A few studies in pastel

A few pastel sketches from youtube refs... At each step I was trying to be intimately aware of the structure... rather than pay attention to the esthetics of presentation. The latter was developing, as much as I could concentrate on the former, as a subconscious or 'practised' response. Its really fascinating how the human body is built, and how surface elements (skin, fat etc) and deeper elements (muscles, bones) dynamically interact to create this beautiful, logical design. To the student of the human figure, none of the social determinants, by which popular opinion designates how good (or bad!) a person looks has any value. He revels in the study of all body kinds, surface texture, color, tone... its all a wonderful challenge to him. He tries to understand the nuances of a surface form - what makes the skin recede here, or bulge out at some other place, and tries to fit the local in the context of the general.

All with dry pastel on A3 size paper.

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Ref images for these studies by kind courtesy of  The Croquis Cafe on Youtube (a series of presentations by OnAirVideo.com) - many thanks for extending my education!

Figure studies from Dec '13

A few studies from December... I made use of facilities kindly put on Youtube. All are on A3 size pages (partly or fully used), and with conte/hard pastel leads. Ref credits given below (thank you!).


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Ref images for studies nos. 1 - 3.a : The Croquis Cafe on Youtube (a series of presentations by OnAirVideo.com)
Ref images for studies nos. 4 - 9 : Cilveka Portrets on Youtube (short film on figure drawing session).

As always, I'm very thankful to the above for helping extend my education.

acrylic figure study nov13

One acrylic study... 22" x 15" (full sheet) on paper. This was directly painted onto paper without a preliminary charcoal/conte drawing - I find this a more relaxed way of painting, although this isn't what I always do.

Ref image by kind courtesy of Rens (Rens102 at deviantart.com) - many thanks!

2 pastel studies, old master sculptures

A couple of old master sculpture studies, in two different kinds of pastels - oil and dry.

 22" x 15" (half sheet) hard pastel on tinted paper. Referencing M.J.Ezekiel's 'Eve hearing voices' (bronze).

22" x 15" (half sheet) oil pastel on paper, tinted with acrylic. Referencing Bertel Thorvaldsen's Venus with apple, marble (took liberties with the apple... crop posted just below).

Many thanks to the ref photographers (who are unknown to me) for helping with my studies.

Sketching fellow artists

Conte and hard pastel studies, on A3 sheets...

Ref sources posted online by artist/art-enthusiast friends from Chennai, India, during one of their weekend outdoor sessions. Many thanks for the inspiration!

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Refs by kind courtesy of Ganapathy Subramanium and Balaji Venugopal (posted as part of Chennai Weekend Artists event at Spaces, Chennai)