Trois Crayons Figure Drawing
4yr
Philipp Meyer
Hi,
lately I have been trying to figure out how to use the trois crayons (three chalk) approach. The images show a drawing I used as reference and my attempt. Sadly I cannot remember the original artist of the reference image.
It is unclear to me, how to decide, which areas to consider as cool (black) and which areas to consider as warm (sanguine). Is there any approach or rule that has been particularly successful? For example: "Always keep the cast shadows and core shadows cool and form shadows warm."
I couldn't figure out any logic like that behind the choice of colour temperature in the reference drawing. Any inside or thought on that topic is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
- Philipp
Perhaps, beyond the way of how light travels through form the decisions of what areas would be cool or warm falls under artistic intuition and what you would like to portray? Perhaps that's why you didn't find a pattern to it in your reference. I've never tried this myself, so take this with a big grain of salt.
Beautiful, well done.
Very good technique.
The shapes are so gentle and smooth!
Maybe assign the color based on value. Example: Black for the darkest value; Sanguine for the medium value; etc.
Oh wow! You did a really good job I think! As for cool/warm tone regions, for now I think basically it's for shadow and lit areas, and actually it's quite free, you don't need to rule that down very precisely. From the original image you can actually see the warm light source and the reflected warm light on the body, indicating it's probably from a warm blanket underneath or something, while the feet are largely cooler.
Thanks for your answer.
A blanket reflecting warm light would make for a logical reason for the warm reflected light in the torso area. Maybe it would be better to have a photo reference or life model and choose the colour temperatures according to what one sees in the model. Otherwise I guess it's hard to reverse engineer the particular artists's process one is referencing.
- Philipp
