Watercolor

Three weeks ago I decided to switch media. Not because I was bored with pastel —quite the opposite, as I feel I've barely begun to mine their potential. For years I've been meaning to improve my skill in using watercolor —forcing myself to paint the figure in this challenging medium should help a lot. After two lackluster attempts, I decided to move to a larger sheet of paper and put in lighter washes relying a bit more on my graphite linework. This is the result.



The colors got lighter as they dried (something I'm going to have to get used to.) So I may have to revisit this, giving more attention to the modeling of the hands and softening the bare pate. Darkening the background should help as well.

Standing Male

We're halfway through the spring session, so I thought I'd post some recent images. I did this pastel a few weeks ago, and didn't like it much as I was working on it. After living with it for awhile, I decided it's worth saving.



I like the pose and the angle of the backlit head. I also like the slightly exaggerated nose. The bottom part of the composition got short-shrift, particularly the hands.
I'm thinking of adjusting the color a bit and putting the lower body mostly in shadow to re-emphasize the head as the focal point.