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Color Pencil 2

During this semester I been trying color pencil, in my opinion is a lot of fun and easy to control, the paper I use is moleskine paper, a similar paper is bristol paper, heavy and very smooth.  I also tried oil on top of color pencil and it works but the problem is that it takes a day or 2 to dry so I have to leave my sketchbook open. Another thing is that color pencil is hard to erase, so I start my sketch with graphite pencil and then once im sure of the proportions and placement I use the color pencil.

Color pencil and Oil painting on Moleskine sketch paper

Color pencil on Moleskine sketch paper

Color Pencil

Here is a sketch on Moleskine sketch notebook. I really enjoy drawing with color pencil because pencil works different from paint, is also faster and easier to handle than other mediums, although Oil painting is my preferred medium I cannot overlook the strengths of color pencil when it comes to sketch. I hope you try it too and let me know your thoughts.

Indirect painting

Last week in my situation and environment class we were surprised by our teacher Tomutsu. He got a model wearing a costume, Richard our model came out as a chef.

During the first hour Tomutsu explained how we would approach this 2 week pose. The approach for the 2 week session was indirect painting.

First we will have to do a sketch, this sketch must be done in order to understand value pattern, one should not rely only on line drawing, also the sketch should not be a "drawing" per se, think about it as a painting in black and white.

Then we had to do an under drawing these steps were crucial for the first session because we had to find the proper cropping and proportion on the canvas. I used charcoal pencil for my under drawing.

Finally we had to paint with one color in order to match the value patter and value range. I should use a white canvas but I didn't have any at that moment.

On the second session Tomutsu explained the color part of indirect painting, he did a demo on how to mix and get different kind of whites. From warm bright whites to cool dark ones.

He also explained that it would be better to start from the background colors.

One important tip he gave me was that because the light was coming from the bottom the shadows will be reversed, that is on the bottom with soft edges and on top with hard edges. ;)

Build your own canvas

This project of building my (your) own canvas started because of the lack of any canvas measuring 16x36 inches.

Building a canvas is a lot of fun if you have the right tools, I recommend to any aspiring painter or artist to try it at least once.

Ok so first what do you need to build a canvas? Here is a list of the essential tools:

- Canvas fabric (you can also use linen)

- Wood bars

- PVA Size (a type of glue to seal the fabric)

- Gesso (an acrylic base paint goes on top of the PVA)

- Heavy duty stapler

Ok so the first thing is cutting your fabric to the right size, my canvas is 16x36 so I left 3 inches of extra room to staple it to the back of the wood bars.

Second is to seal your raw fabric, that is to cover it with PVA, without going into too much details you need to seal the fabric because if you don't then the oil paint will eat up the fabric, so put 2 coats of PVA, always wait until the coat is dry to apply the next coat.

After you are done with the coats of PVA is time to apply the Gesso coats, this coats are necessary to add an extra layer to your raw canvas so the oil paint don't eat up the PVA, also it will make your raw fabric white, I recommend to use white gesso unless you want to use the background.

Next is stretching the canvas into the wood bars. I use pre-cutted wood bars and staple the corners of it then glue them with wood glue for extra reinforcement and got the corners I use masonite corner triangles to keep the wood bars straight.

Now you will need pliers, these are special pliers to stretch the fabric, first star by stapling the canvas into the wood frame in the middle of each wood bar, these will be temporary staples just to hold the fabric for now.

Now star stretching the canvas with the pliers and go from the center to the corners, use the video for reference.

http://youtu.be/nJBgBADmDCo

Finally finish by doing the corners. Here is a video on how to do them.

http://youtu.be/feT8AOAvKTI

Finally sign your canvas...with blood!!

Julia save us

This semester I'm taking a Situation & Environment class, for the first assignment I painted a Knight, I want to thank my friend Julia without her this couldn't be possible.

Here is a breakdown of my painting process.

Thumbnail sketch

Color Study (I don't have a photo of it)

Drawing on canvas (placement & proportions)

Outline drawing (get as accurate as possible)

Painting the values (Burnt Sienna)

Adding Color

Working on rendering and textures

Final Version