(From my journal entry):
Today is a much needed break from the craziness of the busy season at work. (Oh, yes, and a day to remember veterans, as well.) Last night, after getting fortified with a tasty salad Julia had made and some cheese chunks and toast, we went to the library. I had hopes of finding a book that might give clue as how to proceed with the oil sticks I bought. I'm hoping these oil sticks will be a nice transition from colored pencils to the durability of oil, but still with the flexibility of pencil and hopefully relatively less messy than oils.
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 Stanton. Stanton is"...one of a dozen or so (of America's) portrait kingpins..." as Stanton'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.
Stanton 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:
After I worked the drawing to a certain point, I had to extrapolate a bit, for the originating photo is a bit bleached in the areas under the strong light source's rays. Also, I wanted some color unity and coherence, despite the hodge podge color choices, so I aimed for that as well.
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...
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