Cast Drawings and Paintings

A couple of weeks ago Elsie went on a head hunt and came back with two plaster cast heads…

Casts are a wonderful tool for drawing the human form and practicing the essential principles of shading and tonal value. It is a practice that has been used to teach drawing and painting since the 19th century, which focuses on mastering realism.

Drawing from the cast enables beginners to analyse shape and proportion, and to render the effects of light and shade without the complication of colour. It encourages a methodical approach from the start, and remains the best way to learn the ‘language’ of seeing.

Have problems mixing flesh tones?

Besides art websites, there are an assortment of blogs out there on the world wide web written by artists themselves. The following is just one example:

“When I first began painting, I asked everyone I could harass what was their “secret formula” for painting flesh.  (A college professor had told me I had horrible color sense because I used brown in the painting of a costume, and my fragile ego had me very uncertain about color for years).  One artist told me he used nothing but cadmium scarlet, cadmium green, and white.  Another, mars orange, Winsor orange, sap green, dioxazine purple, and titanium white (I used this for a while, over a burnt sienna underpainting-  I sometimes got good results, and other times it looked like “TheLand of the Sherbert People”).  A different artist recommended cadmium orange, titanium white, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, and ultramarine blue.  I never liked any of the results I achieved, so I stuck to the basic yellow, blue, red recipe, and fiddled with the hues now and then.”…

Binoculars?

Art as a spectator sport….

Check out this video for a little drawing inspiration!

Getting Inspired

Ok people…if you want to be any good at art, you have to put the ego away and be prepared to learn a little something. Chances are you don’t know as much as you think you do and somebody else probably knows more or has done something you never thought to try. Taking advice, trying new techniques, finding inspiration in somebody else’s brush strokes are all part of the process…it is not copying, it is learning. If you have only ever painted with a certain kind of brush, try another one. You can’t know your style if you have never actually tried anything else – your style doesn’t exist yet – you’re just being stubborn. I know because I am guilty of the same thing.