"Flower Sketch" - original oil pastel drawing of a flower

 Trying to get sketches of the last flowers in the garden, I did a quick sketch of this one, a floribunda rose while I had some light.

Done on Bee 6 x 9" watercolor paper which I coated with gray acrylic paint then applied lots of Caran a'Ache and Sennelier oil pastels.  A fun thing for a Saturday afternoon.  Thanks for stopping by!

Chess Game - Original oil pastel portrait drawing

 Kind of intense game between these two and I had to make my move while I could.  I'm always so happy to have models even if that's not what they had in mind!  I scribbled this one on 16 x 20" Canson Mi-Teintes board with Sennelier oil pastels.  It was so rewarding to draw quickly without thinking - just one's reaction to the model(s) is really deeply satisfying.  Same way with the "Seated Nude #45"  that I posted a day or so ago.  Somehow looseness (is that a word?) in artwork is so gratifying for

me.  Thanks for visiting my blog!

"The Violinist" - original charcoal and oil pastel portrait drawing

Totally loved doing this drawing, beginning with vine charcoal
and then moving to Caran d'Ache oil pastel.  The (unsuspecting) model was in a quartet I was lucky to see and being close to the musicians, I zeroed in on this violinist. It's totally a memory drawing, but I think really pretty accurate.  I love drawing musicians as much as I love drawing dancers.  Gotta have music to dance, right?  The support for this piece is the carton board (carton is supposed to have an accent over the "o" but I don't know how to do it) from Guerrilla Painters.  I love this stuff.  It's great for oil pastel, charcoal, oil, acrylic and others, too, I'm sure.  If I use it for oil, I use clear gesso so I don't lose the beautiful color, which would happen if I used regular gesso.  With oil pastel, I just draw directly on the paper since OP contains a different type of oil that won't damage the support.  And the carton will then be bonded to museum board for extra strength.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Drawing of a Young Girl - original oil pastel portrait

I did this on Judson's Guerilla Carton Board.  Carton needs an accent mark, but I will have to wait till later - it's late and I'm sleepy and don't remember how to do it on my laptop.  This surface is wonderful for oil pastel - it's really a love affair between the two.  If you use oil paint, it's good to apply Gamblin GAC before painting on it.   I usually bond the carton to painting panel or mat board.  I don't know if artists appreciate this lightweight board/paper, but it's wonderful!  It's archival and so lightweight - plus I just swoon over how wonderfully it works with oil pastel!  This drawing is on 10 x 8" carton.  Try this surface - it's really great! Thanks so much for stopping by!
 

Tangled - original oil pastel portrait

This piece is one that I did on Strathmore acrylic paper using black acrylic paint and drawing/painting over it with oil pastel.  This is so rewarding for me - it looks like the model yet not exactly - she is my creation and the drawing is loose, just the way I like it!  Do y'all get this wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you do something you love?  Yes of course you do - that's why we spend hours alone with dirty hands maybe listening to music or audiobooks and in the end maybe aren't crazy about what we just finished, but sometimes . . . .😊. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Sketching at the Bar - original figurative sketch

Much fun even for a teetotaler like me.  And folks there knew what I was up to and they didn't care.  They were having a good time ringing in the New Year - and Happy New Year BTW!🎉 This woman was gazing at someone farther down the bar and was having a good time watching what was going on.  I was involved in drawing her as quickly as I could and didn't see the object of her stare.  Anyway, I always find that folks at bars are having a good time and I love trying to capture those emotions. Well, mostly they're having fun, but sometimes, not so much😧.  I love emojis (can you tell?😀😀).  This sketch was drawn with Caran d'Ache NeoPastels on heavy gray paper - sometimes it separates from the tablet.  I could put an emoji here but I won't.  Oh well😁

 

 

The Model in a Flowered Dress

 

 Her pose was captivating to me - kind of nonchalant.  And oh the dress - the print dress.  I loved it!  The drawing started with the gesture from life,  then I had to be content with a photograph.  Being such a line person, I did have fun with the arms and legs - didn't add finish at all to the legs, using lots of line segments.  The late Alex Powers, whose drawings I loved - said you're either a line or shape person and I totally agree.  I'm all in for line, especially loose, weighted lines and continuous line drawings.  I got some new pens today and was also eyeing my reed pens and thinking about getting out the ink.  Much fun ahead!  Thanks for stopping by and happy drawing!  PS. oil pastel on blue toned Strathmore mixed media paper, 12 x 9".

How I capture movement in figures - original oil pastel figurative drawing

One of my very favorite artistic endeavors is capturing the energy of dancers.  For jitterbug dancers I just turn on some rock 'n' roll music, then start making gestural figurative marks with my black oil pastel; I rely mainly on my memory of jive dance performances to flesh out the figures, adding very little detail. 
And yeah, I do dance a little - such great music, who could resist!  The lines are mostly in segments with a little smearing to indicate movement and energy.  Even when a bit of line ends up in a place I might not have intended,  I often just leave it - a surprise here and there.  Music is really inspirational when drawing dancers so I have lots of rock, tango, flamenco (gypsy) and some salsa music to get me going.  I used to attend a life drawing class where the monitor had mambo music playing as we drew from the model.  We all agreed we had never done our gestures so fast and with such emotion!   Of course, there are many different things that encourage artists to make art - what inspires you to draw or paint?  

This drawing - "More Jivin' #5" is on 5 x 7" Pastelbord.  Thanks for stopping by!

The Model Looking Down - original oil pastel drawing of a nude model

 My favorite subject - the nude model - and in this case, drawn on Judson's carton board  (a type of paper, actually) - probably my all-time favorite for oil pastel.  It has a texture that grabs and holds the oil pastel and I find it especially great for a more loose drawing.  I can't really explain the texture, except that it's slightly rough, but not really gritty. It works for oil paint, too and is very good for plein aire.  Many artists will give it a coating of gel before painting with oil, but it's archival, either way.   After it's finished, I bond it to a backing, usually hardboard.  This drawing is about 8 x 6" - thanks for stopping by!

Bedtime Braid - original oil pastel portrait

 This 12 x 9" oil pastel was done on Strathmore black mixed media paper, which is great for oil pastel.  I liked the casual - kind of messy - way she wove the ribbons into her hair.  This started with a live pose, but like so many, ended up with a photo.  Oh well, one does what one can😕 Thanks for stopping by!

A Maiko in Pink and Green - original oil pastel portrait

 My all time favorite combination -  pink and green - Yum!  IMHO you can't have one without the other.  I'm continuing my obsession with maikos and geishas and their costumes - all of which have meaning rooted deep in their history.  I really hate seeing the geisha numbers dwindle, but of course, Japanese women have many more options now, which is a very good thing. 

This 5 x 7" piece is done on the ever wonderful Pastelbord (made right here in Texas) and painted using nearly all Sennelier oil pastels, with a few Caran d'Ache Neopastels and CrayPas Specialists.  My oil pastels aren't sharpened because I fear killing my art with overworking, but I'm kind of rethinking that approach because maybe a little sharpening would make life easier.  For now though, I use some Eye-Tees, those make-up things that resemble Q-tips, but have a very sharp point on one end for doing a little smoothing so they aren't too raw.  Perhaps a combination of sharpening and smoothing will be my new technique.

For exciting paintings that have lots of texture check out Victor Wang.  I love his work!

Thanks for stopping by - have a great day and happy art-making for all you artists out there!

Hmmm - original oil pastel portrait painting

 This 8 x 10" drawing on Canson mixed media board is a mostly fun thing for me - I drew it from an old drawing of a model, but then added the dark blue-green next to the orange glints in her hair just because I wanted to - artist's choice, right? - then added a grey and white version of my favorite wallpaper.  

More on the wallpaper - I have been looking for that paper for ages for my entrance hall - the background is a medium green and it's probably from the 30s or 40s - good luck with finding any of that!  Plus it would definitely not be strippable, so I'm actually toying with the idea of just painting the wall instead.  Making those stripes will get pretty tedious, though.

Back to "Hmmm" - when I originally drew the model, she had briefly been looking at something going on to her right in the drawing group.  It's been so long now that I don't remember what it was, but I was lucky to capture her while she was looking toward the "activity".   That has happened a lot in my drawing adventures.  My teacher, Priscilla Treacy, taught her students to get it down in three minutes - I don't mean every pore or detail, but the gist of the drawing.  So, there have been many times when the model hasn't completely settled into her pose (and maybe gotten a little sleepy),  that I've been able to grab that very first expression. Thank you Priscilla! In this drawing, I felt that the model was thinking critically about the conversation to her right, hence the title "Hmmm".  

Seated Nude on Blue - original oil pastel figurative

I began this drawing with a graphite pencil and then worked on it with Sennelier oil pastels and a few Caran d'Ache on Strathmore 8 x 6"mixed media paper.  Didn't do a lot of blending and and finishing (obviously) - just left it pretty raw which is kind of my favorite thing.  Loved her sort of dreamy expression.  Thanks for stopping by!

Woman with a Fan - original oil pastel portrait painting

Here's one that I'm trying before painting the same pose in oil.  I'm pretty happy with it. A problem arises though, when I don't get the same feeling in the oil painting that I have in the original drawing - plus no more model.  I think there's just something spontaneous that happens in a drawing group but when I'm back in the studio, it's tough to reconstruct the emotion.  The artist's reaction to the live model is what painting from life is all about, I think (when it's not a commission and must look exactly like your subject).  And even with commissions, there's a bit of the artist's reaction, as well.  Hey, I think I just figured it out - I'm going to stop with this one since I'm happy with it.  See what talking it out can do? 😌  This piece was done on 7 x 5" Pastelbord using mostly Sennelier, with some Caran d'Ache, too.  Thanks so much for stopping by (and listening)!  

A Winter Day - original oil pastel portrait painting

I think everyone in Texas is sick of winter - especially what this winter has brought.  We were lucky, but I know so many weren't!  Texas just isn't set up for merciless temps and failures of the power grid.  Closed up inside, I was able to do lots of drawings and other artwork and here is one from those days.  It is, of course, made from a photo I took early in the winter with our first little snowfall, never dreaming what was to come.  

This one is on 12 x 9" Pastel Premier paper, using mostly Sennelier oil pastels, some Caran d'Ache and Cray-pas Specialists.  She was standing in front of one of our pecan trees with the branches almost touching the ground.  Thanks for stopping by!
 

Krista on Black Paper - original oil pastel portrait

Strathmore's black mixed media paper is such a perfect support for oil pastel, which is what I used for this piece.  Drawing a model seated in a chair while I was perched on a barstool isn't the usual arrangement,  but it worked so maybe I'll use this set-up in the future.  I did some smoothing with my finger on this one, and maybe could have done more, but I do like strokes to show at least a bit.  Using black paper here with my Senneliers, but I also love Strathmore's blue mixed media - haven't tried the gray, but I will soon.  Am going to give the gray a try with my Caran d'Ache pastel pencils.  These pencils are expensive, but they are worth it! This little painting is about 5 x 5".  Thanks for looking!
 

Maiko - original oil pastel portrait of a maiko

I love drawing geisha and maiko. This interest began with a drawing group I attended years ago where there was a model from Japan who often dressed in a kimono when she came to pose for us.  Just about everything they wear and do means something  - it's fascinating to me, so sometimes I go through my old drawings and find something I'd like to take a little further.  This drawing is on 12 x 9" Pastel Premier.  Thanks for looking!
 

Feather Earrings - original oil pastel portrait

 

                                   One of my drawings was accepted for exhibition in the

                                Catharine Lorillard Wolfe online show that can be viewed

                                                        during the month of October.

 I was trying to work with neutrals here to give the red feather earrings more 'pop'.  This piece is painted on 7 x 5" Pastelbord.  The great thing about Pastelbord - when working with oil pastels - is that with time, the oil pastels on this support tend to feel dry to touch.  Still, I like to spray with oil pastel fixative several days after the piece is completed.  Thanks for stopping by!

Nude on Black Paper - original oil pastel nude

Ever since my college days where I first encountered life drawing classes, drawing nudes has been my very favorite art thing - could do this all day long and when I have the chance, that's just what I do.  The figure is my true love!  I also adore the mystery of back views.  Anyway, here I drew the outline very lightly, then did a gestural drawing of the model, working over the whole painting very loosely with my Sennelier oil pastels and butting the colors of the figure up against the colors in the background. (Edge battles are even present in oil pastel.)  I really do recommend working on a black support - it's definitely a 

pleasure to use. This piece is about 6 x 8" on black Mixed Media paper by Strathmore.  Thanks for stopping by!
 

The Flamenco Dancer in Profile - original oil pastel portrait

 I started this portrait a few months ago, painted most of the pose, then put it where I passed by several times a day, but sort of forgot about finishing.  And of course, by the time I was inspired to get it done, no model, therefore the memory thing again.  Most of what I lacked was the lace and I actually have some very similar to what she was wearing, so that was lucky.  Done on 12 x 12" Pastelbord, using Sennelier oil pastels.  Thanks for visiting my blog!