The Mellow Me
 

Don't really know if this qualifies on this site, but I just wanted to share. If Cynthia doesn't approve she may take it down. But this is a drawing with my pens I decided to do. About 25 minutes worth on 6" x 8" drawing paper. It has been a while since I have used pens. Let me know what you think.

Well it would be nice for at least any comment at all. Whether constructive, if you like it, dislike it. Anything would be nice at this point. The silence I get from everyone makes me feel unwelcomed on everything I have posted on here. At max I have received two comments and most of them by Steve. This isn't me begging for everyone to comment just something to help my improve myself or my confidence.

It would just be nice to have a little interest in my art. So if you don't mind, please comment.

Hey Chase,

I know it's frustrating to post something and get no or little feedback -- It's happened to me before and it's incredible how deafening the silence is. May I suggest hunting out a few names of people you would like an opinion from, and literally sending them an private email asking them to give their feedback on the thread.

Anyway, my comment would be that what you did here is excellent, and frankly I wouldn't change anything. It's certainly out of the "traditional" genre, but it's emotional and visually well balanced I like how you reserved the use of color to the person, and I like how you defined the abstract shape as a door just with the knob detail.

Just a thought -- I think you should frame this, and may I suggest an ample mat around it, in a mid value that doesn't group with either the black or the white, and make the color of it an in-your-face red, which will play up the emotion of the piece, and visually tie with the red pen accent.

Hope this is helpful.
P.S. Nice web site!

I like it also Chase. I didn't have anything else to add - I find it interesting.

Don't be offended - you'll find there are less replies in the 'other medium' sections. Nothing is meant personally.

I think the reason there haven't been many comments on this very bold and dramatic piece is that is so different from the traditional portraiture that is usually posted here and the kind of work that most of us do.

Many artists, myself included, might feel unqualified to comment on a piece that is such a radical departure from what we usually look at.

Interesting..
 

Hi Mitchell,
I am very much impressed with the style..it's difficult to bring out light-shadow effect with pen work...somehow, light/shadow theme seems very attractive to me. So as soon as I clicked on this link I could not resist scrolling down the screen and getting complete view of the picture. It's very impressive with details which explains the person is in deep thought!
Good work.
All the best.
Meera Bakshi

Thank you thank you thank you.

I can not stress enough how much it meant to me that you all took the time to comment. And it boggled me to know that you liked it. I have been experimenting with these little sketches and have taken up a series of them. So far I have 4 completed and literally working on the 5th one right now.

If you are interested in seeing more I will be glad to post them.
Once again, thanks everyone for your kind comments.

Sure, would like to see them. Keep up the efforts.
Meera Bakshi

This is just another of the series. Finished it today but added blue instead of the red.

Very nice. The challenge in this type of work is, you don't have a second chance! you cannot use eraser!! In this picture also the eyes, nostrils eyebrows are done with accuracy and the souce of light is on the desk or on the lower level, I should say, is depicted very:thumbsup: well.

Good one.
Meera Bakshi

Thanks for posting more in the series. May I say I think the first one is more of a success than the second. If I had to pinpoint why my first impression would be that the second is overworked as compared to the first - on the first you knew when to stop, and the negative space really works in your favor. On the second one, it seem there's too much information.

Also, On the first I think the play of straight line and hard value is balanced with the right amount of soft edges and gradated textures. In the second there's less of that dynamic going on.

hope this is good food for thought.

Personally, I find the use of color in these drawings distracting. I prefer them in black and white. The usage of red in the first one isn't connected to something it might express. Now it's purely an aesthetic effect, which gives the original compositions (which I like) an almost kitschy effect.

Maybe you could use these kind of compositions in a more subtle way using a wider range of Gray tones, but that's just a suggestion.

Have you ever considered painting? I have a feeling that you would be good with oil paint. Try painting on linen.

In all honesty... I am a horrible painter. I have no sense of brush control and I have no ability to underpaint or think in layers. I'm someone who puts down the final layer from the start. I know I need to break out of that habit but it's hard.

Chase,

I like both of your drawings. There is a lot of tension in them. The first seems quite haunting and has a nice composition.

As for painting... there is no sin in painting ala prima - or something close to it. I know many people here like to use under-paintings and they produce phenomenal work, but that is not the only way to paint. Look at Daniel E. Greene, John Singer Sargent, David Leffel and John Howard Sanden. No under-painting there. So, don't be afraid to put down what you have to say, right when you want to say it!

Sargent worked his portrait paintings up in layers, as did the majority of painters through the ages. The paintings that he is best known for are not alla prima paintings., in fact his portraits are as far away from alla prima as they could be. His grand portraits, such as Lady Agnew, are far more impressive than the alla prima studies he did of friends and family.

There are a wide range of underpainting techniques and approaches. Some painters do very controlled underpaintings using grays and then carefully glaze over them. Although this method is what most people think of when they think underpainting, it's far from the only approach utilizing underpainting strategies.

Sargent started by laying in color very broadly and refined the shapes and colors on each subsequent layer. Yes, each layer was painted wet into wet, but over over a dry underlayer. Sargent was of documented by his subjects for subjecting them to numerous sittings; in one case as many as 80 sittings. Sargent worked very very hard to make it look like he didn't work hard at all.

Painting alla prima style (in one shot) offers a certain spontanious charm and energy, but just because some artists do alla prima demos (what else can they do in two hours?) doesn't mean they paint this way all the time. There is a big difference between the demos and finished work of the artists you've cited.

Painters like Bouguereau and Gerome started out with carefully delineated inked drawings which they proceeded to wash over with thin loosely placed color. This would be scumbled over and refined as the painting progressed. The very finished look they achieved bore little resemblance to the way things looked at the start.

I teach my students to start with a transparent underpainting, build it up opaquely and further develop it through scumbling. I have added a recent example of this on my website, if you're interested. http://www.fineartportrait.com/workshop_demo_2.html

When it comes to complex compositions, working without an underpainting is an approach that's dicey at best. Painters throughout history, such as Rembrandt, Van Dyke, Rubins, Lawrence and Raeburn have been well aware of this.

Below is a portrait that Sargent had begun of Edward Wertheimer, who died (unfortunately for him but happily for us) before his painting was completed. It offers us great insight into both Sargent's layering approach and thinking.

Marvin,

Not meaning to start an under-painting versus ala prima argument - when I spoke of under-painting I should have been more specific to say using a grisaile, or verdaccio, type underpainting. I don't use either of those methods, although, I have been tempted to try to learn them, nor do I paint in a strict ala prima. I generally build dark to lights, thin to thick using a combination of scumbling, glazing and just plain laying on of paint. I'm still learning, so I use whatever works and make discoveries along the way.

When the original poster spoke of working in layers, I immediately thought of the verdaccio and glazing method, whether that is what he meant, or not, and I simply was trying to encourage him to paint.

Thanks for the unfinished Sargent painting! I haven't seen it before and it's quite inspirational - as is all of his work.

The point I wanted to make was that here are many approaches to underpainting, including the method you yourself employ.

Point well received! :-)

Thanks for the encouragement. I guess the main thing with me is that I've worked with pencils and pens so much that I'm so used to "what's down, is down... no turning back now." So I think opaque from the start. Another big factor is that I'm poor and can't afford canvases and paints. So $1 pencils and $2 pens are my budget.