Kirk Paintings
- Thread starter Armus
- Start date
I like both, but I think the second one resembles Kirk better 
There's a lot to like here, Armus. I especially like that you use just an "economy" of lines to define the face. They're good, bold strokes.
I have some suggestions to make for next time, and here I have to warn you and everyone that I never personally mastered watercolor myself. I'm great with pencil, pastels, and a little chalk, and then I jump all the way over to oils -- but watercolor is so very tricky. The toughest part about watercolor, I've always believed, is flesh tones. There's very little option for applying light on top of color like you can with oils and pastels, so you have to rely on the paper itself to supply you with the lights.
Right now, your technique (correct me if I'm wrong) appears to be to shadow in the dark sides of the face with pencil, and then paint the flesh tone over it. I've seen instructors teach their pupils this exact technique. The problem with it is that it leaves subjects looking like they've just emerged from several hours of sweeping a chimney. They appear to have dust on the dark sides of their faces. It doesn't help when watercolor set manufacturers supply consumers with tubes of something called "Flesh" (which is a really big presumption, if you know what I'm hinting at), because it makes people think that skin is all one color, and it never is.
If you're mixing your own flesh tones, then you're mixing them awfully solid. The method that's most often taught is to mix a cadmium rose color with yellow, and then to weight it with more rose for the darks and more yellow for the lights. That's fine if you want everyone looking like a Barbie doll. I found a video that shows a mixing technique you might try instead. Please forgive the subject matter if you're not into fairy princesses, but the method this lady is using to achieve more realistic light, shade, and shadow is spot on. This version of the video jumps around, and the part that gets skipped is when she lays on a mixed intermediate flesh tone that's not nearly as rosy as the common technique. She then applies rosier colors to bring out things like cheekbones, and then adds dark, murkier purple into the shadows.
But also note that she has not used pencil to apply shading. Her dark shades are all done with layers of purple added onto the shade color. This is actually more like an oil painting technique than watercolor, and I like it so much that I'm likely to try it myself.
Nobody's face is one color, with black on the dark side and white (or less color) where it's lit. Depending on how a face is lit and where (outdoors or indoors), the shadowy areas may have flecks of green or purple. And despite what some teachers may say, too much yellow in the highlights can make a face appear jaundiced. Even (and I'd add especially) with watercolor, you want variations of color to make the same play with light, shade, and shadow as you have with light in the real world.
One more suggestion about your drawing method itself: You're doing something that I also have a tendency to do without realizing it. You're "exploding" the upper right side of the cranium, as if your subject were painted on the surface of a lopsided balloon. Again, I do this exact thing. I do it when I'm concentrating so closely on the page and looking just at one spot, that I lose track of its relationship to the rest of the page. So when you're drawing the basic shape of the face, try to keep your own head in one place and extend your arm as far as it needs to go -- keep your own head well back. And try to avoid completing your drawing from one side to the opposite -- work as much within the area of the whole face at all times. This way, one eye is less likely to go off wandering.
This is good stuff you've got going, and I can't wait to see more.
DF "The Dust on the Side of My Face is Usually Just Stubble" Scott
I have some suggestions to make for next time, and here I have to warn you and everyone that I never personally mastered watercolor myself. I'm great with pencil, pastels, and a little chalk, and then I jump all the way over to oils -- but watercolor is so very tricky. The toughest part about watercolor, I've always believed, is flesh tones. There's very little option for applying light on top of color like you can with oils and pastels, so you have to rely on the paper itself to supply you with the lights.
Right now, your technique (correct me if I'm wrong) appears to be to shadow in the dark sides of the face with pencil, and then paint the flesh tone over it. I've seen instructors teach their pupils this exact technique. The problem with it is that it leaves subjects looking like they've just emerged from several hours of sweeping a chimney. They appear to have dust on the dark sides of their faces. It doesn't help when watercolor set manufacturers supply consumers with tubes of something called "Flesh" (which is a really big presumption, if you know what I'm hinting at), because it makes people think that skin is all one color, and it never is.
If you're mixing your own flesh tones, then you're mixing them awfully solid. The method that's most often taught is to mix a cadmium rose color with yellow, and then to weight it with more rose for the darks and more yellow for the lights. That's fine if you want everyone looking like a Barbie doll. I found a video that shows a mixing technique you might try instead. Please forgive the subject matter if you're not into fairy princesses, but the method this lady is using to achieve more realistic light, shade, and shadow is spot on. This version of the video jumps around, and the part that gets skipped is when she lays on a mixed intermediate flesh tone that's not nearly as rosy as the common technique. She then applies rosier colors to bring out things like cheekbones, and then adds dark, murkier purple into the shadows.
But also note that she has not used pencil to apply shading. Her dark shades are all done with layers of purple added onto the shade color. This is actually more like an oil painting technique than watercolor, and I like it so much that I'm likely to try it myself.
Nobody's face is one color, with black on the dark side and white (or less color) where it's lit. Depending on how a face is lit and where (outdoors or indoors), the shadowy areas may have flecks of green or purple. And despite what some teachers may say, too much yellow in the highlights can make a face appear jaundiced. Even (and I'd add especially) with watercolor, you want variations of color to make the same play with light, shade, and shadow as you have with light in the real world.
One more suggestion about your drawing method itself: You're doing something that I also have a tendency to do without realizing it. You're "exploding" the upper right side of the cranium, as if your subject were painted on the surface of a lopsided balloon. Again, I do this exact thing. I do it when I'm concentrating so closely on the page and looking just at one spot, that I lose track of its relationship to the rest of the page. So when you're drawing the basic shape of the face, try to keep your own head in one place and extend your arm as far as it needs to go -- keep your own head well back. And try to avoid completing your drawing from one side to the opposite -- work as much within the area of the whole face at all times. This way, one eye is less likely to go off wandering.
This is good stuff you've got going, and I can't wait to see more.
DF "The Dust on the Side of My Face is Usually Just Stubble" Scott
Thank you for that feedback, DFSCott. It's really hard to get such attention online and I appreciate it! The number one criticism I seem to get is that my proportions are off and that I need to spend more time with relationships and proportions when drawing heads. It is something I have to work on.
~Jeremiah
~Jeremiah
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