Wax Bloom

And now we come to that difficult and critical point in any portrait of an infant where the decision must be made whether to render the top of the head as a transparisteel dome containing the glowing, super human brain of a future arch-villain, or the more traditional wispy pate.

What to do … what to do.

Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 10 x 8"

Yesterday’s post on skin tone palettes has made me much more conscious of my color choices as I work; I usually just grab what feels right and don’t give it a lot of consideration. I’m honestly surprised by the amount of purple I’m using on this one. I’ve also added “Rose Madder Lake” to the mix, a very hot magenta from Lyra Rembrandt.

I’m pretty happy overall with the modeling in this one, though I still need to get the shadows darker without making them cold or muddy.

Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 10 x 8"

A gift for friends and their newborn daughter.

10 x 8"

Rose put up a post on Friday concerning skin tone palettes. While not the topic of the post, Rose mentioned that Ann Kullberg lists a palette of about 20 colors that she uses to create flesh tones. I thought to myself, “Wow … I’ve gone completely overboard, then”.

That’s my (recently re-finished) desk, right now, with more than twice the recommended dosage spread across it. My palette has grown substantially since the last time I posted about it, so I thought it might be useful to update that list.

All of these are Prismacolor pencils, except a single Caran d’Ache and a bunch of Lyra Rembrandt Polycolors which are denoted with an asterisk.

It’s important to note that none of these colors are ever used by themselves. Everything is layered with something else, they are all put down in such a way that when they are layered the other colors can fill in the gaps. The technique and intensity with which they are used varies with factors such as age and skin quality (larger gaps, more varied colors in lighter areas for older folks, but none of that freedom with an infant for example) and the sort of light the person is in (indoor, diffused lighting vs fully outdoor in summer lighting). But, I do use every single one of these colors in every single portrait I do.

And these are just flesh tones, not hair, teeth, backgrounds … oh, wait – I don’t do backgrounds. You get the point.

Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 6½ x 14"

Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 6½ x 14"

Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 6.5 x 14"

I know it doesn’t look like much more progress since the last update, but it’s several hours worth of additional detail and layers to what was already there. And, more importantly, I’m starting to like it.

Here is the same photo at a higher resolution if you are interested in all the layers and colors.

I’ve been working on this piece of my father-in-law for the past week or so, but have been largely unhappy with it until today; which is not to say I am completely pleased with it now.

Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 6.5 x 14"

This is my second start on this particular drawing, the first being a small 5×7" piece similar to my last drawing but I quickly realized there was no way I’d be able to achieve the level of detail I wanted at that size. I’m still not getting the details I want, so maybe I should have gone even bigger.

Technically what you see here is a third start, because after the first few layers of color I put down, things got muddied and blurry and I ended up pulling about two hours of work off the support with packing tape.

I feel like I’m starting to get a better feel for what needs to be done now, though, and I’m really appreciating the oil pencils I’m using in conjunction with my usual wax based pencils as they layer nicely over the wax pencils even when things get thick.

Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 5 x 7"

Kevin was also the subject of the first portrait I finished in 2008 … I like this one a lot better. I also enjoyed working at a small scale, too – it allowed me to hold the drawing in one hand and get close and personal to it, without having to lean over my drafting table and crush my back.

Not to mention it lets you do this: