For the last couple of days, I've been doing some practice work based on a sketch/study by Dante Gabriel Rossetti of his muse that he did for one of his paintings. The first two images below were the result.
The darker one was done with a black Stabilo Aquarellable pencil and then activated with water. The pencil was difficult to work with, and I wasn't able to get the detail I wanted. That effort, I consider to have been unsuccessful while it informed me that I don't like that pencil to work with -- at least not right now. The second one with the watercolor framing the face was done with a combination of two mechanical pencils (one with HB and the other with 2B lead). This was a bit better, but in both images I couldn't get the 'Rossetti style' mouth/lips right.
My effort in the bottom photo was based on the actual painting Rossetti did -- that his study had been for. How did I figure that out? Because as I started drawing her from the painting, I recognized I had drawn her in a similar position earlier. The face position has been tilted somewhat in the painting so less of it is visible compared with the study. For this third effort, the mouth/lips are beginning to look closer to his muse's appearance. I'm still working on filling it in with color (excluding the face and neck/back) and will post it when done.
Tonight's post is intended to show that a sketch may not work the first time, the second time, or maybe several times. But it is the continued effort that helps one to 'see' more in the reference image and capture more of it on our paper or canvas. Rossetti's muse had a particular look, and as you can see -- I've been able to come closer to that look after having done multiple drawings. None of these is a perfect imitation. That said, each however is my version of what I was able to see and draw at the moment they were created and with the tools I was using.
For fun, I've drawn one of my own photos (yes, I was dressed in a clown outfit) and added a wild and crazy background to accompany it for today's practice effort. As part of sketching the piece, it was split into four sections with two opposing diagonal lines. In terms of color choices, I've worked with color gradations for some shape sections. Can you believe, there are five major shapes in this effort? There really are -- circles, squares, trapezoids, triangles and spirals. I think the substrate is Biengfang Watercolor Paper (140 lb.). The materials used were Ohuhu markers, Micron 01 pigment ink pen, some red Stickles glitter glue for the nose, and a white Posca pen (for white dots on the face and to highlight eyes) and a yellow one (for yellow dots in the center of the flowers on the hat). There was no intention in working on this piece other than to have fun...and based on how it looks, I'd say well done!. One thing I learned is that blending with the Ohuhus i
Comments
Post a Comment