Portrait course, lesson # 7

We had the same model as last time. However, I didn’t feel so good, and drawing was a bit of problem. Somehow I muscled through, but I had to stay until the end for this one. Mistakes galore, I’m afraid.

1. Initial setup, after two failed attempts.

2. Although the model was very punchy, I kept my eye on my drawing.

3. The eyes were too small, so I had to make them bigger.

4. The shape of the eye was all wrong, so I had to adjust that.

5. I had the Cupid’s bow draw the wrong way (to her left, and had to correct that. I also paid attention to the shadows on her left side.

6. After making her face as lifelike as I was able to, it was time to make the hair in the same draw. Here I used the kneaded rubber and charcoal stick alternatively, to give a rough impression of her curly hairdo.

Profile sketches based on a tutorial by John Buscema

In the book How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way, by Stan Lee and John Buscema there is a tutorial on how to draw pretty girls. The tutorial starts out with how to draw girls in profile, then continues with a front view, expressions, how to draw features, viewing angles and style choices. So it’s a pretty comprehensive tutorial, which requires a lot of practice to be able to go through the different sections of the tutorial. Of course, it is practice what it’s all about, the tutorial is just to guide you, not a means in itself, to be copied literally.

This week I started with the profile drawing section of beautiful women, and here are some of the results. All these sketches are based on photos I found on Flickr, by doing an image search.

October 13, 2010:

October 14, 2010:

October 15, 2010:

October 16, 2010:

I can see some improvement in only four days. The point is to let go of the tutorial, since it is only a crutch, and develop your own method. However, at this moment I don’t feel confident enough to do just that. Perhaps in a few months time I’ll be ready to do that, but until then I need something to help me, because it is so easy to lose concentration and goof up a drawing.

Next up is the face in front view. I will be coming back to profile view, because both views help you to previsualize a head when drawing a model, or someone passing by. I’m guessing this previz is important if you want to get a quick likeness of someone. After all, most people won’t sit still, so you have to envision a head, rather than to draw what you see, literally. When fast moving beings, such as children and pets this only gets worse. There you have no choice but to form an image in your mind of the subjects’ basic forms, and add features to it while you’re observing them in the real world.

Portrait course, lesson # 6

This time there was a young lady posing for us. We didn’t have a full class, but enough to have a good atmosphere. At least, there was trouble positioning the easels around the model on a stage.

1. After I tried to draw the position of the slits of the eyes, nose holes and mouth on a scrap piece of paper, I knew how to draw the model. The rest was just a matter of getting the details right.

2. I added the hair, indentation of the throat between the collar boans, and started the shading. However, I had not yet noticed that the head wasn’t deep enough.

3. I added most of the shading, but there was something not right about this head. So I asked the instructor.

4. The instructor pointed out that the upper hair line was deeper. To me that meant agreeing that the head was drawn too shallow (not deep enough).

I also had noticed the earrings, which are quite large, so not noticing them was a big oversight. Luckily, it was easy to put them in at this stage.

5. I had a real struggle getting her hair right, but since the instructor wasn’t commenting on in, I guess the structure was more or less sound.

6. I think this was as far as I could go with my current skills. I’m pleased with the result, and I believe the model liked the omission of her lazy eye. Well, I just wanted to make her look beautiful, which she appreciated.

Portrait course, lesson # 5

The instructor didn’t have a model for us this week (they are really hard to get, it seems). So we had to draw each other, full body, instead of the regular portrait drawing. We were 10 students and each of us sat 10 minutes in the middle of the classroom, while the others tried to draw the student. Each of us had to turn a little bit, so we all drew from different angles, but more or less we would draw all angles, be it from different (temporary) models. Since I was one of the students, and I can’t draw myself while I’m posing, there are only 9 drawings.

Here they are.

I started posing, and there was a coffee break after 5 sessions. Not all poses went as smoothly as I hoped. I had a tendency to draw freehand and not notice the pose was out of balance (where the head was in relation to the feet). Luckily, the instructor pointed me to these mistakes. The proportions were mostly right after the third sketch.

Although we dearly missed a model, this was still a very useful exercise. There is a body attached to that head. Also, the backside is a side too. I found the front facing pose the most difficult, though.

Afterwards, many told they were exhausted, and that the last two sketches were hard to concentrate on.