A Work In Progress

Let me start out with the fact that this is one of the most atrocious photos that I've ever taken of a work in progress. But I'll qualify that by saying that it's late, there is no natural sunlight, so what once was a lovely warm brownish grey flannel look has, by the incandescent setting on my camera, been lightened up and made more blue. But this is just so that you'll get the idea of why I LIKE this so much. Well, for now. We'll see when it gets closer to done.

So WHY do I like it? Because 1.) this is the first five person portrait that I've ever attempted. 2.) I haven't tried to do one in a long time, and prior to this I used to draw out a grid and carefully measure and sketch in with a pencil all the lines, and would follow them religiously. But since I started this sketchbook project I have discovered that as perfectly rendered like a photograph is not nearly so interesting as what the lines (and in this case, the pastels) do to and for the subject. So I let go. I chose a different paper, one that's smoother without the exact dimples in the paper, but more one that feels like a fine grit sandpaper. I took a lighter pastel pencil and blocked in the circles for the head and the basic body shapes, and went back in with a darker umber pastel pencil to block in the features. I won't be going for exacting detail, but more for "paint strokes"... more Degas, less Close if you get what I mean. and 3.) I didn't do too bad on the beginning. I'll be spraying fixative on it, then going back in and mixing things in and around on the paper. I just want to keep the basic facial structures where they are so that suddenly I don't give child #3 a nose in the middle of her forehead... :)