I didn't find much info about oil sticks, but I did uncover an intriguing book about portraiture, _Portraits from Life in 29 Steps_ by John Howard Sanden. Sanden is"...one of a dozen or so (of America's) portrait kingpins..." as Sanden's website quotes from Forbes magazine, and commands 50,000 dollars minimum per portrait! (Oh, how I wish I'd have been able to have gone in that career direction when younger!) But I'm not going to let that discourage me now, as I work in my spare time to learn art.

Sanden gives advice in this book, to get the 'map' first, as you "establish size and placement" and "landmarks". He says of the three properties of color, hue, value and intensity, value ("the lightness or darkness of a color") is most important. We might foul a hue or intensity, but if the value is correct, the forms will still be apparent.

So I gave this a couple of tests, a brief one last night, and a forty minute effort this morning. I just grabbed pencils based on their lightness or darkness, with no thought to what color. I grabbed from lightest to darkest, Prismacolor's "cool gray 10%", "French gray 30%", "rosy beige", "parma violet", "warm gray 70%" and "indigo blue".

Turning to my favorite Flicker source, I found a photo of Richard Owen (1804-1892), Medical Scientist and Paleontologist. He had an interesting face, Owen "is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria (meaning "Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile") and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. He agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred, but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's Origin.[1]" There's controversy surrounding him, but perhaps "the portrayal of Owen as a vindictive and treacherous man was fostered and encouraged by his rivals". In any case, he had an interesting face:

Original photo here if not there

I like to think I've captured this man's stubborn unwavering determination. His eyes might be a bit too big, encouraged by the fact his eye ball openings are rather large. However there's white beneath the eye's iris. But I think there's slow progress. Slow is better than no...

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 B

"Laloux Sauvage"
10:05am

Then, after dropping off the goodies, on to Michael's. I feel such confusion about the oil sticks, but I now have a practice board on which I'll draw/paint my own head, and a 16x20 stretched canvas on which I hope to do Julia reading. I got the linseed oil and the stink-free cleaner and a fan brush and...

...maybe this coming Sunday I will give them a try.

After those purchases, we went to Hastings, and got two rentals. "The Brothers Bloom" await until later, while this afternoon we watched "Fantastic Planet" (La Planéte Sauvage), an animated film which "depicts a future in which human beings, known as "Oms" (a word play on the French-language word hommes, meaning men), have been brought by the giant Draags to the Draags' home planet, where they are kept as pets (with collars). The Draags are an alien race which is humanoid in shape but a hundred times larger than humans, with blue skin, fan-like earlobes and huge, protruding red eyes. The Draags also live much longer than human beings – one Draag week equals a human year. Some Oms are domesticated as pets, but others run wild, and are periodically exterminated. The Draags' treatment of the Oms is ironically contrasted with their high level of technological and spiritual development." Imdb calls it "a metaphor of class struggles."

The imagery is fanciful and dreamlike, even though the oms get squished and squashed and...

...it ends happily, although abruptly. From the interview with its director René Laloux, the abruptness is due to budget overruns. It had been a struggle to get it filmed. When I saw Laloux's somewhat wild appearance, I had to sketch him:

Sketched from the documentary "Laloux Sauvage", at the point when he says "We are demanding people, after all" (subtitled translation, of course!)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

"Morning Doodle"
7:08am

Actually, I did the doodle last night, to siphon off some brain energy so I could go to sleep. It's back to the grind today, but what a lovely interlude I had yesterday. I always consider November 11th as part of my birthday celebrations, grin. I thank everyone for all the birthday wishes I received!