as many of you know, I started this blog earlier in the year to reflect my return to watercolour painting after a long break of 12 years. In the short space of time blogging away here, I think I have caught up with the standard I reached before putting my paint brushes down so long ago. While I have painted and painted, a lot of the techniques I had previously mastered, slowly came back to me, along with some new ones. I know I am not yet a good artist, but I know I can improve if time and fate are kind to me.
Thank you all for sharing your blogs with me, I have learnt so much by looking at your own work and reading your written thoughts no matter what your expertise in this lovely hobby. Blogging away like we do, we all help each other and I think advance our work en mass to a higher level. Thank you so much for all your comments, which have spurred me on to try to achieve a better and better standard of work.
The purpose of this blog was to take anyone interested along with me in my endeavour to pick up watercolour painting again and advance it to my former state. That being the case, I am now starting to add to my interest, other forms of artwork and media. You may of noticed the odd sketch and acrylic creep into these blogs. Now I introduce pastel, or to be precise, conté crayons to my growing list of medium.
With this in mind, I have decided to change the name of this blog slightly to reflect this additional content to "Frank's Watercolour and Art Revival". The link will remain the same so as not to lose all the work so far.
Thank you all once again, for reading, commenting and helping me in this artistic crusade!
My kindest regards,
Frank Bingley.
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| Martin Conté Crayon, Charcoal and chalk on 160gsm pastel paper. |
Since my last blog, I have joined my local art club, which meets once a month for ten months of the year. On my first attendance, we had a speaker who showed us his technique of charcoal artwork. His use of charcoal and a little pastel and chalk amazed us as he did superb portraits of two of us in less than a couple of hours. Spurred on by his work, I have purchased some similar media and had a go myself, and I have to say that it is a fantastic and quick medium to work with. This sketch took me 70 minuets, and while considerably smaller than the speaker's, is 12x8 inches in size.
Though I got Martin's head slightly too tall, I think it is a reasonable likeness, and I got such a buzz out of doing it. Yes, this new addition to my mediums is a hit with me, and I can't wait to do some more!
Source photo here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/3145141060/
Source photo here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/3145141060/
What a fabulous portrait Frank. I was just thinking about getting my pastels out the other day, how funny. :) And I really loved reading your letter to bloggers. So, so true. And I feel exactly the same way. It's been fun joining you on this journey Frank!
ReplyDeleteI'm new to your blog and what I've read so far has been fascinating.
ReplyDeleteLove the fact you're experimenting - and the portrait is very good!
Martin looks great in this new medium, Frank ... especially his hair !! Looking forward to seeing more :)
ReplyDeleteCrystal - I'd be really interested to see how you handle pastels after seeing your immaculate watercolour work. Thanks for sticking with me on this somewhat roller-coaster ride!
ReplyDeletePat - welcome to my blog, I'm pleased you found something of interest. I welcome both praise and criticism, so don't be afraid of upsetting my feelings by telling me if you think I'm going wrong somewhere. Don't know if you've used pastels, but I do find that they tend to smudge a bit afterwards. I went down to our local art shop for a spray fixer, but when I saw the price tag of £11, it put me off a bit!
Alice thanks a lot, I think I am going to be fine with this medium, though watercolour is always going to be my first love. As for the hair, it would seem that I am much more at ease with my attempts in pastel than I am with watercolour ;)
Frank, you are obviously a natural with pastels! This is my favorite medium to use. You have done an amazing job with this portrait, particularly the light hitting his face!
ReplyDeleteI can only echo what you say - you only have to look at the post I made before todays and you will see what I mean - It has your name on it!
Thanks Sandra, I didn't think I'd be any good with pastels so I was surprised that this turned out as well as it did.
ReplyDeleteHello..I came by way of a comment you left on SANDRAWS blog....
ReplyDeleteLove your arty style...It's so nice to make new connections.
Come by sometime and have a peek into my artful little corner of the world.
ciao!
Creative Carmelina
HI I'M BACK!
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's too late to start at all!
Get going...perhaps a 'memoir' fashioned journal would spark your creative interest!
thanks for your visit...come by anytime...my 'screen' door is always open!
ciao Frank!
Creative Carmelina