Thursday, June 27, 2013

Girtin in coloured pencils

I spent this afternoon developing a drawing based on The White House at Chelsea by Thomas Girtin.  I wish I'd bothered to check the original - which is at the Tate.  I kept being bothered by the fact the White House was not on a  "sweet spot" and didn't look quite as I remembered it. It's now clear the reference I was using had cropped the original and removed a significant chunk from the right hand side

After Girtin - The White House at Chelsea
Caran d'Ache Luminance coloured pencils on Arches Hot Press
Never mind - the exercise got me back into drawing again now I can see colour properly again.  I had my magnifiers perched on the end of my nose and they did an OK job in terms of me being able to see the paper.  However next week I can start the process of getting a new prescription for reading and computer glasses.

It also reminded me of why I like copying good paintings - I always learn something relating to colour or tone or how to relate a 3D shape or mark on a piece of paper

I'm minded to do some more drawings using past masters as my models and focusing on skies.

This particular drawing was done using my new batch of Caran d'Ache Luminance coloured pencils.

Caran d'Ache Luminance Coloured Pencils
- a recent purchase at the Pastel Society Annual Exhibition

8 comments:

  1. Hi Kathryn, this is a topic I will be addressing with my continuing cp students this fall. Copying masters whether for sky (a great idea by the way) or as portrait, Dutch Master still life or other subject helps us all grow in one way or another. I hope you wouldn't mind if I reference your blog post on my blog when I talk about our class's "copying a master" session this fall. If your interested my blog is at:
    http://gloriacallahanfineart.blogspot.com/. If you want to check it out before you answer my question. I've lurked here many times and am a subscriber to you blog. Thank you for all your info and for promoting colored pencil art.

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  2. Hi Kathryn, this is a topic I will be addressing with my continuing cp students this fall. Copying masters whether for sky (a great idea by the way) or as portrait, Dutch Master still life or other subject helps us all grow in one way or another. I hope you wouldn't mind if I reference your blog post on my blog when I talk about our class's "copying a master" session this fall. If your interested my blog is at:
    http://gloriacallahanfineart.blogspot.com/. If you want to check it out before you answer my question. I've lurked here many times and am a subscriber to you blog. Thank you for all your info and for promoting colored pencil art.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's fine Gloria

    You can see another one here - which I did while in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London http://travelsketch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/sketching-constable-in-v.html

    It's worth pointing out to students that most museums have no objection to coloured pencils being used to copy paintings - while in the museum. It's paint needing water or solvent they're not keen on! :)

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  4. Good to know you are now seeing the colours so well Katherine . Cropping art images without acknowledgment is an irritating feature of Pinterest Art images, I think it only respectful to the artist to say when it is a detail of a painting or cropped section. Otherwise one can be misled as you discovered !

    PS think you might like my 'Cats in Art' board on Pinterest Katherine !

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good to know you are now seeing the colours so well Katherine . Cropping art images without acknowledgment is an irritating feature of Pinterest Art images, I think it only respectful to the artist to say when it is a detail of a painting or cropped section. Otherwise one can be misled as you discovered !

    PS think you might like my 'Cats in Art' board on Pinterest Katherine !

    ReplyDelete
  6. It wasn't a Pinterest image - or indeed any image on the Internet. I came across a large card of the painting which I'd saved ages ago and decided to use it to test the pencils.

    I'll have a look at Cats in Art!

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  7. Thanks Kathryn both are very interesting. I knew the VA Museum of Fine Arts allowed pencil which is near me. But the last time I was at the Nat'l Gallery in DC the were several artists in their "copyist's program" actually painting ing oil on easels they approve for that. They were actually working on full size copies. I was just in awe.

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  8. Gloria - most of the major galleries and museums allow copying in oil, but often you have to be a formal student of an academic art entity they approve of and then have to apply in writing ad wait for permission. With some of them there's quite a queue

    ReplyDelete

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