Charcoal Portrait Class

I think that charcoal is nice to work with in the way that you can move it around and change it easily so in that way it is similar to oils. We had a model named Craig and we also had a female model. I don't often get the chance to have a man sit for me so I chose the man. Rick Casali, our teacher, walked us through the process. We are half way through and he has asked the same models to come back next Monday so that we can finish them. I had just started working on the shading so it will be good to have Craig sit for us again.

Getting the Basics!

I am studying in Annapolis. Being basically self taught, I feel that I have a lot of gaps in my art education. I decided to fill them in! Here are a few examples of what my studies look like.

This block study is from drawing class. My teacher, Andree Tullier is great at teaching the tools needed to draw freehand. We measure angles and distances with a straight thin stick or paintbrush handle. With these blocks we also studied tones using a six tone scale that we placed on the edge of our drawings.

In figure drawing, we are learning to look "inside" the body for the rib cage and pelvis. We try to find the "long lines" and we observe the slant of the shoulders, mid-section and hips. We learn to look at the flow of the human body because it truly is amazing the way the muscles flow together.

In Pastel Portraiture we are learning about the planes of the head and how to describe these in pastel. This class is very difficult for me because I have very little experience with pastels. They are very messy and wonderful in the way that their colors just jump out. I think once I learn how to handle the medium, I will love creating pastel portraits. This portrait is about half way done. I hope that the model can sit for me again.