Would love to see you all there on opening night of the new 'Spoons' exhibition.
If you cannot make the opening, the show will run until 24 July so please drop in anytime.
You can also preview the works on the Tacit website HERE.
AND, one more thing, I will be available for a Meet and Greet session on Sunday, 18 July, 2021; 2 - 4pm. Hope to have the chance to catch up with you all.
Hello again! I had a very pleasant surprise a couple of weeks ago when Keith from Tacit Galleries called and offered to exhibit my 'Spoons' drawings. Of course I said yes! And as several from the first showing have been sold I have been very busy drawing new works for this exhibition to fill the gaps.
I hope you can come visit this exhibition of Spoons '2.0', and I would enjoy seeing you on opening night, Wednesday, July 7 at 6.30pm. See you there!
Thank you TR for sending me your great pastel canine work of your dog Bailey, the Irish Setter. TR has told me that Bailey's coloration is the original IR colors of red and white and is now rarely seen. He is a very sweet pooch!
TR has done an excellent job with the proportions and features. The eyes are very soulful and expressive, and the nose is perfect. I like how TR has used complimentary cool colors in the red fur and carried that blue into the whiter fur shadows. I would suggest also building up the background to a darker hue, maybe adding more of that same blue and some mid grey tones. A darker background would make the white fur stand out better. The top of the head should possibly be a bit taller and pointier - and could possibly be amended by working the background darker - but its not a big issue.
Lovely work TR - thanks for sharing!
GW has sent me her drawing of 'Chops' the beagle that she has been working on during Thursday afternoon classes. Chops has a strong graphic feel to it. Instead of trying to create photographic realism in the fur she has been clever with her use of tonal ranges creating blocks of linear tones to indicate dark and lighter fur. I think this works very well and has a good effect. GW has handled the proportions well, paying especial attention to getting the size of the feet correct and accurate drawing of the claws. Chops has a pinkish nose from memory and this translates well in the mid tone range. The nose is slightly lopsided, but Chops is in a pose that would smoosh the nose sideways so I think it works.
I would like to see some indication of the body of the dog on the right hand side of the work. It does not need to be realized fur, I think GW could use simple line outline to indicate the form. GW has done this already with the right side of the nose and this could be continued in the body form to complete the shapes. See my mock below GW's drawing for my suggestion.
Overall a very pleasing drawing of a soulful looking beagle. Well done GW.
Hope to see all you Monday-Nighters next week! And make up classes will be on June 29 and July 5. Face masks will be mandatory. We will resume working on your canine portraits in pastel pencils.... unless you have finished your work over the lock-down. If you have completed something over the break, please bring it into class for discussion and critique. Those who have finished the pastel work have the opportunity now to do another canine drawing in your choice of medium, or return to your unfinished graphite canine and complete it.
KMD has worked on her drawing over the period and has created a work in her distinctive style. She has used pastel pencils as well as a few soft Rembrandt's. There is a bit of shadow on the work cast by her phone which makes it difficult for me to tell where her light source is, I am assuming from the top right. I know I am always banging on about eyes not to have pointy ends, but they really seem to work in KMD's drawing - the eyes have real life and personality. I would have avoided black outlines around the teeth myself and used a softer grey - but they are effective! The body and collar are flat and KMD should work to build up more shadow tones on the left side. Maybe include some more of the oranges and dark blues in those shadows.
This dog has a lot of character and is a fun drawing.
Well it appears our Kingston Council has decided to err on the side of caution and have shut up the building until Term 3. 😥 Sad, but that is no reason not to keep up with your drawings!
Thursday nighters... come on! Do some work and send it to me!
Like the Thursday nooners have been doing:
Oh! This is nicely done SB! Really good proportions and attention to detail. Well formed and accurate nose. Eye well observed and drawn. Indy was a dark coated dog from memory and you have tried to indicate this and mostly succeeded. I know it is your first time drawing fur and I think you have done quite well, paying close attention to the direction and how the fur falls over the body. As you develop your technique you will begin to refine this and learn how to layer the strokes so the don't fill up the area too much - very sharp pencils and a smoother paper can help with this. How you have done the fur around the nose area is very, very good. As you progressed over the head area it seems to fill in a bit and you lose some detail - I can tell you had difficulty understanding the interior of the ear somewhat. But overall you have done very well and you should be really pleased and proud of this work SB.
'Cookie' by Em: WIP
Another fine work in progress by EM. Don't overwork it EM! It is pretty close to finished here. Drawing white hair on white paper is really tricky but your are working well with it. Your overall shapes and anatomy look good. The nose is well done and accurate. You could benefit from from soft shadow areas on one side of the face as I cannot really tell where the light source is coming from so Cookie's face is a bit flat. Try using a soft, blunted F pencil and add shading and tone over the linework. Then, freshen up the linework over the top of this area with a very sharp 2H and HB pencil. Work softly and slowly to build it up further - stop before you think you are done and consider the progress.
Keep going, it's looking great!
Thank you to the three artists who have sent me their Pastel Pencil Canines!
'Monty' by C
This is the first time 'C' has used pastel pencils - at first she says she found it very annoying and different to use, but she has persevered to create this nice drawing of the dog Monty. She has used Canson MiTiens and various pastel pencils with some additions of charcoal.
The head shape is very good - maybe C could have tilted Monty's head back a bit more but she has captured the inquisitive pose well. I like the way the background color of the paper is used to create the darker shadow areas of the curling fur. Maybe a big of French Grey or Sepia or Light Umber could have also been used as a first layer to really get darker shadows like on C's reference. But as a novice to this medium and the first time using it I think C has created a very creditable drawing of Monty.
And well done for persevering with this C, I know it was very new territory for you. And I hope you enjoy trying the medium out on that Art Spectrum sanded paper. I think you will find it more enjoyable to work with and very forgiving.
Red Fox by K
'K' has drawn for us a Red Fox. K has used pastel pencils before and this is very evident in the beautifully rendered eye of her fox. She handles the pencils confidently and understands how they work. The fur coat is thick and rich with color - it looks soft and furry.
Some aspects of the head structure need to be considered. I couldn't find your image online, but have pulled a comp grab from Dreamstime Stock images to explain. First, the mouth, note how the line of the mouth is not straight line but has a flattened 's' shape? As well, see how that mouth corner lines up with the outer edge of the eye? The shape of the head should be long and narrow. I don't have K's reference, but I think that she has made the top of the head too bulbous and it sticks up too much. And the end of the nose is more of a wedge shape than pointy.
But, not to get too nit-picky, K, your fox is very 'foxy'!
Like K, J has had a bit of experience with pastel pencils. You can see this by the way she layers her pencil colors, working through the darks and building up to the lights. She is also not afraid to add warm red/violets and cool blues to enhance the grey tones of the wolf. She is still working on it and the right hand side is as yet unfinished. If J keeps working on that side in the same way as the left she will end up with a very good result.
Her nose and eyes are well done. The nose has just the right amount of soft highlights on it to create a leathery texture. The eyes are also nicely rendered.
One thing that concerns me is that I feel that either her nose is too long, or the eyes too close together. Face forward is always a difficult angle to draw a canine and there is nothing J can do about the proportions now. The nose also seems to have a slight bend to the left to it, but that can be fixed once she completes the right hand side and can fill out the whites to fix this. I have cut out a section of your drawing J to show you what it would look like if you had taken out a bit of the nose length.
Again, it is a good drawing and thank you for showing to me.
