Thursday's Art Class - Week 4

Tweet

Art class on Thursday was oil pastels. My taxi came right on time to take me and it was the guy who took me on week 1. He came in an ordinary car that was easier to get in, so that was good. I had a cup of my green tea when I got in as usual. The little doggie wasn't there this week because his mistress was on holiday. Paul was there again today, he couldn't come on the Thursday last week so he came on the Friday instead, but he'd heard about my portraits and he'd heard that I'd tried the Mona Lisa and heard that it was very good! I showed it him in real life and he showed me what he'd done, which was also very good. I was dreading this week because of it being oil pastels and the chef because I thought I'd be terrible at it. First thing we did was practise with the oil pastels in our sketchbooks, trying out the different ways of using them. We made a pattern of about 8 shapes on the page and filled each in with a different technique using different colours. After we'd done that it was time to start on the actual chef. We did it on black pastel paper. We drew the outline of the chef in sections in white oil pastel. It went a bit pear shaped around the area of the pizza cutter, but we found out that the oil pastels can be removed with a putty rubber so that bit was redone. Then we shaded in with white pastel where the light hit the subject. When we'd done that we had a break, and I went to the toilet and washed my hands which were covered in pastel. Then I had another cup of my green tea. Then it was time to add colour to our picture. We started with flesh colours for the face and arms. We were told how to do it starting from.light to dark, so we started with yellow, then yellow ochre, then a salmon colour etc building it up bit by bit. When the skin colours were done I started on his jacket. You always have to put a base layer of white down first or the colours won't show very well. I actually thought the jacket was the easiest bit! Then I did his hat, the pizza, the pizza cutter, the bowl down the bottom left hand corner and finally the background. Anyway, this is how it came out. (Above) I thought it was rubbish but the tutor thought it was very good! His eyes are definitely not in the right place and he looks squinty! I did think it looked better from a distance! We all put our pictures on the floor for everyone to look at. While we were looking at the pictures I saw my taxi go past. I knew it was my taxi because I'm the only one who has a taxi. After our pictures had all been photographed we packed up to go home. When I got home my Mum said to me, "You're not rushing to show us what you did today," and I said, "No, because it's rubbish!" When I showed my friend the picture on Facebook messenger she said she thought it was very good too! I asked her if she'd like to come with me if I did a follow up course, even though she'd be a beginner and I'd be a returner and she said she'd like to do that so she might be coming with me to the September one.