Here’s my latest drawing for my drawing class at SCAD: my first foray into drawing with pastels!
Coming from drawing in only black and white, drawing in color opens up a whole new can of worms. Mixing colors to try to achieve the same hue of the reference photo is very time consuming.
However, I learned quite a bit from this project… like how to not ‘compartmentalize’ colors, but instead to repeat colors throughout the composition in order to create a unified piece.
The biggest eye opener for me was when my teacher told me to avoid using blacks and grays in the shadows and to instead use colors like blues and violets for the shadows and yellows and oranges for the highlights. To me, that just sounded bizarre (since when are shadows blue and violet??), but I can see now how it unified the color scheme of my drawing. And crosshatching! Wow, does crosshatching do wonders for the texture of the drawing!
Here are the steps of my drawing: (and here’s the reference photo if you’re interested)
Wonderful work! Chalk pastels can be pretty tricky to work with the first time round. I love using them though because I love how much blending you can do. You can also mix chalk pastels with water to do watercolors!