Portrait time! Yay!Work in Progress, of course! It will be 14" x 20" when I am finished, so larger than life. I just love her olive skin tones and large eyes. Her eyes remind me of that famous fresco in Pompeii.
For those new readers, I do most of my portraits using Polychromos pencils on Fisher 400 paper. I use a linear stroke and interweave the colors which creates kind of an impressionistic feel, and then sometimes I blend out that stroke, and sometimes I don't. I haven't decided yet if I will on this one or not. I'm using a lot of green in the skin tones: grren gold, chromium green opaque, and chrome oxide green. The green really helps tone down the pinky colors of the flesh toned pencils.
how do you draw it out
ReplyDeleteanonymous - I do a line drawing, I'm not sure what you mean?
ReplyDeleteNicole, this is amazing... I cannot take my eyes of it!
ReplyDeleteNever even imagined,that in skin colours on could use GREEN, thank you for sharing your knowledge and secrets,and,most of all,thank you for sharing your works - they all are spectacular!!!
Stunning so far!
ReplyDeleteThis is just beautiful. I love the skin and eye colors, too, and thanks for sharing another wip.
ReplyDeletewow, you're right! her eyes look just like the famous pompei mural! Lovely! Oh and I used my Caran d' Ache pencils yesterday and it was much better. The colours look amazingly rich on the gritty paper. I'd just like to say thank you for your blog it really inspires me, it's the first thing I look at when I get to work in the morning!
ReplyDeleteTHANKS elina111 Yep, green lots of green in skintones, but is is also the compliment of reds, so a great tool for knocking them back.
ReplyDeleteThanks PAULA! Great to see you!
Thanks Deb!!
Golden Frog, Kim right? Thanks so much for your comment, I appreciate it and am glad you like to visit this blog!
I am still hoping you will write that book on portraits!!!!!! But until you do, your blog is absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing your technique and your palette with the rest of us! I never cease to be amazed at your talent and skill!
ReplyDeleteThanks again!
Jane
Hi Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI just found my way here via Deb's blog - I'm glad I found you.
I'm about to embark on drawing some people in coloured pencil )it's just been fur and feathers and scales til now!)
I've only ever drawn people in pastels, but I remember using a lot of green - it's amazing the difference it makes isn't it?
I'm not sure how I'll go with pencil though. I'm going to do a lot of practise first! But I just had to stop by and say that I love your work, and I'll certainly be back! I'm always happy to find another coloured pencil fan :)
Beautiful, Nicole...love your portraits as well as your stillifes!
ReplyDeleteI finally found a supplier (on line) of the Fisher pastel paper you use! I have Wallis as of now and will try some polychomo pencils. If you don't use your "index finger" to blend, how do you normally blend? This includes the stillife work also. Thanks so much for your WIF's.
Debbie