Lakshmi

This is my niece, Lakshmi. She asked me to draw her portrait after I took several of her photos during my last visit to my hometown. I agreed even though I was quite unsure of when I would do one. It has been a while since I painted much less drawing. My mind has been constantly nagging me to pick up a brush but I was so absorbed with cross stitching, my other passion. I managed to finish off a couple of unfinished cross stitched projects.One of them was quite ambitious and before I was done, 6 months passed by. I knew I had to paint next but I drew instead. It has been three years since I did a portrait. I am so relieved that I haven’t lost  touch with my drawing skills.

The portrait has been done entirely using hatching and cross hatching except for the hair. A departure from my usual portrait drawing technique.

Graphite and Charcoal
11″ by 14″ on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Vellum

Here are my completed cross stitches that kept me away from drawing and painting:

Both are designed by Joan Elliott.

Curiosity

While having the starting trouble in adding watercolors to my last drawing, I had the urge to draw more and eventually started on my own portrait, which I have been planning for more than an year to do. I am not really satisfied with the result. I couldn’t correct the pouty expression however I tried. Finally,I put down the pencil after settling with this interpretation.

Sorry for being so quiet in the blogland. Thanks to all those who commented in my last Canna Lily painting.

Curiosity
9 by 12 inches on Canson 111lb drawing paper; in graphite

Portrait # 32

Soni

Sorry to keep you all waiting for a very long time. It has been one of those trying times when you get caught up with the circumstance that catch you unguarded. Since my last post, I have been working on this portrait with such a maddeningly sl-0-o-w pace.  The model is my former classmate and friend. We have known each other for close to 15 years. When he requested me to do a portrait I just could not refuse him. But considering how late I finished it, he must be wondering if I gave him an empty promise.  I am using Bristol surface for the first time to do this portrait. I love this surface for my drawings. I thanks Alexis for her recommendation. As she said, it can withstand a lot of erasing and drawing over.

My scanner/printer is broken, so I had to take the photo of the picture manually. I am not entirely satisfied with the outcome but this is the best I can come with.
9 by 12 inches on Strathmore Bristol smooth surface
Drawn with mechanical pencil and 2B pencil

Portrait # 31

Karin Jurick

Here I am presenting the portrait of the artist Karin Jurick as the first portrait I have done in pastel. I used conté crayons pastel pencils to do this. And my inexperience with the medium shows. I don’t know how else I can improve from this. I did this portrait as a part of  “Thankyou Karin Project” hosted by Jill Polsby. You can see all the 118 portraits that artists have submitted for the project through the Picasa album link  in the Jill’s post. Mine is image number 89.

Portrait # 30

First Pastel Portrait

I did my first pastel portrait! I really like to share it with all of you but unfortunately I cannot put up image of the painting until mid-February at the earliest 😦 . I did the portrait using Conté pastel pencils. Since I am a complete newbie, this is more like a study. I am still learning so the portrait is more painterly than realistic. I did not strive for the exact likeness too. Now moving on with the next painting.

DSFDF Year End Portrait Challenge

I finished painting the portrait of the mystery artist that Ms.Karin Jurick send to me as part of DSFDF year end challenge. I was pretty tensed about painting blond hair because of my lack of experience. However I was relieved to see that it came out okay.

Leslie, finally I used Arches watercolor paper here. The paper behaves so differently from Canson. I am yet to get used to and learn how Arches behaves with watercolors. I feel that it is a good surface for watercolor but I am yet to learn how to dodge the pigment around to get the desired flow.  

Okay back to the subject, I will put up the reference photo with the artist’s permission after I identify the artist in the portrait. So watch this space!

Update (12/28/2009) :
Here is the my reference photo and the artist is Julie Bloch. I believe this portrait is the last painting for the year 2009. I am already working on another painting which you can see next year. Until then, happy holidays!

less than 9 by 12 inches on 140# Arches watercolor paper

Portrait # 29

Improved Version

As per Veda’s and RKV’s suggestion, I made some improvements. What you see is before in the left and after in the right. I think it looks better now. What do you say?

BJ Again

I got a reference photo from BJ with her three-fourth profile. The profile was challenging since this was my first time with such an angle. I recently bought conté crayons sketching set from the local art store. So the colors used were limited to sanguine,sepia, charcoal, 2B graphite and white. I did lots and lots of scrubbing with a paper towel to blend the colors. Tortillons and cotton earbuds are good substitute for blending. The good thing was I could erase the colors with a kneaded erasor but only to a certain extent. So a stain always remained especially in area where the conté crayons were heavily applied.
I think conté crayons is a good transition for me after using graphite for so long. A good transition for me to use colors in portraiture. I want to try out this sketching set before I invest in colored crayon pencils. Now that the holiday season is approaching, there are lots of sales going on in internet art supply stores. There aren’t a lot of tutorials on how to use conté crayons in the blog world or internet. So I am learning on the go. It seems it is not a popular medium and you can see it is mostly used  in mixed media type of arts. Since it is mainly composed of graphite with kaolin clay as binder, there is a lot of hesistation among the artists to put conté crayon pencils under colored pencil category. You can also get conté crayons in stick ; the same as you see in pastel sticks. Since I hate the chalky feeling on my fingers, I opted out of sticks. Oh and another thing, the drawings are easily smudgable. But again, you can erase them off with a kneaded erasor.

BJ Again
9 by 12 inches on 111# Canson Drawing Paper

Portrait # 28

Alene

I have managed to finish a drawing before this month gets over. I can see that I have done only a couple of art projects this month. I guess those miniatures have burned me out. I miss painting in watercolor after this short gap. On a happy note, I have been able to overcome a lot of doubts on how to paint crystals after watching Joyce Faulknor’s DVD that I had borrowed from my local library. She makes it looks so easy and simple. Learning a technique from print is so different from watch-and-learn. I find myself trying things out mostly through watch-and-learn. I think it gives you a lot of confidence when you see others doing it.  Having said that now I can add a  crystals/glass project in my to-paint list.

Alene
9 by 12 inches on heavy-weight drawing paper with graphite and charcoal

Addentum (Nov.5) :

Here is the reference picture:

Alene’s parents took her picture at their standing height which resulted in a skewed image. I opted for a cropped portrait because I thought the full-figure drawing at this angle would be too jarring. The resolution was not so sharp so I had to make do with what I have on hand.

This drawing is gifted to Alene’s parents. Photo courtesy of Mrs.&Mr. Sebastian.

Portrait # 27

Dorothy After William Merritt Chase

Dorothy After William Merritt Chase
Acrylic in 9 by 12 inches acrylic sheet

See the original artwork here