Valerie Jones

Portrait Drawing Class – Souzi Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:02:00 +0000

“Souzi”

We finished up our portrait drawing class a little over a week ago. This is what Souzi looks like when she is complete!

Souzi was drawn from a photo reference I had taken of her last summer.

Our new portrait class that started March 16th will only have live models to draw from! No need to be intimidated from live models. The quality of drawing from life is much more rewarding!

Colored Pencil Portrait Class – Work in Progress #6

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:17:00 +0000

“Souzi”, Work in Progress

Souzi has eyebrows and eyelashes! We started working on her hair last Saturday. We are using 5 Prismacolor colored pencils in her hair, Black, Tuscan Red, Indigo Blue, Dark Green, Dark Umber. There are about 2 layers of each color and then more Black is applied for the last layer to give the hair more definition.

Colored Pencil Portrait Class – Work in Progress #5

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:21:00 +0000

“Souzi”, Work in Progress

We are finishing up the skin tones on Souzi in our Saturday colored pencil portrait class. This coming Saturday I will show everyone how to do the hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows. She is so much fun to draw!

Happy coloring!

Portrait Drawing Class #4 – Work in Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:55:00 +0000

“Souzi”, Work in Progress

Last Friday we finished up getting the hair done on this portrait of Souzi. Now that the hair is in, we will see what need re-defined in other areas on her face and clothing.

This coming Friday in class, we will re-visit those areas and get the values correct.

We have been working from a photograph to complete Souzi. On the 16th of March, we will start using live models to create our work!

Happy drawing!

Beginning Drawing on Mondays

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:46:00 +0000

Perspective Study, Work in Progress

What a way to start the week! Mondays are awesome when you start them out with drawing!

For the past 3 weeks we have been studying perspective and how to use our pencils. Next week, we will put those skills to work using a still life setup.

Drawing from life can no way compare to drawing from a photo. Photos flatten things. Just think how much our art will improve when we start drawing from life!

Happy drawing!

Colored Pencil Portrait Class – Work in Progress #4

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:52:00 +0000

“Souzi”, Work in Progress

Our Saturday colored pencil portrait class is moving right along! We worked on Souzi's nose and mouth last week. We are still working on skin tones all around her face. Colored pencil teaches patience! I am looking forward to adding her hair.

Happy coloring!

Portrait Drawing Class – Work in Progress #3

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:27:00 +0000

“Souzi”, Work in Progress

We have been busy drawing Souzi in our Friday portrait drawing class. She is getting close to being complete. This coming Friday we will finish her hair and put in her eyelashes. Then, the week following we will do any touch up work before finishing her. I know I have a lot of endings and roundings to complete on her face before I will be satisfied.

Happy drawing!

Canvas Uncorked – March 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:09:00 +0000

Have you always wanted to paint a picture but didn't know where to start? Join friends and peers at the Art Center on March 16th for a night of fun while you follow Dedra Morgan and Valerie Jones in a structured lesson on painting a daffodil grouping. You will be given ...step by step instructions on how to paint your canvas, and you will leave the evening of fun and fellowship with a finished work of art you can display with pride.

Cost for the evening is $35 and includes supplies to finish a complete canvas in acrylic. Appetizers, wine or punch will be offered free of charge.

You may hold your place one of two ways: Pay and Register online here:
http://www.valeriejonesart.com/art/canvas-uncorked/

Or call or email and reserve your place with either Dedra or Valerie.

Dedra Morgan (918.285.0660) (dlm2nd@gmail.com)
or Valerie Jones (918.335.8318) (valeriejonesart@gmail.com)

Classical Drawing

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:10:00 +0000

Attending class at The Ryder Studio is like reading a good book you can’t put down. It becomes part of who you are. You will not return home the same person. Your heart will ache to go back to the studio to learn more.

“Alex”, Work in Progress

I recently attended a workshop taught by Daryl Reimer at the Bartlesville Art Association. Daryl has attended The Ryder Studio for several years. He taught us the same classical method to drawing that Anthony Ryder taught us when I attended the studio last summer. The workshop re-awakened the fire inside me to learn all I can about drawing and painting as the masters did.

In preparation to attending The Ryder Studio again this summer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I am offering a class this spring teaching the same method. I will give more details about this class in a week or two.

Happy drawing!

Colored Pencil Portrait Class – Work in Progress #3

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:35:00 +0000

“Souzi”, Work in Progress

Last week in class we worked on building up the skin tones on the ear. We learned about how light affects how we use our pencil in the layering process. As the form curves into the light, the lighter pressure we use on the pencil. As the form curves into the shadow, the more pressure we apply. We don’t grind our color into the shadow but rather apply several light layers.

Souzi’s Ear

We ended up using 21 layers of color in the darkest areas of the ear. Isn’t that amazing?!?

During our next class we will either work on skin tones on the cheeks, forehead, and chin or we will work on the nose and mouth.

Happy coloring!

Portrait Drawing Class – Work in Progress #2

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:40:00 +0000

“Souzi”, Work in Progress

We got a lot done in drawing class today! We worked on Souzi’s mouth and her ear. It was fun to draw the pathways in her lips.

We don’t have class next Friday due to an extensive portrait drawing workshop by Daryl Reimer at the Bartlesville Art Association.

Next class, February 17th…we will follow all the wonderful pathways of the face and create the skin tones of the cheeks, chin, and forehead.

Happy drawing!

Portrait Drawing Class – Work in Progress #1

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:12:00 +0000

“Souzi”, Work in Progress

I am so excited for our Friday drawing class to get here! We are working on Souzi in graphite. She looks a little bit like a reverse raccoon at the moment! But just you wait….She’ll be a beauty before too much longer.

Hmmm….what should we work with next? I am thinking we will work on the lips and the ear this Friday.

We haven’t put in her eyelashes. I am going to wait until the end to put those in. I want the skin tones just right before adding those jewels. I will also wait until the end to put the little wisps of hair around her head.

For this drawing, we added the hair first. I usually don’t do that, but her hair is soooo dark. I didn’t want us taking a lot of important class time adjusting skin tones. When a person has dark hair, it is easy to go too light on the skin tones in the beginning.

Happy drawing!

Colored Pencil Portrait Class – Work in Progress #2

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:18:00 +0000

“Souzi” – Work in Progress

We were having so much fun in class on Saturday that before we knew it, class time was over. No one wanted to stop working.

I showed the class how to create eyes. Eyes really bring a painting to life. The eyes are where the soul of a person lies.

Souzi’s eyes are dark, so dark that you can hardly see the pupil. What make the eyes shine is leaving the white of the paper for the highlight. If you get the highlight too small, it is extremely difficult to get it back. So, draw the highlight larger than it really is. You can always make it smaller later.

The whites of the eyes are never white, so we added some color with Prismacolor French Grey 10%, Warm Grey 20%, Cloud Blue, and Periwinkle. Why the blues? The shirt Souzi wore to pose in has blue in it. The blue was reflecting in the whites of the eyes.

Eyes, black & white

I wanted to make sure I was getting the correct value of color in the skin tones around the eyes. I converted the color image to black & white and compared it to a black & white image of the original.

Original Photo

I can see that in the darkest shadow in the creases, I hit the mark. I also see some areas that need adjusting. I will re-work these areas by adding more dark colors. I am leaving the eyelashes out until the values around the eyes are correct.

I am so looking forward to class again on Saturday! We will work on the eyebrows and nose.

Colored Pencil Portrait Class – Work in Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:59:00 +0000

Souzi – Work in Progress

What fun we are having in the colored pencil portrait class! Four wonderful artists and myself are working on “Souzi”.

This is our second week to work on this portrait. Don’t let the hollow eyes frighten you! We will have those beauties put in next week.

We are using the Prismacolor Portrait Pencil Set to complete the skin tones. We are also using Ann Kullberg's Skin Tone Bar as a guideline to select our color values.

The first overall layers or “washes” of skin tone value was put over the whole faces except the eyes and highlight areas. The colors used in these washes are: Cream, Light Peach, Jasmine, Pink Rose, Beige. This was done on the first week of working on Souzi.

The second week, we started modeling her facial features a little more. We used Sand on most of the face. Some areas of the face aren’t quite as yellow, so we only used it as needed.

The next color was Yellow Ochre. Souzi’s facial features really started coming to life when using this color. We used Yellow Ochre only in the shadow areas of the face. These shadow areas are on the right-facing side of her face and around the shadows of her eyes, nose, mouth, and chin.

After using Yellow Ochre, we moved on to Peach. We put Peach everywhere on the skin except the highlighted areas. We leave the highlighted areas the white of the paper. Once color hits these, it is extremely difficult to remove.

We moved on to Salmon Pink after the Peach. Salmon Pink was used only in the darkest part of the shadow areas.

Class time ended way too soon! We are looking forward to next week when we add the eyes and maybe a few more skin tones.

See you again soon!

New Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:24:00 +0000

We recently moved to a different house…with it came lots of wonderful lighting for a studio! I am so excited to finally have natural light to work with.

I made a vow with myself to have studio hours that will be uninterrupted. How did it work today? hmmm….I kept finding things to side-track me. You know….emails, Facebook, music.

What things side-track you from being in the studio?

Upcoming Classes in NE Oklahoma

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:11:00 +0000

"Cara"

I am looking foward to teaching next year at various locations in NE Oklahoma. You can find me Mondays at Hobby Lobby in Broken Arrow for a Beginning Drawing class, on Tuesdays in Owasso for a Beginning Drawing class, on Fridays at the Bartlesville Art Association for a Portrait Drawing class, and on Saturdays at Hobby Lobby in Owasso for a Colored Pencil Portrait class. These classes start in January and go through the first part of March. If you are interested in attending, please register by December 29th, 2011.

Blessings

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:19:00 +0000

“Cara” – work-in-progress

This past week I have been awakened to all the blessings in my life. It’s a wonderful, peaceful feeling that has washed over me as I think about all the people who have walked along side me. Life on earth can be a pleasurable journey.

Above is a graphite drawing of “Cara”. She was one of our models while at The Ryder Studio. I am teaching the method of drawing that I learned while there. I have seven amazingly talented students who are learning how to draw “Cara”.

Mr. Parker – Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:35:00 +0000

Mr. Parker

I delivered this finished drawing to a happy client today!

Mr. Parker – Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Mr. Parker – Work in Progress

As I begin Week 2 of working on Mr. Parker, I find myself smiling back at him! Do your paintings and drawings talk back to you?

A Peaceful Calm

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:03:00 +0000

Mr. Parker, Work-in-Progress

Ever have a day when you want to draw and all your pencil strokes come out choppy? I had such a day recently.

What did I do to remedy the problem? I took a scratch piece of paper and practiced only pencil strokes. As I practiced, a rhythmic feel came over the pencil strokes. As my pencil strokes calmed, so did my breath. Everything seemed to work better.

What kind of technique do you use when you need to create a peaceful calm to draw?

The Ryder Studio – Day 10

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:39:00 +0000

Day 10

The Ryder Studio

Santa Fe, New Mexico

The last day of my experience at The Ryder Studio…an awesome time of learning. I was saddened to see it come to an end. I am looking forward to returning again in the near future!

We learned about drawing hair on the 10th day. The hair is sometimes darker than skin tone and sometimes lighter.

Hair is just another form.

The border of the hair on the head is very important to get.

Don’t draw the block-in as a generic form. Draw it as an appearance of what the person looks like.

Look for the hair shape during the block-in.

Continue the scalp with an imaginary line through the hair to help create the form shape.

To some degree, the hair clings to the head, like a cap.

Hair naturally groups into locks.

When things overlap, use a T-intersection. Same goes for the hair.

We all know what it feels like to put your hair behind the ear. Make that feeling happen.

The locks of hair are sort of glued together, in a sense.

After the shape block-in of the hair, then add the placement of the locks, each with a certain convexity.

For short hair or hair challenged people, draw forests of hair with meadows in-between. Crew cuts, etc.

Hair is glossy and shiny – as it arks up and turns, it reflects a highlight. As it turns back down it starts to darken again.

The highlight cuts across the shape of hair in a different way than it does on the face.

Shapes of shading are shaped like tornadoes.

After the block-in and shape placements, then add tonal washes.

The highlights in the hair follow the shape of the light on the forehead.

The terminator of the jaw-line follows into the hair.

When hair falls into the shadow, you have a less-see zone.

Remember not to over-define areas in the shadows, draw only what you see as accurately as you can.

Hair casts shadows on the face.

As hair is not solid, the cast shadows are not solid. They sometimes are fuzzy. ie: dappled sunlight on the sidewalk from a tree at sunset.

Draw hair in a scruffy fashion instead of smooth and silky. If you are having a bad drawing day, draw some hair.

Hair falls vertically at a faster rate than hair falls horizontally.

Hair has a certain spring to it.

When the curl sits on a shape it curves differently.

Leave the highlights the white of the paper.

Think of mixing eggs for scrambling when applying the pencil to the paper.

Value is an aspect of color. You can give a sense of color about how dark the values become.

When class was finished for the day, this is what I came up with. I drew “Souzy” for 4 afternoons. She isn’t complete at this stage, but she has a good start.

The Ryder Studio – Day 9

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Day 9

The Ryder Studio

Santa Fe, New Mexico

We learned all about ears on the next to the last day at The Ryder Studio.

There is kind of an updraft from the neck out to the ear shape.

The ear is around the horizon, around the side of the face.

Keep in mind that the hair tucks behind the ear.

Where the hair originates from the scalp, it is like it is just born, with little color to it.

Although the ear sticks out, it is rooted to the head.

The rim of the ear is wide to narrow with little kinks in it. It is not smooth! Think of it as having mosquito bites.

The central part of the ear form pushes out.

Pay attention to the tilt of the ear.

While working in the shadows, lightly block in the shadow shapes and gradually work up to the darkest dark.

Remember that drawing tells a story.

And…You get endorphins from foreshortening!

The Ryder Studio – Day 8

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:51:00 +0000

Day 8

The Ryder Studio

Santa Fe, New Mexico

We started Day 8 at The Ryder Studio talking about lips. I learned a lot about how not to fence things in that day.

Anthony Ryder started his demonstration with saying that lips are around the face, from under the nose to the top of the chin, earlobe to earlobe.

When you bring the edge of the mouth up toward the nose, it doesn’t make a corner edge. It tucks up under the lip.

Think of the upper lip like a very round rowboat. If looking up the bottom lip will curve downward instead of upward.

I learned that the terminator lives in the form shadows.

The bottom lip has lobes, like a peanut.

The rim of the lips are not a shape! There is a roundness to it, with little breaks here and there.

Lips are like a string purse.

The lower lip is shaped almost as if you are sticking your tongue out. The diffusion on the bottom lip is not always pronounced on certain people.

Every convex form on the body has a certain degree of roundness.

The forms of the body are non-separate and integrated in the forms around them.

The mouth shape goes into the cheek, helping form the cheekbone area.

With shading, we tend to put the big shapes in and forget to put the smaller interwoven lines of shading on the form.

The Ryder Studio – Day 7

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:00:00 +0000

The Ryder Studio

Day 7

Santa Fe, New Mexico

On the seventh day at The Ryder Studio we learned about noses. Just look at the detail in the picture above that can be seen on the nose! Amazing!

Noses, in general, are wider into the forehead.

A nose has shadows that run at right angles to the direction of the light.

Nostrils are not drawn as exhaust pipes…o o

The tip of the nose has a furrow in it.

The nose is a projection of the skull. It turns with the head. The turned portion of the nose is far shorter than the side closest to you. There is no contour to the opening on the far side.

People like lines because it creates ownership. Do not fence the shadows of the nose in. ie; the nostrils

The mouth is a spherical form. Roundness comes up to meet the bottom of the nose. There is a slight curve at the bottom of the nose as it sits on the top of the lip. The philtrum has sub-forms. The philtrum is wider at the top, toward the nose.

Do not draw a fence around the nose highlight.

Pay attention to shadow shapes and form shapes.

Form is a shape. Shadows have shapes that form from the shape of the form.

Think of the nose as an upside down tree. It has roots going up into the eyebrow areas, way up into the forehead.

The eye is built from the same kind of rhythms coming out of the nose.

The nose is kind of knit into the head.

The light side of the nose has light shadows. Do not make them dark!

Do not overmodel…learn how to integrate the forms into the drawing by being subtle.

Think of the head as a bus and the features are like passengers on the bus. Wherever the head goes, the features go too.

Something to keep in mind…Draw the light on the form and not the skin pigment.

The Ryder Studio – Day 6

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Jones) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:00:00 +0000

The Ryder Studio

Day 6

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Day 6 began the second week of studying with Anthony Ryder at The Ryder Studio! This week proved to fly by in a hurry. Now that I’m home and trying to draw from a live model, I find that I still have a lot to learn.

On Day 6, we learned how to draw eyes. Anthony Ryder began the day by reminding us that the eye is basically a hollow sphere.

The upper eyelashes are thicker than the bottom eyelashes.

From the side view, the triangle shape of the eyelids are foreshortened. The more the person is turned away, the more foreshortened the feature.

Things to think of when drawing -

- The upper lid catches the light.

- The downward facing surface of the upper eyelid is dark, (rounding down).

- The upper side of the bottom eyelid is light.

-The upper eyelid is casting a shadow on the eye surface.

- Highlight is toward the light source on the upper part of the pupil.

-The lower part of the iris will have a smaller highlight.

-The highlight on the pupil (closest to the light source) has a slight anti-halo around it, (sitting on the cornea).

I learned a new term – truncate – to remove part of a geometric shape. Now I can’t remember why I learned it! Guess I need to go back to the studio…

It is very important to get the shape of the eye correctly. It gives the position of the head.

When drawing the highlight of the eye, put a little fence around it. The highlight “floats” in the dark space of the pupil. The highlight is the only part of the portrait that he puts a fence around.

“Iris” is the Greek word for rainbow.

The bottom of the top eyelid line is the “porch”. The eyelid is the “roof”.

The upper eyelid is non-parallel.

Check the angles of the facial plane very carefully.

When setting the eyes on the head, the width of the bridge of the nose- there is a funnel shape from the forehead to the bridge of the nose.

The term “terminator” is the form shadow edge of a shape.

Notice the spinning around shape of the head.

The upper eyelid curves down into itself. It creates a soft edge. The nose edge is almost another form. You will see this in the photo at the top of this post.

The shape of the light is the critical part of the drawing. Kind of like the beef of the hamburger.

The curve is inside of the beautiful shapes.

The pathways of the human form are like flowing curving movements of music.

Celeste Ryder sat with me in the afternoon while I was drawing. She gave me some helpful tips. When drawing the nostril, tuck in the shadow. Ask yourself where is the shadow and where is the light on the form? They eyeball is sitting on the inside of the eyelids. Wrap shapes around and marry it to the form.