The online log book of Shari Chantel Warde – OCA Student
Tonal Figure Study
Exercise – tonal figure study
I am starting this exercise with a beautiful tonally pleasing photograph due to the glorious Covid 19 restrictions. I would like to do this study with the person once able to.
Credit: Matt Henman- Cup of tea.TV
Initial sketch (Sketch one- I used my trusty clutch pencil to create a line drawing, although fairly rough, it allows me to look at the image closely and at all the details. I also tend to assess scale with a paintbrush my hands were occasionally a ruler. This prepares me to create a painted image. I have realised over this difficult time that it takes the right environment to create and although I’m struggling, I’m trying.
Sketch two – I approached this sketch with looseness in mind, I wanted to create a tonal image but also wanted to explore the unique shapes that the model’s body created due to the lighting being so striking. I had an abstract view in mind. And had fun creating this.Sketch three – a tonal sketch I created with 4B & HB pencils and 6 mm & 12 mm paper stumps.
I attempted to create the darkest areas and loosely created the outline. I wanted to get the darkest areas down to use blending to fill out my initial shape.Here I have completely blended my initial shapes focusing on tone. I am also keeping the shape accurate to the image.Using HB, I began to increase tone and shade. Filled in my models pants and defined edges and shadows.This is what I would call my final image seen as it is a preparatory sketch for painting. My last photo prior showed me some scale issues and I resolved them and filled more dark areas. Finishing with a fixative spray.
The final painting – 40×50cm canvas
I used pencil to create the outline of the model and platform. I then loosely painted the background in three colours Mars black, Payne’s grey and warm grey and used this to create the outlines, following by erasing main pencil lines. I created mixes of Portrait pink, buff titanium, burnt Sienna and created the bold skin colour tones and started with the body.
I continued using colours mixing and creating tones and developing shape and tone in relation to my image. I felt real positive about the use of colours and my chosen image at this point. Using warm grey I created the line of the models body, arm and leg. Really gave my painting some shape.
Next, I painted the main black of the pants and created some tonal lines using a wash of warm grey. Continued to build colour on the body and began to define the base the model platform he is hardstanding on.
I then sponged on mars black covering the background but copying the texture of the backdrop.
B-log 