Back to Basics

I went to the Burlington Fine Arts Association meeting last night and Brian Smith came to do a demo.  He is a practicing fine artist focusing on classical drawing and painting from the figure and he is brilliant.  He created this portrait from a sitting model (his son) in about an hour and a half while explaining each step of the process. Click on the image to check out Brian's site.

I learned a lot from the demo and I was reminded of the importance of having good drawing skills and how little drawing I have been doing since switching to oils. I have been painting a lot but always with the intention of creating a finished painting.  I need to play and practice more.

I decided that I would start sketching instead of painting during the Wednesday morning BFAA sketching group studio sessions.  This is today's attempt.  Brian talked about pushing and pulling where you use a mid toned paper and use a dark pastel to push shapes back and a white pastel to pull shapes forward.   He used burnt sienna and white soft pastel pencils which I don't have so I used graphite and a white pastel stick.  It is also drawn on very cheap newsprint with a fold in the middle. This is far from perfect because her facial features are all too large but I am happy with it and I had fun drawing it.

I am looking forward to the next session.