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Drawing People Sketchbook Pages

What I should have done first

Value study of M.

Pentel GFKP Pocket Brush Pen and Pentel #101 Brush Pen in Raffine 6×9″ Sketchbook
(To enlarge click image, select “All Sizes”)

More about the drawing in a minute, but first…

Tonight my painting group met to celebrate Susie’s birthday at Saul’s Jewish Deli in Berkeley. It was pretty funny that all five of us ordered exactly the same thing and thoroughly enjoyed it: grilled trout, veges and a big crispy potato latke with applesauce. Then we talked about getting older, aging parents, Susie’s adventures last week going to see the aging Rolling Stones, the pros and cons of dementia, and of course, art.

There’s a wonderful used bookstore, Black Oak Books, next door to the restaurant so after chocolate birthday cake, complete with candle, singing waiters and applauding restaurant patrons, we went to the bookstore where I was excited to find a book on Janet Fish. Her watercolors and oils of glass and other transparent objects have always been a huge inspiration to me. I bought that one and put an amazing book on Viennese Watercolors of the 19th century on hold until I can bring in a couple boxes of books I’m ready to part with in trade.

Now back to the drawing/painting:

Before I started the oil painting yesterday I should have taken some time to do thumbnail sketches to develop the composition, done a value study, and some drawings to become more familiar with the structure and characteristics of the face and torso. In watercolor it’s pretty important to do this first. But I was so antsy to get my brush in the slippery oil paint that I just went for it. Now while I’m waiting for the paint to dry I’ll work backwards, doing the preliminary sketches.

I thoroughly enjoyed doing this drawing with the very sensual and expressive Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (waterproof ink) and the Pentel Brush Pen (not waterproof). I added a little water with a regular brush to get a light ink wash for the gray areas from the non-waterproof ink that I’d applied.

Meanwhile I’m reading lots of library books on oil painting to refresh my feeble memory in oil painting technique. What’s interesting is that there seems to be about 26 watercolor how-to books published for every 1 oil painting book and most of the oil painting books were published a long time ago. There isn’t even an “oil painting” category in the library’s card catalogue (but there is for watercolor and acrylic painting). Is it because oils simply don’t require so many technical skills? Or are watercolor painters a better market, more likely to buy books?

12 replies on “What I should have done first”

I hadnt been here for a couple of days and I come back to two portraits 😀 wow! this one is truly fabulous. Glad to have been of help. I’ve made some corrections tonight but nothing much to show as yet. Did do a pencil trying to figure out where I was going wrong.

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Hi Jana, it all sounds like so much fun. Can I come and visit? This is a great sketch, the personality really shows, and I love your lantern paintings. I’m interested to see where you’ll go with oil painting.

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I think it’s because there are lots of amateur painters who want to try watercolors and those books are largely aimed at that audience. Oils are extremely challenging in a different way and require more space, more ventilation, and perhaps a firmer art background than is necessary to create something pleasant with watercolors. Painting rigorously with watercolors is supremely challenging, of course, but that’s a different story! I empathise so much with your feeling clumsy with oils now, but you’ll regain your fluency sooner than you think!

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1) Love the wc of humble kiwi. Lovely composition too!
2) I JUST GOT MY OWN LAMI SAFARI and noodlers ink. (golden brown ink) I love love love it. I adore dip pen but feel whiney about taking along all the fuss outside. This pen really writes!
3) Have to try eating kiwi with a spoon.
You are just full of inspiration and useful bits of info today!!

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Thanks for the support everyone. Laura, I think you’re right about the reasons. I also think watercolor has so many more techniques to learn compared to oil. I’ve been reading through lots of library books, trying to recollect what I knew and they all say the same things. There’s a standard set of techniques and skills to learn. With watercolor the techniques and skills are just endless (which is why I love it!).

I’ve been thinking about how with oils, because they’re so forgiving (just wipe out or paint over) it’s easier to get a decent painting of something, but to me, much less interesting than a decent watercolor unless it’s a really great painting. I’m finding it hard to explain, but I guess it’s the mediocre factor–a watercolor can be appealing, even if it’s not great, but for an oil painting to interest me, it really has to have something special about it. It has to speak to me and have something special to say or it just doesn’t interest me the way most watercolor does. So I raise the bar even higher, take a breath and jump in (mixed metaphor, I know).

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