely toned line. They are an excellent choice for drawing on a rougher cartridge paper - choose the best media for your surface! Monika has demonstrated this well in this drawing. Her linework and shading create an effective rendering of the statue. As her subject is black and it would have been tempting to 'fill in' a lot of the area but Monika has been restrained and concentrated on the highlight areas and deepest darks. This works very well and the drawing 'reads' as black to me. The style of linework is quite illustrative in technique and is very effective. What I really love about this drawing is that Monika has expressed her feeling and emotion of the figurine - she hasn't tried for a photographic copy, but has created an artistic interpertation of the subject which is endearing. Well done Monika!
'Reading' by Monika
MEG
This is 'Dogger', MEG's grandchildren's favourite toy. MEG has used soft pastel on Mi-Tientes black pastel paper for this work. She has used the pastel effectively to create a soft and fluffy impression of the pull toy. The face with it's black button eyes is engaging. MEG has cleverly allowed the black of the support paper to show where shadows and darker areas were needed. I would have liked to have seen a few more base colours under the light fur, pehaps some red ochres or violets and then topped over the golden brown with some of the brighter creamy yellow used in the string. Maybe some of that cream under the whites too. However, MEG has told me that she has been very busy this week and only was able to sit down to draw after 10pm last night for a few minutes before bedtime. So I think this is a little winner done with a limited palette of colours in a short time frame. It also demonstrates that we can ALWAYS find time for a little bit of art! Thank you MEG!
'Dogger' by MEG
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