“If the eyes are the window to the soul, then perception is the world the soul lives in.”
Amy Jalapeno
People are not my favourite subject to draw and I make no secret of preferring a paper cut on my cornea to doing people portraits. Give me animals and wildlife any day. However the exception to this rule is exposing a fleeting expression in an ordinary moment that makes me pause and imagine their story. In these artworks of many different mediums, each piece tells its own story and the challenge is given to the viewer to experience a life through a moment.
The Hamar people in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley use mud and natural materials in their traditional art and culture. This is part of their unique way of decorating themselves. The muddy braids were completed in several layers of umbers for the mostly mostly brown and red based muds, but I used sienna and ochres for the facial adornments.
With more than 80 different tribal ethnicities, Ethiopia’s culture and traditions go back over 3000 years. This young boy from one of the many diverse Omo valley tribes is the subject of my first pastel portrait drawing. Truly I was winging it as an artist, purely enjoying the process and exploring the beautiful buttery blending of soft pastels combined with the delicate details pastel pencils. Pastel pencils render additional control for fine details such as the hair, beading and animal hides. I selected a neutral sand coloured background with a medium tooth, as the background colour will have a profound effect on the finished artwork. As a pastel drawing, this also means similar to sketching, I won’t be filling in the background. In contrast pastel paintings utilise the whole area of the canvas.
Chocolate was the base colour as it has the rich red undertones for this tribe’s particular skin tones, but it was also mixed with Burnt Carmine, Elderberry, Burnt Earth and various Umbers. The beauty of working with pastels is the process – applying the layers, gradually blending and building the colour but also being mindful of how much pigment the paper tooth can comfortably hold. My biggest tip? Don’t be tempted to overwork your pastel drawing.
How wonderful are elderly humans with wisdom, experience and stories etched in their faces. This lady is a Burmese Myanma elder.
Canson Mi-Teintes paper is my paper of choice as it has mid-range colours that sit in the 50/50 range between black and white. This piece is a fabulous example of why paper colour is so important as the colour will show through, and can be used to create mood. In this case – balance and harmony, in other cases contrasting colours may be used to create drama and excitement. Her clothing had so many interesting textures to capture.
After my pastel of the Omar Tribal boy, I completed a rare portrait commission for a wedding photo to be in pastels, and which eventually winged its way to Zimbabwe.
Scribbling is a unique, very careless yet expressive way of drawing where the technique is literally scribbling movements that are applied with varying pressures, and letting the pen roam across the paper with minimal lifting, focusing on some areas to create shadows and merely passing through where light is hitting the subject. A small series of scribble drawings can be seen here.
I find that all work at some stage goes through the ugly phase – great example below left. This is the point where it is beneficial to concentrate on the tones and shapes, and take away the brain’s attempts to make sense of the drawing as a whole face in this case. By doing this, once stepping back, it is amazing how it pulls together. Interestingly this gentleman’s face was not naturally symmetrical so I had to ensure I didn’t try to correct his true facial features. And then there was his beard. There are approximately ten layers in the beard as the shadows and overlays of fine hairs built his beard in all its fullness. Now that process was seriously cathartic.
Who I Am
Take the Shot
A fun series of my youngest son in ink the year we juggled 3 sports not including his school representations. When he was four he said “One day I will play for Australia”. Recognised by his coaches as a phenomenal natural talent in a multitude of sports, training often 7 days a week, wins, draws and losses, friendships and sports fields, bad coffee, smelly socks. You made it Hayden.
Andrea Hayes Fine Art & Illustration 