Exercise - Portrait from memory

Portrait study from memory/ imagination


I have an idea of who I want to draw but, having settled for the position of the head and done some initial sketches I soon realize that I am not getting close to a likeness  so  decide to  work my drawings towards something that reads as a portrait that could have be drawn from life.

.

Drawings have a cartoon like quality that I don't want in the final picture...

Weapon of choice the yellow pic fine biro, in this the final picture I feel the is a sense of the form of the head, I am happy with the features... tip of nose could benefit from some more shading on the underside. Possibly need to give a better/ stronger indication of the light source (can I blame my choice of medium...), light from the left.

Here I have taken the above image and worked with it in charcoal revisiting some of the features but sticking with the position of the head and mood... adjustments do not bring me closer to the person I was originally thinking of... I feel I have end-up with a Ming the Merciless...not sure what my therapist will make of this.

Exercise - A self portrait

Final self portrait

Revisiting, this exercise this time using a large sheet of paper (A2) using charcoal and a carbon stick.
Here I have done several quick, no longer than ten minutes, portrait studies in charcoal rubbing down the picture when I feel I want to restart/redraw using the same sheet of paper. By rubbing down the pictures I am covering the most of the surface of the paper with charcoal which I will rub into with putty eraser to define/place the highlights.

Charcoal study number 1. I notice here in the jumper I have covered it in the 45 degree linear marks  which seems to be a subconscious/lazy response to a largish areas of my drawings that I do not want to leave blank/ unmarked...overusing this mark (tutor feedback assignment 3)... need to remove when I settle on the finished picture.

Second picture, given the medium, I have rubbed back the first drawing and started to blend the marks to indicate tone.

Third drawing, happy that the the next drawing will be the one I will be the last I add dark marks using a carbon stick, not used it before but apparently it leaves a dark mark and does not smudge as easily as charcoal. Still intend to rub this one down,  this time I will rub the picture in a vertical motion may add something to the finished picture or not.  I have also start to play with the eraser getting a feel for where I believe the lighter areas should be...helping to define the underlying shape of the skull (eg. cheek bones, eye brow, forehead)

Final picture, both wife and kids confirm it looks like me... a positive id. My wife comments that I always look sad in my self portrait drawings.. having read the course notes I am able to reply "frown of concentration is frequent characteristic of self portraits"

Self portrait done using oil pastels using the above pictures for reference rather than a mirror. This drawing became more about the mark making and experimenting with the medium than focusing on the likeness.

Exercise - Drawing your face

Self portrait studies


.

Position of the eyes wrong, to high up the face:

.

.

.

Eyes to close together:

.

.

Exercise - Stance

Quick drawings with line centre gravity reflected, or where I believe the line of balance to be.

.

.

.

.

.

Excercise - Essential shapes

Again I am using the OCA's  Drawing figures supplement document as a reference for the drawings done as part of this exercise, with the intention of adding some examples drawn from life at a later stage.

My understanding of the exercise is to break the body of the model up into basic shapes and or simple three-dimensional forms in order to define the bulk, a sense of the body having mass/volume.

Starting with the basic shapes and rendering  the body as a whole should hopefully help identify measurement issues before you start adding to much detail... don't want to spent a lot of time on one area of the picture only to find out that the composition will not work... feet etc., fall off the edge of the paper (...maybe intentional)

The following are my sketches were I have used shapes to capture the essences of the space taken up by the model:

.

.

.

.

.

Exercise - The longer pose

Aware of the fact that it took me a lot longer that I hoped to get the last section of the course completed, I am going to use whatever resources are available to me in attempt to keep up the pace with my studies. My daughter already asking me to reschedule this,  the longer pose exercise.... That wasn't the deal I have already paid for your concert ticket! 

Anyway, I have found a copy of the OCA Drawing Figures supplement and will use this until models become available...

Following drawings down in pencil (3B). Around forty minutes spent on each drawing and in both cases feel that I have managed to capture the  characteristics of the pose. In the first picture below even though the chair has not been added, I believe given the position of  the knees, hands on the lap that you can  make out the model is in seated position.

When drawing both pictures I am conscious of how different features related and in this way checking that there are know measurement issues. In the drawing below I was aware that the hand resting on front leg was in line with the model's ear.

Also paying attention, even though clothed, as to how the legs connect to the torso, some of the drawings in the previous, short pose exercise suffered on this point.

.

Exercise - Quick poses

Here I have drawn my wife reading a book,  as instructed starting with the 2 minute sketches. I soon realised that I didn't have to get the marks down quite as quickly as I initially thought. There was time to both consider measurement and have a finished sketch that convey enough information to be understood by the viewer.

When considering measurements, mainly,  I am thinking about the edges of the shoulders the position of the elbow and knee joints

1st two minute sketch

Last  two minute sketch (sketch number 5)

Time allowed for the following sketches was ten minutes each. In both drawings I used the time to add more detail rather than focus as,  I probably should have done, on measurement however the problems only really became apparent after the time was up and I studied the finished drawings


Ist ten minute drawing,  legs too short...

2nd ten minute drawing, started drawing on a smaller scale to leave from for the legs. As with all the drawings I started with the head.  Still a problem with the legs, that or the torso is too long... anyway these two parts of the body don't marry-up as I would like.

Life Class (14th April)

Several 1 minute studies of model in various poses. Drawing the studies on one sheet of paper and in some places overlapping figues gives a sense of movement.

3 minute study. With more time, you can start to observe the model less of a rush to get the marks down on the  paper.

3 minute study

5 minute study

5 minute study

10 minute study, more time so I can add in some background detail.

20 minute study. As the time increases, I find I can move away from a purely linear representation of the model and can start to add in tone

Assignment (D1) Three

View through patio window across the back garden, view chosen as it gave the opportunity to include some use of linear perspective,  in the patio slabs, steps and the shed.

Preliminary studies:

Working on the representing the steps:

Settling on composition, balance between the frame of the patio and garden view:

Colour studies:

Final picture, decided on using coloured pencil to encourage more detail: