Colin Bradley Art Cast

Announcing a brand new section to Colin Bradley Art: Demonstrations

Back when I would travel the country doing demonstrations at shows and art groups, I would show off just how good the pastel pencils can be. I loved this part of the job because of the audience reaction. The “oohs” and “aahs” were actually audible in the crowd, they were seeing magic.

When we choose projects for our students, we have to think about how the subject material will translate to a lesson. Would it make a good lesson and would the student be able to do it?

Well, with Demonstrations I am truly showing what the Pastel Pencils can do and more importantly, how far you can take them.

In truth, I have surprised myself with the work I have produced. I didn’t intend for people to follow them as a project as they are very difficult. It’s more to show you advanced techniques and the results you can achieve with the pencils.

If you have read my art story then you will know I am an avid fan of John Constable’s work. In this first demonstration I will show you how I did his picture of “The Cornfield” with pastel pencils.

If you would like to hear behind the scenes of why I chose Constable, the materials I used and what’s to come. Here is a transcription of the episode if you want to read the show

Stephen Bradley: Hello and welcome to Colin Bradley Art Cast, I’m Stephen Bradley

Colin Bradley: and I’m Colin Bradley

Stephen Bradley: this is a very special show, people don’t realise what’s coming up but this is something that we’ve been planning for a long time and it’s really exciting to be able to talk about it finally and reveal it.

Colin Bradley: I’ve been chomping at the bit as you know with the last podcast we’ve been doing.

Stephen Bradley: and we have been teasing…

Colin Bradley: hold back Colin

Stephen Bradley: we’ve been teasing people a little bit as well, haven’t we?

Colin Bradley: yeah

Stephen Bradley: throughout talking about PastelMat, talking about this and that, well finally we can reveal what it’s all about and what’s to come. So, we’re launching…we will talk about it in a moment throughout this podcast but in a brief summary we’re introducing a new section on the website for ALL IN members only called “demonstrations”, and these pictures are in one word stunning, it’s unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. No holding back, this is incredible to watch. So, let’s start because the first picture which people would have hopefully seen by now, it would be on the website, it will be on the Facebook page, you can check it out while you’re listening to this. We’re going to talk about the first demonstration which is “Constable’s -”, what’s the actual?

Colin Bradley: The Cornfield

Stephen Bradley: So why constable? Why did you choose this demonstration of the Cornfield from Constable and why him?

Colin Bradley: Well, first of all why constable, well as people would know if they’re regulars and have known me a while I’m a great Constable Fan and I started off in the National Gallery as people know from the art story, I saw his work there and was bowled by it and I remember thinking of myself at the time one day I would love to do that, not realising I was practical not realising I would never would be able to, but one day. So, it’s really come full circle…why Constable? he’s a great artist and there’s nothing about his work that you can look at and think yeah well that’s okay but, his skies were great, his trees were phenomenal, his characterisations were out of this world and one of the things I remember looking at his pictures in the National Gallery, I got as close as I possibly could to the picture and I didn’t understand how he can create a character with just splashes of a paintbrush, that’s all it was, twist here, twist there and he had a character. But I realised that that’s where the mastery is, that’s where the true artist comes from, it’s something that you having inside you(continued)

In this episode Colin answers your questions including "when do you call yourself an artist?"

Listen to his advice as we discuss this and other points including laying enough pastel to cover the paper and the 2 Ballet Dancers picture.

In this episode we talk about how Colin achieves a "harmony" throughout his pictures, using the Two Pretty Birds picture as an example. We also discuss how the colour of the paper can influence your pictures and Colin explains why dark grey PastelMat is becoming one of his favourite papers to use.

Other topics for this week include drawing tree leaves, Tiziano Ingres and off-white papers.

In this episode we answer your questions and talk about Colin's recent pictures in PastelMat. Questions we cover include:

- Copyrighting your Pastel Paintings

- Erasing and Blending on PastelMat

- Drawing the Northern Lights

- Correcting Over Application with Fixing

If you enjoy our podcast we'd love it you could leave us a review over on iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/colin-bradley-art-cast/id591646841

In this episode Colin begins talking about his process of choosing pictures and challenging himself. We also recount some key turning points in his career and inspirations.

We also talk about impressionism, the new picture Hopalong Cassidy and which base colours to use on darker paper.

In this episode we cover a number of your emails and questions. We discuss:

> Laying down too much base colour

> How much pressure to use with Pastel Pencils

> Differences between using warm and cool tones

> Building base colours

Items mentioned on the show:

> Harry's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqp5eHE8m8UlviPD20Ra52w

> Harry's Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev3uJVqoEm0&feature=youtu.be

> Harry's Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel Written Review: http://www.theartgearguide.com/home/faber-castell-pitt-pastel-pencils

> The Art Gear Guide Website: http://www.theartgearguide.com/

> Faber-Castell Colour Chart: www.colinbradleyart.co.uk/home/new-faber-castell-colour-chart/

> Link to Feedback Show #43: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6GFf-UkAgQ

In this podcast Colin shares his experience of teaching in person classes. We also answer your questions including:

- Drawing Black & White Portraits

- Storing Pictures

- Drawing your own pictures

- Drawing white hairs over a background

- Filling Paper with enough Pastel

- Painting animals with watercolour

HO HO HO!!

We cover a lot of topics in this last show before the New Year:

> Crushing the paper and how many base colours to lay

> How to make animals more realistic by interpreting what you see

> Choosing colours for portraits

> Which graphite pencils to use for a graphite project

> Drawing Bricks and Buildings

> Using Sand Paper for Pastel Pencils

We end the show with a couple of success stories which we hope will inspire others to see what they can achieve.

Merry Christmas and have Happy New Year! Here's to all the stunning projects coming out in 2018!

We answer a number of questions on this week's podcast. Topics include scanning your artwork, drawing flamingos, upcoming calendar of projects and combining using polychromos and soft pastel on ingres and pastelmat papers.

In this episode we answer a number of questions including:

Struggling with watercolour

Blending vs Not Blending

Sharpening Soft Pastels

Copying Victorian Paintings out of Copyright

Working from Dark to Light

Laminating your work.

Keep your questions coming into us via: [email protected]