Itsy Bitsy - The Blog place: Sketching

Showing posts with label Sketching. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Oil and Chalk Pastels on paper - Part 2

Hello again! This week I will be continuing my post on using pastels on paper.
Chalk pastels are the simplest form of soft pastels that contain more pigment and less binding material ( like oil in oil pastels).Hence giving out brighter colours as compared to oil pastels.

Chalk pastels,as they are very dry and chalky, tend to leave behind a great amount of dust after writing just like how the blackboard chalks do. So having them in the form of a pencil not only makes our lives easier, it can also be used for sketching the fine details which is very hard to do with pastel sticks. However, it is still a colored chalk and one must be careful not to rub off the sketch while resting the palm on the paper.

I’m using the Montmarte black paper sketching pad , the paper quality is exceptional for all types of sketching and Montmarte AUTUMN pastel pencils for my sketch. This pack mainly consists of great autumn shades i.e. tones of orange, red, green and blue. I have chosen to sketch a kingfisher bird to show that you can sketch anything with the autumn pack pencils and not just landscapes!

I have started off with a basic sketch using a graphite pencil. The autumn pack contains two great shades of blue and green, which I have mixed to get the below shade of the bird. Chalk pastels are very easy to blend, either by hand, a neutral colour or blending stumps .White pastel can be used to modify the shade to a lighter tone.

I have also started the sketch from the top of the page, so I can avoid resting my hand and smudging the surface.

The chalk pastels leave behind dust on the paper, so always blow the dust off instead of using a paper towel or your hand. You may also have to reuse the color several times to achieve a dark and bright shade.Since I have used pastel pencils, I'm able to bring out the details of the feathers of the bird and the fish its holding.

The completed sketch is as below. I have added some green shading, so the background isn't jet black anymore:

Chalk pastels are very hard to preserve unless they are protected with a glass frame or have a protective coating on the surface. Make sure to spray the picture with a fixative. But due to the chalk property of the pastels, its better to be cautious, as fixatives may impact the color or texture of the sketch.

Pastels are a great way to start, so grab your set and start sketching!

Let me know what you think of my tutorial in the comments below..

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Oil and Chalk pastels on paper - Part 1

Hello Everyone, This is Pooja here and I am back with my third art tutorial for Itsy Bitsy! This time I will be talking about using soft oil pastels and chalk pastels on paper. I will use both black and white paper to show the effect of both media.

Part- 1 : Oil pastels on white paper:

Oil pastels are usually buttery and contain more oil content, so they can be blended more easily either by hand or with a neutral colour pastel. Oil pastels work great on good textured paper, for a smoother blending effect we can use our normal sketching paper which is less textured. I have used MontMarte A3 size sketch book and MontMarte Oil Pastels. Since oil pastels work differently than paints, it is important to start with a good quality pastel that works and blends smoothly.

There are many techniques to use oil pastels. In today's sketch, I am going to use a technique called Layering, where you gradually build up the layers of pastels to achieve the colour and depth you want in your sketch.

I have sketched a scene of a small café in Europe, using a graphite pencil. Once the initial sketch was ready, I started with the basic shades in the picture. In this case, I start with pink/peach for the walls and tables, grey and black for the door, floor and parts of the background.

Its necessary to start with the basic shades as we can blend in more colours to produce gradients and we can also use contrast shades to highlight. You can either blend with your fingers or use blending stumps. I have used blue to highlight the chairs & tables and light/dark shades of green for the bushes and yellow for the flooring and door. (It is important to wipe your fingers and the pastel sticks in between so you do not end up transferring one colour to another)

Make sure not to use too many shades in the same area, as the colours stop blending at one point after which the pastels start to stick . So plan for the shade you require and work towards achieving it with less than 3 colours.

You can notice the shadow of the window grill on the wall and shades of yellow on the right part of the sketch which indicates that the light source is on the left top corner. Paying attention to light sources and their effects on the object can bring about a great difference on how the finished sketch looks.

The final part of the sketch is the flooring. I have used shades of yellow to show the light on the ground and the shadowed areas are dark brown. The blue highlights are used to break the monotony of browns on the tiles.

After the major areas are completed and blended, I have outlined the details of wine glasses & plates on the tables. The completed sketch is as below.

Since oil pastels are of oil medium, the sketches don't stick to other surfaces and hence don't need to be sprayed with a fixative. Though you could spray fix it if you like.

Oil pastels can also be used for 'Underpainting' of water colours or for making patterns by scraping into built layers with a sharp tool, a technique called 'Sgraffito'. Another great way of blending oil pastels is by using a solvent medium like turpentine or linseed oil just like an oil painting. But this requires a oil sketching paper to hold the oil content.

Do let me know what you think in the comments below!

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

COLOURED CHARCOAL ON BLACK PAPER

Hello everyone! Its Pooja again. Last week I did a step by step on how to use conventional charcoal on white paper. Today I am doing a tutorial on how to draw with coloured charcoal on black paper.

Using Black paper for charcoal sketches works exactly the opposite way as that of working with white paper. We usually sketch the dark areas and then erase off the highlights while drawing on white paper. But with black, we usually draw the highlights and let the dark background work its magic.

The basic charcoal pencil used for drawing on black paper is white charcoal pencil. I'm using Mont Marte White charcoal pencils- Set of 3 ( soft,medium,hard).

Other than the basic white pencils, coloured charcoal can also be used.
For landscapes/flowers/fruits/birds/animals the usual colours set can be used. But usually for portraits, colours like sanguine, sepia, ochre etc. are used for bringing out subtle skin tones.

For my sample drawing below, I have used :

Mont Marte A4 size black sketchbook
Mont Marte coloured charcoal pencils for portraits
Mont Marte Black eraser
Blending stump
Fixative spray

Step 1 : Firstly, complete the basic sketch using a normal graphite pencil (HB). Im using a graphite pencil instead of white because in case you make any mistakes, it can be easily erased.

Step 2: Once you are happy with what you have sketched, start using the coloured charcoal pencils. I have started with the face, using white and ochre colours. Based on the light and shadows, make sure to use white for the lighted spots and ochre for the shadows. In a few places, I have also used sepia for darker spots. Make sure to use blending stumps to blend the colours softly.

Step 3: Next we move on to the hair. Again I have used the white and ochre for the few strands of hair exposed to light and also for the jewel on the hair. Even though the background is black, I have used black pencil to highlight the hair strands with bold strokes. Next move on the flowers on the hair, for this I have used ochre and highlighted with white in a few areas.

Step 4: Next step is the ear , neck and the jewellery for which I have used white and ochre and also black in between to bring out the highlights .

Step 5: To complete the sketch, draw bold strokes of white and ochre at the edges of the page and also give a minute outline with black to fine tune the edges.

So there you have it!! Do let me know what you think in the comments below.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Learn to draw with Charcoal

Hi Everyone. I am Pooja Amit

. Today I am going to show you how I draw with charcoal! But before I begin, here is a little something about me.

I am an Engineer by profession but an artist at heart!

My interest in art comes because of my mother, Mrs. Nalini Shankar. She's an artist and I have spent all my childhood looking at her teach children how to draw & paint. Although I have no formal education in art, her lessons were more than enough to pull me into this field. Another great inspiration for me was my visit to the Louvre museum while I was studying in Paris.
I also take orders for paintings and run an online art gallery featuring my works.

When Itsy Bitsy approached me to do a series of tutorials on how to use different drawing and painting mediums, I was very excited. They do carry a wide range of art supplies. Today I am going to show you how to use draw with Charcoal. Charcoal is usually burnt organic material like wood. Typically it is used on paper to bring out a more dramatic effect as compared to the graphite pencils. This is achieved due to the dark black shades brought out by using charcoal.

Charcoal for art usage is available in the market in different forms- Compressed charcoal like pencils, softer charcoal called vine charcoal sticks ,uncompressed form like stumping powder and pigmented charcoal(white and other colours).

Below I have listed the materials I have used in my project –

Paper – I have used the MontMarte A3 size sketchbook suitable for pencil/charcoal sketches. Its important to use a soft textured paper because if the paper is too smooth, the charcoal wont stick and if the paper is too textured, you have a hard time bringing out the details.
Vine charcoal – This is uncompressed charcoal in the form of sticks. Also called Willow charcoal. I’m using these sticks instead of charcoal stumping powder.
Charcoal pencils – This is compressed charcoal in the form of a pencil. It comes in soft, medium and hard densities. Soft pencils give darker gradations whereas hard ones give lighter gradations.
Kneadable/Hard Erasers – Kneadable erasers are soft, pliable erasers that can be squeezed to any shape to erase off tricky areas. Harder erasers are good for erasing off charcoal while revealing highlights.
Blending Stumps – Used for blending smaller detailed areas. This comes in different sizes, so choose the appropriate one based on the blending area.
Paper Towel/ Tissue paper – for blending larger areas
Fixative spray (optional)-Spray fix helps to protect a drawing once it's finished by preventing smearing. It "fixes" or sets the media onto the paper.

To begin with, sketch the outline of your picture using a graphite HB pencil. Make sure the sketch is light and do not apply more pressure on the surface , because charcoal doesn’t stick on the pencil outlines. I have sketched a heritage sculpture of Lord Buddha, you can choose any picture in black’n’ white for your initial sketches, as the shades are clearly defined.

Once you are happy with your sketch, start with using vine charcoal to smudge over the surface, use it over and over again if you want a darker shade. Use a cotton swab or a paper napkin to smudge larger surfaces. Make sure to keep a paper under your palm to avoid rubbing off the charcoal.

After you have completed the shading of the face, for very dark and smooth gradation, use the blending sticks. Scrape off the vine charcoal to use the powder , roll the stick on the powder and then use it on the paper as shown in the image. The advantage of using the stick is the clear definition that can be achieved.

After the basic shading of the picture, to highlight the dark areas, use the charcoal pencils. In the sample pic, I have used the pencils to emphasize the facial features and hair.

To complete the sketch, use the vine charcoal sticks to smudge and prepare your background to a light/dark grey based on the picture you are drawing. Darken the background areas where the light is more on the face and keep the background light where the face is dark. This kind of contrast makes the completed sketch more visually appealing.

Before the background

Completed sketch

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