[Jonathan Criner]

Joshua,

Thanks for the reply.  I had seen the W&N water mixable oils, but saw some bad reviews (they tend to show up dried up like watercolor cakes?), and I am also looking at a still life course in acrylic, so went ahead and grabbed some acrylics.  I need to work on facial drawings before I dive into this class anyway (taking Iliya’s Russian drawing courses for that) but I’ll look at the local stores here and see if they have the mixables that I can look at before buying, or possibly buy in the Zorn pallet individually this winter in oils, when I expect to have more time to devote to practice and it would be cool enough I could set up in my garage if needed.

Thanks again.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Criner]

Two days in and already missed a day.  All I worked on were cubes and ellipses, but today my 10-year-old asked how to draw realistic faces, so I gave her a crash-course in the Loomis method, which I actually don’t prefer.

 

[Jonathan Criner]

Is this course good for zero painting experience, or should a student take one of the basic painting courses first?  Also, could it be done with acrylics (is there that much difference, other than the drying time and paint consistency)?  I don’t really have a space ventilated for oils as I understand the requirement.  Thanks!

[Jonathan Criner]

I started this course today, and I did not skip the five pages of tonal drawings, although I did not get them done yet (I spent 30 minutes on one page after working on a computer for 8 hours, it was actually a little tiring on the wrist).  I’m finding the lined paper has imperfections, but in general the tone is smooth.  I would say I’m good, except that I have been struggling with tonal rendering in figure drawing, I kind of assume I am not. I’m also noticing that my old eyes are a challenge (too close I need reading glasses, too far I can’t wear the glasses, but can’t see the details, it’s hard to shift back and forth), so that is fun trying keep everything in control.  Strangely, I got the dot-to-dot thing down pretty quickly.  I expected to struggle with that as well.

I’m looking forward to this course, and the portrait and figure drawing courses that follow.

 

[Jonathan Criner]

I started Iliya’s Russian Drawing Fundamentals. He said “don’t skip this exercise” so…

[Jonathan Criner]

I just started NMA and this challenge, and am just scrolling through to see what’s what.  I know you mentioned that you have a degree in art, but you wanted to work on free hand accuracy. I looked at the first page, then I skipped to the end (pressed for time).  I would say your freehand has improved quite a bit, I can see improvement compared to those earlier sketches you posted where you said you weren’t happy, needed to work on eyes, etc.  I really like these last couple posts.  Which course is this based on, or is are you working from several?  I have looked at Huston’s free course in the past, I’m planning to start the Russian Drawing programs (I find when I use Loomis my drawings all look the same) and then on to portraiture painting.

 

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