Myo K

its a pastel drawing i had to do for my drawing class, the assignment required us to draw a picture that consisted of 2/3rds warm colors and 1/3rd cool colors.

ill be turning it in tommorow sicne ive never used pastel until just a few days ago, mainly with this project,

the image consists of 3 images of the same drawing at different steps.

the final example will be the version im turning in tommorow, im kinda nervous about it

any input possibly comments or constructive criticsm would be apprciated, and if there are other fellow artist here id love to see some work of others

i chose this subject because hes currently a pop icon at the moment, so i thought he'd be a good subject to draw.

Khoa Tran

very nice, is that al pacino?

Myo K

yes! yay someone guessed it, its actually scar face, sorry for the bad pictures, i had to use my webcam :/

David Williams

Myo, I like it!

It's hard to tell from the images, but the 2nd, warmer, picture looks more 'Pacino-ish' than the final product, but regardless, they definitely say 'Al Pacino'. I think you got the balance of the requirements just about right (maybe a smidge more warm, but it's hard to tell).

"Only two things are infinite––the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe." ––Albert Einstein

Jason_Els

This is the first time you've used pastels?? Wow!

Such a difficult medium and you've used it very well. Congratulations!

For beauty is only a step removed from a burning terror we barely sustain, and we worship it for the graceful sublimity with which it disdains to consume us. - Rainer Maria Rilke

My DVD Collection

Myo K

your not kidding. i hate pastel, i cant get any detail from it, and i had multiple fits of frustration, i would think i got the colors down perfectly and the flesh tones nice a lively. Then i spray the fixatif on it for preservation and the entire drawing turns redish brown. i had to recolor and respray multiple times before i figured out the frustrating learning curve.

i hate this medium. lol

Jason_Els

Don't despair! Pastels are a lush medium with incomparable texture and an ability to convey perspective better than oil. The quality of the color is luminous and pastels convey light better than anything.

Mastery is very difficult but the rewards are very high. If you need inspiration take a look at the work of Degas or Renoir done in pastels. It's a medium, once dismissed as an affectation of the old world artists, that's gaining in popularity and appreciation. My suggestion is to play with the reglettes and just use them in any which way to get a feel for them. Try drawing in different manners with them and smear them around. Use brushes, sponges, and tissues to test the different effects. Just look at the colors and try to apprehend their depth and quality. With familiarity you will gain confidence and skill.

Fixatives are a problem no matter what you do. Only thing you can do is to plan by making a test sheet with smears of all the different regelettes and then spray each sheet with the fixative to see what the resultant color change is. Use that as your key in future work. Try different fixatives. Some artists find cheap, sticky hairspray suits them just fine (don't use the ones with oil in them). In each case of course, make a test sheet.

Good luck and I hope you will continue with pastels. A very old friend of my father's is an artist who has just, at age 78, started working in pastels. Already his technique is impressive but he's used watercolor extensively in the past. What's interesting is that he says using pastels have taught him how to be a better painter in oils and watercolors!

For beauty is only a step removed from a burning terror we barely sustain, and we worship it for the graceful sublimity with which it disdains to consume us. - Rainer Maria Rilke

My DVD Collection