The Art of Lavina Marie: pencil

Eep, I suck at watercolors :(

Hello, everyone! I mentioned in my previous post that I'd talk about watercolor pencils; the ones that I have (or borrowed, rather) are a 36-pencil Derwent set, one of my favorite brands of art pencils.

Now, watercolors have never really been my forte (and I don't think they ever will be!), but I find these watercolor pencils easy to handle because they act just like ordinary pencils, which I'm already familiar with. Funny thing is, though, I use them like anything but pencils; the way I paint with them is the way I paint with my acrylics, that is, straight from the tube - or, in this case, straight from the tip of the pencil.

They're fun to use, but of course they've got their cons; for one thing, they're not really suitable for drawing details, especially if you're using textured paper - which is most watercolor paper, really. Even if I sharpen the pencils to a point, (for which I always use a blade/ cutter rather than an actual sharpener; you lose less lead that way, apparently), they still leave a rather granulated trail on the paper. Also, when you wet a particularly large penciled area, the lead tends to bunch up at the edge of the water, creating an outline darker than the rest of the area, and this becomes a problem especially when you want to do some smooth overlapping:

Thus I stick to taking the paint straight off the pencil tip; it achieves a much cleaner effect, in my opinion. But I'm not really one to talk, I actually think I suck at watercolors. For the painting above, I was completely unsure of myself when I was working on it; there were so many times I paused and thought, 'What am I doing?' I'm sure you can see my struggle in the painting; the face is completely botched because I had/ have no idea which colors constitute to skin color. Well, it's fun to do, nonetheless, enough for me to continue painting it to its finish. I still enjoy myself for the most part, and at least I get some practice out of it. I'm definitely going to try more; can't let all those pencils and watercolor paper I bought go to waste!

By the way, I made a Flickr account for my artworks; I have some artworks posted there that can't be seen in this blog, so please check them out here! :) Also, a very BIG hug to my new followers, I'm so happy you like my work! Please do drop a hello now and then :) Take care!

Last Sunday I was able to attend my first ever formal sketching session, and it was a challenging but absolutely thrilling experience. Organized by Valerie Chua and Feanne Mauricio (both so talented and so pretty!), the session was held at Arts in the City, a quaint, multipurpose art center that sits snuggly along 26th Street, Bonifacio Global City.

It was a session for nude model sketching - which was why I, faced with the opportunity of improving my drawing skills as well as the chance to draw my favorite subject (i.e. women), was only too eager to join (I was actually the first attendee to arrive, so funny).

After small friendly exchanges between artists and hostesses (we were less than twenty all in all), the session kicked off with a gentle murmur of excitement. We were to draw the model in different poses, in gradually lengthening spans of time, from three-minute sketches, to thirty-minute sketches. Below are my five-, ten- and thirty-minute sketches (I'm too embarrassed about the quicker ones; I discovered to my horror that I actually suck at doing quick sketches):

This is my favorite one!

I did absolutely no justice to the model at all; she possesses a very unique beauty, and I couldn't quite capture her sleepy eyes or her round torso that well - not to mention the various skin depressions and muscle contortions. I found that my weakness lies in drawing large, general shapes (I tend to focus on details), proportioning, and basic anatomical recognition. I have a lot to work on, I hope I do improve eventually, with loads of practice!

I am so grateful that I was invited to attend such an event; I wasn't able to really mingle with the other artists present (I loved how dressed themselves up that day; so artsy) but next time I will. It was fun watching them use different mediums such as charcoal, ink, and paint. Thanks again Val and Feanne, I hope you continue to hold similar sessions in the future!

To all those interested in the session, visit their page. Have a lovely day, everyone!

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