Miletis Ars

[Listing]

More portraits from my charcoal portraiture class - all about 10 min. For the charcoal toned paper my eraser was not working so well. Also, a study from one of Rockwell's better known Post covers, in that same illustrative style as the Manet above.

[SirGreenSock]

Very nice work throughout. Great to see another big Sargent fan.

Really dig your style and approach to your life work, very fresh. Immerse yourself more in it, its still not nearly as confident as your master studies.
Good work with the pen, starting to get some nice play with the hatching. Have you studied any of the classical 19th century pen draughtsmen? Think you wold definitely love the stuff, I recently picked up and immersed myself in an old book called Pen drawing and pen draughtsmen by Joseph Pennell. Looking at the way you approach your work and your love for paintings of the period I think you'd enjoy the work in the book quite a bit. Unfortunately a lot of the work is hard to find online since the most prominent work by the artists mentioned is painting, not drawing.


edit: Here's an example of a pen drawing by Mariano Fortuny

[Strangertome]

Hey hey, you have some of the skills im really looking forward to aquiring, those portraits look great and your lines are top notch, i suppose they could be tighter but thats a matter of opinion. I actually like your enviroment drawings, that kitchen, those peices are great. Unfortunately i cannot add any help with the medium you're using, but I do agree that you will definately need a focal point for your pastels.

[Listing]

SirGreensock - Thanks for the comments. That's true of my life work. My teachers are trying at their limits to break me of it. I'm really responsive to good line and so I'm a great fan of pen accomplishment. I keep Charles Dana Gibson in mind when I work on my value planes in pen. Thanks for posting that pen work, great stuff.

Strangertome - Thank you. I get carried away with lines on my pastels. With that excess out maybe I can focus.

Here are some charcoal figures from life class today. This is part of my teachers' trying to break me. First time with this method. I elongated the legs on the first (15 min) and the second (20 min) has some erring values. Please critique. I have another Rockwell.

[SirGreenSock]

Looks nice, the first study is very sensitive and strong, though the second one gets much messier with all those lines, shouldve kept it more minimal like the preceding study.
Rockwell study looks good, but could be taken further. Keep at it with the hatching, keep the form in mind to get it to read better.

[Listing]

I agree about the life studies. I preferred the first. The first actually came after the second. I think the improvement is owed to the pose and increasing media comfort. True about the Rockwell. Thanks.

[AvatarJimmy]

Some nice life drawing and anatomy studies here. I like the feel of your latest work, but the charcoal line is really heavy handed. Maybe try using vine charcoal for your gesture, then add tone and more finalized lines with compressed. (I am not a big fan of life drawing in charcoal because my lines turn out much the same way ) You're showing a lot of improvement already, so keep at it.

[sleeperservice]

Hey, thanks for the visit- just wanted to see what was on the other side. Great work here...glad you are posting! I'll keep checking back. Where are you studying/working? Love those Sargeant studies and Bridgeman too. I find it hard to understand Bridgeman even after copying his work. Looks like you've really figured something out though.

[Listing]

Response and a Sketch:

AvatarJimmy - Thanks for the notes. True of the charcoal - I should start with vine.

Sleeperservice - Thank you for dropping by. I'm studying at a small college prep art studio in LA. Right now I'm caught up in a summer intensive there. Ammoburger is right around here, too. I prefer Bridgeman because I'm a little wary of anatomist's drawing sensibilities and like how he presents the figure in the abstract and aesthetic (not as a lab specimen).

another Rockwell - a quick little thing

[SirGreenSock]

The face is real beautiful, along with the minimal qualities of the dress. The hand holding the cup gets lost in those forms, consider using line to strenghten that contact.

[Listing]

SirGreensock - Thanks for taking this interest. That's true about the hand. Even though I like that accidental apparent abstraction, mashing the forms, it's not consistent with the rest of the picture.

Here's a pastel. A few fruit studies. The orange is a simple failure.

[Pixeldragoon]

The fact you have a life drawing class and studios close enough to you to work in like that is close enough to being in carver. I work hard, but for the time being, living where I do, there is a small lack of resources... Such as close access to figure drawing, or artists' studios. Hopefully that will change in a few months...

[SirGreenSock]

I dont have much pastel experience (the two of us never got along very well ) but although these look good colour wise they are lacking in modelling. The orange has the best overall modelling, but isnt too strong in itself like you said. Try coming in with the complimentary colour and mixing it with the base colour in the shadows with light hatching to buildup the form further. Also, leaving the paper around the object white flattens the picture, if you were to have a darker setting behind them the white areas would pop more and could be used as strong highlights.

[Listing]

SirGreensock- I see what you're saying. By modelling, you mean rendering in 3D in 2D space, right? In rendering, I'd thought that the apple on the left was most convincing. The orange seems symbolically rendered, with flat, obvious darks and lights. Please explain. Once again, thanks for consistent and strong critique.

Here's some lighter work. The first is a pastel self-portrait. Very little contrast and I need to limit my palette, I know. More of an experiment than anything. Some kitten sketches. I'm sorry that they're so hard to see. A lot of the detail is lost. I think it's the quality of the paper, nonarchival I think. Sleeping cats make good models.

[SirGreenSock]

aww the cats are cute. :3
Self portrait looks pretty good, but even a tiniest bit of contrast would help bring focus to an area and detail. The fact that the hair is dark with browns and blacks makes the face seem unfinished.

SirGreensock- I see what you're saying. By modelling, you mean rendering in 3D in 2D space, right? In rendering, I'd thought that the apple on the left was most convincing. The orange seems symbolically rendered, with flat, obvious darks and lights. Please explain. Once again, thanks for consistent and strong critique.

yeah, by modelling I mean 3d form with shadow and texture. The orange has the strongest shadow, it reads best in 3d, while the apple on the left has great observational detail and texture. The apple reads better as an apple, but the orange reads better as a 3D spherical object. What I'm suggesting is that on the drawings like the apple, mix in a bit of its complimentary colour to darken the shadow (dont use black for shadows!). In painting the general rule is to mix complementary colours for shadows (so if you're painting a red ball, you mix red with a bit of green to make the shadow for the ball), although I dont know how well that works with pastel.

[Shylone_Breath]

really nice for your age ! i like well your copies in charcoal from your first post , your last self portrait is excellent (above all like SirGReenSock said , it seems unfinished ) thx for sharing !

[Listing]

SirGreensock - Got it. Thanks. I should have continued in darkening the portrait. I'll try another within the week and we'll see what I can apply.

Shylone Breath - Thank you. Even though it looks unfinished and it is, it shows one of the well marked deficiencies in my drawing, value confidence. It's a primary working point, now.

[pennington]

well you're on the right track with the value confidence. i never really thought about that before but it's a great idea. thanks for the advice you're quite talented. great work. don't really have anything that could help you. cept keep at it

[Listing]

Pennington - thanks for the visit and comments
I'll probably post more today but here's a charcoal portrait 5-10 min from yesterday



and Older Work:

an anatomy study from Klimt from last summer (I couldn't enlarge it, sorry)



sketch of a skull and my sister at piano and a watercolor all from around New Year's

[SirGreenSock]

Like what you started with that watercolour, you should use the medium more!

Something that stands out to me in your work, and came out real obvious in the last life drawing, is that you seem to spend a bit too much time trying to find the contour and outer edges of the figure, and end up losing or neglecting much of the inner forms. Have you tried working without the contours, simply blocking in the values and modelling from there?

[devil-inside]

I really like the charcoal sketches and the ones using lines only, man. I don't have any crit to give, but I'll be always checking your posts. BTW, Thanks for the visit!

[Listing]

SirGreensock - That's true. It's mostly because I was preoccupied with form from last Fall to this Spring. However, I've been working value recently as you know, with my charcoals, pastels, and in describing value planes with pen. My sketch style has actually been changing to something more painterly and value-mass based. I'll have some of that up soon.

Devil-inside - Thanks for stopping in.

[Listing]

Charcoal gestures from life class. 1 min. each.

[sleeperservice]

one minute? Nice! There's a lot of movement and good understanding of form in these.

[Listing]

Sleeperservice - thank you

More portraits. A series of quick self-portraits in pen (20-30 sec. for the line and 3-5 min for the hatched) and pastel (10-20 min.). None are real likenesses. So, this is a bad crop. Please tear it apart with knowledge. The last is a follow-up to the above self-portrait, I think this one is better modeled but it is less of a likeness (ugly I think, actually). And a Nerdrum in charcoal. I'm really beginning to love pastel regardless.

[SirGreenSock]

sp studies show great improvement in your observation, the modelling is far better (especially in the pastels, youve got a nice hang for the medium!).
Your pen hatching follows the form, so it has a deal of modelling, but you are not building up lights and darks in your hatching very well. Generally the spacing is consistent throughout with little crosshatching, so the value isnt reading. You seem much more daring to go right into it with your charcoal studies (such as the nerdrum), try to keep that flowing into your pen work as well!

[jock13]

i like these never give up
''art is a path be it light or dark not a destination''
me like just now

[smuli]

Nice variation of mediums... I like how you do the hatching and you've got some excellent flowy lines in the life drawings (these too knock my socks off). Your speed deserves a hat raise too... I couldn't do anything in 20-30 seconds.

Keep those coming... Would like to see something from your head too though.

[Listing]

SirGreenSock - duly noted. I've been working on form modeling with my pen work but didn't apply it to any distinct value. Hopefully the following is an improvement. Thank you.

Jock13 and Smuli - thanks for the vote of confidence.

So, everything below was done fairly quickly. I'll note times because quick translation is another big point for me right now. I hope this is improvement.

More pen self-portraits 1-3 min. each.





Nerdrum portraits in pen 3-5 min. each





More pastel - a selfportrait (20-30 min) and plum and 3 peaches- HORRIBLE - I'll call it a color experiment (20-30 min)





My little sister reading in pen (5-8 min)

[Listing]

My dad reading - pen - 10 min
I need to work on clarity