Category: exercises

exercises, Project 41 Comment

Part 4, project 4, exercise 1, structure – mouths and eyes

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Again, there’s video help for this.   These are HB pencil, as per the demo but only the top one is from the demo itself, the other was a drawing by the demonstrator briefly presented to show where light falls on lips. Mouths are clam-shaped. These are ‘invented’ mouths using the same principles, this time with pastel and charcoal pencil (top) and HB pencil alone at the bottom. 31st July – may have added this to an earlier post. More invented mouths, one of them with an invented face and nose in slight profile which is not too successful. Charcoal … Continue reading Part 4, project 4, exercise 1, structure – mouths and eyes

exercises, Project 44 Comments

Part 4, project 4, exercise 1 – feet and noses

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Best foot forwards! Both charcoal pencil on gesso-prepped cartridge. I thought having to abandon close vision glasses for this (flicking back and forth between even the short distance foot-to-sketchpad is tricky) might be problematic but actually it seems to lead to looser drawings as there’s no way to get tangled up in detail when you can’t see detail at close range. These sketches are preparatory, non-specific practice pieces not, as far as I see at this stage, a formal exercise. But given my lack of models, I can at least use myself and make a start on various limbs and … Continue reading Part 4, project 4, exercise 1 – feet and noses

exercises, Research & ReflectionLeave a comment

Washes – a video by Liron Yanil

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This was a revelation and really supported the course materials. Details such as the ideal tilt, and brush shape that aren’t covered in the text, and the concept of the bead – that leading edge of dilute medium that sits at the bottom of any horizontal stroke – which I’d never heard of and had no idea of its actual use. Liron is using watercolour but I need to try it with acrylics. My guess is it will dry more quickly but we’ll see.   First attempts, some with stretched paper and some not. These are prussian blue and raw … Continue reading Washes – a video by Liron Yanil

exercisesLeave a comment

Part 1 – another round of washes

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I really didn’t get the hang of this first time round, and I’m not so sure I have this time, but at least after making my colour mixing chart I have grasped the idea of dilution. These aren’t very exciting but they give me a better idea of how washes work. There are some plain single colour washes here, and a blended one. The greys are in preparation for the contrast study in which, last time, I’d struggled with trees.   Continue reading Part 1 – another round of washes

exercises, Research & Reflection3 Comments

Part 2, exercise 3&4 – broken or tertiary colours, research point 1 colour theory

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I needed to get my head round the whole additive and subtractive colour mixing thing before going any further, particularly in relation to complementary colours and why they have the effect they do on each other. It isn’t the first time I’ve been round this block and that’s because the terms themselves seem counter-intuitive. Let’s start with light. Light is, to all intents and purposes, white but it is so because it’s a composite of all the visible frequencies that comprise the whole. As Isaac Newton demonstrated in 1666, it can be broken into its component parts using a prism. … Continue reading Part 2, exercise 3&4 – broken or tertiary colours, research point 1 colour theory

exercisesLeave a comment

Part 2 exercise 2 -primary and secondary colour mixing

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Again, I’ve rather strayed from the plot but not without gaining a bit of valuable experience. This is just one of several sheets, most using the lighter grey background but all both grasping and failing to grasp the purpose of the task. I have three kinds of yellow and two of red. Some of these are student grade (the second and third yellow and the second red – all Royal Langnickel) which means their pigment load is not high, and two are professional grade (first yellow and first red – both Winsor and Newton). The brightest yellow and deepest red … Continue reading Part 2 exercise 2 -primary and secondary colour mixing

exercisesLeave a comment

Part 2 exercise 1 – mixing greys

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I may have missed the point of this, and also got a little carried away! Top left is what I think is the bare bones of the exercise; a progression of mixed paint going from unmixed white to unmixed black. Underneath is a series of mid-grey patches roughly but not completely equivalent in tone aiming to show how much darker they seem towards the left of the line when sitting beneath the lighter patches. Not the best representation. The rest are streaks made by dragging a pebble across two patches of pigment and, at the bottom, more dilute wet-in-wet applications … Continue reading Part 2 exercise 1 – mixing greys