Tag: conte

art courseLeave a comment

Drawings of several faces & a cat

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

After finishing with the hot whales, I realised I’d been asked to revisit line drawings of faces from an earlier part of the Drawing1 OCA module and so I recruited some suitable internet models and bashed out a few interpretive copies in conte crayon on A1 flipchart paper. Cheap as chips. This first one took just five minutes and probably met the brief somewhat, whereas the later ones took rather longer, having not met it at all. There is at least some line visible in this one.   This rather gentle old chap I managed to turn into a Burglar … Continue reading Drawings of several faces & a cat

Research & Reflection1 Comment

Atelier drawings, portrait 2 -Los Infantes II

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The original by Irvin Rodriguez (2016) is in ink on Hahnemuhle Copperplate paper, mine is in pencil and conte on the page in the book and I really struggled with this. The angle of the head, the ‘baby’ features (mine looks a little older, less chubby) and the expression. Every correction brought another problem and eventually I came close to running out of road trying to erase where there was little leeway to do so. What I’ve learned though is that despite all these difficulties and a few oddities of proportion, if the original were not to hand – and … Continue reading Atelier drawings, portrait 2 -Los Infantes II

Research & Reflection1 Comment

Atelier drawings – portrait 1, ‘Jamaal’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This felt very much like jumping in at the deep end despite completing the run-up exercises. I find blocking-in quite tricky with the examples hard to transfer to new material; too many lines seem to scramble my brain and I lose the ends of them and their position in space. Maybe practice will improve that but for now I have used some of the guiding instructions alongside my own more intuitive grasp of shape and position. The result is a portrait of a passable woman who should actually be a young man. In my defence, the small drawing above mine, … Continue reading Atelier drawings – portrait 1, ‘Jamaal’

Coursework, exercises, Part 3Leave a comment

Part 3 project 5 exercise 3 – limited palette townscape

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Oh dear! Well, I haven’t got the perspective much (any) better but I’ve achieved a limited palette drawing of the townscape I struggled with in the previous exercise. This version at least delivered a bit of texture from the application of conte over dried watercolour pencil and I like that.   I strongly suspect that, if I set this aside and then drew it from memory, the perspective issue would resolve itself because it would be a processed and simplified image. Challenge? Well I said it so I’d better deliver! 3rd May – I’ve done my thing with a monochrome … Continue reading Part 3 project 5 exercise 3 – limited palette townscape

Coursework, Part 3, sketchbook2 Comments

Part 3 project 5 exercise 1 townscape

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’m using my own photos for these as standing still or sitting in unsuitable seating is problematic due to a back injury, and keeping hold of items such as drawing implements and sketchbook tricky due to Dupuytren’s contractures in both hands. I also need glasses to see the page and sunglasses in bright light which is an incompatible combination. These are largely inconveniences most of the time but, in these circumstances, comprise an impediment to on-the-hoof sketching. Luckily, I often take photos and I have quite a few suitable ones. This first sketch though, is from a paused dashcam video … Continue reading Part 3 project 5 exercise 1 townscape

art course, work in progressLeave a comment

Follow that painting, day last

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I may have killed it. On the other hand, it may have more life in it than before I decided on a background to make it ‘pop’ then began fiddling around with the figurative elements. This was yesterday, a fairly ordinary portrait with not much to recommend it. And here’s today’s version which, to my surprise, looks better on-screen than out there on the easel. There’s more gouache (also some white watercolour because I ran out of white gouache), oil crayon, conte and charcoal, a calligraphy pen for scratching out top layers to reveal lower ones, some paper towel dabbing, … Continue reading Follow that painting, day last