For Blackbird8 #2

This not being able to add photos as comments or in DMs sucks and I don’t like it. But You were very clear in your usage agreement, and I’m a man of my word, so...🤷‍♂️ There’s some etched, layered detail on the body, wings and thistles that might only be visible if you zoom in, or maybe not at all depending on the resolution, but I’m fairly pleased with how it turned out.

[sassy59]

That’s beautiful Charlie, well done you. Xxx😘👍

[Hidden in reply to sassy59]

Thank you, Sassy.

[Hidden]

That’s so lovely

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, LP.

[leo60]

Really lovely xx

[RoadRunner44]

Just talent! Superb!

[Hidden]

Wonderful

[HungryHufflepuff]

That’s amazing 🦋

[Lemon7]

Really lovely

[ninelives]

Gorgeous.

Love love love it

[Hidden in reply to ninelives]

Thank you 😊

[watergazer]

Stunning work charlie _g - is it pastels? x

[Hidden in reply to watergazer]

Thanks, Dickinson. Oil pastels and just a smidge of oil paint for the eyes on the wings.

[watergazer in reply to Hidden]

Beautiful work

[Izb1]

Thats really good Charlie G x

[rachelmi]

Fabulous! 👏🏻

[Jaybird19]

that is lovely . I didnt realise that you could be that delicate with oil pastels. The tiny yellow markings on body and wings are beautiful. what is the size of the whole.

[Hidden in reply to Jaybird19]

It’s roughly 21cm/8 inches square, so quite small - about the width of a sheet of A4. With a waxier oil pastel, you can build layers of colour then use a sharp tool (often the wrong end of a paintbrush in my case) to scrape away the top layer(s) to allow the lighter layer below to show through. I’ve done a few A4 pet portraits during lockdown, and pastels are good because you can get really good detail in about half the time it takes with oil paints. I’ve been playing with some much more expensive pastels this week (‘proper’ ones that cost £10 for 4 rather than £10 for 48 😬) and the texture is much more like lipstick, so layering like that would probably require some setting time in between if you even can do it at all - got to be honest and say I’m not convinced I’m that impressed with them at this stage, but I need to really have a prolonged fiddle before making my mind up.

[Jaybird19 in reply to Hidden]

you got a lot of beautiful fine detail in that . I didn't think about lifting them off by scraping. have you tried soft pastels ? they are good for portraits but I had to give them up because of inhaling the dust.

[Hidden in reply to Jaybird19]

Thanks, Jaybird, the compliment means a lot. I’ve done some monochrome pieces in soft pastel before, but the dust does put me off it. In my case, that’s mostly because I’m horrendously messy even with pencil drawing, although working in the house with Bod about is an obvious concern. One of the reasons I don’t do much pyrography since she was born is the smoke - can only do it when I can get set up outside. I have been considering getting some coloured soft pastels lately and seeing how I get on with them, though. It’s not a medium I’ve ever done a huge amount with, and monochrome pastel is not that dissimilar to charcoal in many ways, which is something I really like working with and have done quite a lot of over the years.

Some well meaning people in my life have bullied me into registering with an online gallery over the weekend. I’m not trying to sell anything currently, and there’s only a handful of pieces up, but one is a soft pastel piece:

saatchiart.com/art/Drawing-...

Two of the oil pastel pet portraits are on my profile, too, one of which used the scraping technique to create scales on a bearded dragon. It’s actually a really useful, versatile technique for detailing, particularly on smaller pieces. The other thing I’m doing a lot more of is using solvent with oil pastels to either create washes or for detailing purposes.

[Jaybird19 in reply to Hidden]

thats fun trying different tmaterials . your sky is very van gogh with swirls in the sky / I like that. You are very good with a variety of subjects and the scratching out of the lizard skin/scales is really interesting I am impressed with the density of colour in your oil pastels. I tried them but gave up when I couldn't get solid colour what is the solvent you mention?. I will try again and persist a bit more > I don't like drawing very much myself and need a brush really to flow. so watercolours are my choice but I found some soluble graphite recently and had quite a good time with that. I think I am a bit stilted using a stick and the graphite on a brush was better for me . I like textures . You achieved that with the velvety butterfly wings. I went on a course on textures and learnt about texture paste among other things which accepts watercolour as well as other media. Havent had much time or inclination for painting these past months stuck indoors. Spent too much time on internet talking to people.!

Please do post more of your drawings.

[Gladwyn]

That’s so good! I honestly thought it was a photograph at first. Well done! 🦋

[Patk1]

Beautiful