Drawing Project

Yesterday when I read Roz’s blog post about projects, an idea flashed in my head to work on finishing one small, daily, quick portrait. I decided to make this a project. The plan is to spend 15 - 20 minutes per portrait and to shoot for 6 days per week. The overall goal is to get back to daily or almost daily creating. 

I started yesterday. Both the drawing from yesterday and today were done with a 6B pencil. I am using rather small paper and a dull pencil, so fine details are out. That makes it easier to “finish” a drawing.  

I am not posting the source photos, which come from the Museum app. For the top drawing, both eyes were looking up and I only got that with one eye. When drawing females, it’s hard not to “age” them. I really enjoyed trying to capture the shapes of her hair. 

Self Portrait

Back in January 2021, I started a self portrait project and I made a specific pamphlet for it. The goal is to draw one portrait per month and I’ve been trying to do that within the 1st week of the month to prevent procrastination. I’m a little late this month. It will take me 2 years to fill the pamphlet. 

At the beginning of the year, I was focusing more on faces and portraits, so one reason for this project was to see what changed over time from a drawing perspective. Although, currently, I have not been drawing faces. 

The other reason for this project is getting to know my own face in a different way. Most of the time, I’m on auto-pilot with respect to my face. When I look in the mirror there it is, but it’s changing, as I get older and my relationship to it also keeps changing. 

The thing I keep coming back to is that there’s been something deep and profound about having pictures of several people that I am biologically related to and it’s changed how I relate to my own face.

40 Minutes

I worked on this pair of eyes for 40 minutes. 

These are very much in the style of France Van Stone, a popular artist on Sktchy, since I am slowly working through her class on Sktchy Art School related to eyes. I did choose a different set of eyes to draw versus the ones she demonstrated.

I had a good “aha” moment yesterday both from the class video and and from this drawing, about translating from a 2-d picture to trying to suggest the 3-d-ness of how the eyes nest in the eye socket. It was a little like the nose “aha” moment from last month, although in truth I’ve gone back to struggling with noses again. One thing I keep learning is that this is not a straight path. Those “aha” moments are a big step forward, which are usually followed by several big steps back. Eventually, a bunch of things will coalesce. 

France’s finished portraits all have a high degree of shading and hatching, so eyes don’t like this don’t look so goofy and out of context. Her overall style is not for me, since I don’t have the patience, most of the time, to work at this level of detail. At the rate I work, it would take me days to finish one portrait. 

What is my style? What am I doing? What do I want to accomplish overall? No clue. I should put some more thought into this at some point. For now, it seems more like all learning is good learning. As I look ahead to my April project, it’s going to be a hodge podge, since there are a few loose ends from earlier projects and I also want to do some prep work for my May project. 

As March and my March project nears the end, I also completed the last of five Alun Armstrong portraits.

It’s Alun Armstrong Month

Roz declared here that March is Sketch Alun Armstrong month.  I confess that I didn’t know who he was, however I decided to fit a few Alun Armstrong portraits into my general March project involving portraits and I am glad that I did.  First, the overall idea is just playful.  Second, he has a really fascinating face.  Third, I’m finding it easier to work on trying to sketch people I don’t know.  If I only get a partial resemblance, it doesn’t bother me.  

Here’s the portrait that I worked on yesterday and today.  The eye on the left is off as to placement and shape, but otherwise I’m very pleased with the result.  

The first one I did had less resemblance.

For both of these, it was such a good exercise to push myself to complete a piece. The one in pencil is more of a sketch, but it’s a complete one.  Honestly, I am kind of amazed that I can do this.

Last Month

In February, I worked on portraits as a project and mostly I worked through a Skchy Art School class about the Loomis method. It was taught by Mike Creighton.  He did a good job of showing and explaining this method in the videos.  I still need to watch the last one which is a beginning to end frontal view portrait and also to watch 3 of the live Q&As which were filmed when the class first dropped in August of 2020. 

I've found that I really don't like sitting and watching videos but I am coming to terms with the fact that it is a good way to learn, especially during a pandemic.  Most days, I split my project time about 50% watching/learning and 50% doing. 

Here is a portrait of a Sktchy muse (that's what they call them) at the beginning of the month before I started to watch the videos. 

Here is the same muse at the end of the month.  I didn't even remember the sketch from the beginning of the month until I started to document and do my month-end evaluation.  If I had planned, I would have waited and gone through the 3rd to last lesson, which was a full run through of the profile view.  Even so, I think the proportions improved a lot from the beginning of the month. 

Part of the resemblance issue is getting someone to look the right age.  In both of these, she looks older than she is. I'm not that hung up on resemblance at this point, especially since I am discovering that I really need to slow down to truly see actual facial features.  After that, it's the issue of trying to get the right shapes and angles and when you are trying to capture the exact shape of an eye or how lips some together in the corner it's a lot of tiny details.  

In March, I am going to continue to work on portraits.  I want to finish Mike's class and start to use some of the other resources that I found.

Hurrah! February Is Almost Over

Back in college, my favorite professor would bring donuts to her classes on the last day of February to celebrate that the month was coming to an end. I mostly believe in letting things be as they are and not wishing away time to pass more quickly than it should, however February can be a trying month and February in a pandemic is even more trying. 

On a personal note, something switched several days ago. I think it’s the combination of some sunny days, warmer temperatures (although I do love snow and am a little sad when it melts) and longer days. When I’ve been waking up in the morning, I’ve just been feeling more like myself with both a little more spark and a little more energy.  

Given where we are in the pandemic, I’m not expecting to see things change in a macro way any time soon, but I can see where things have changed and will continue to change in a micro way. Meeting people for socially distanced walks outside is doable again. When I go out walking, I run into neighbors more often and we stop and chat for a minute. I know people who have gotten vaccinated and rather than be envious, I think with every vaccine which is given and every day which passes where people are being vaccinated, it’s getting closer for both me and the hubby. I’ve started the seeds in the basement which need a long time to grow, such as leeks and some of my herbs. At some point, juggling club will start meeting in the park again. Yes, this is last on is still ways off, but the overall trend of all of this is positive.  

From an art-marking perspective, I’ve been working on portraits or facial features all month. I’ve mostly focused on the  Loomis method from the Sktchy class. Yesterday, I watched and followed along to the video where we worked through a profile view together as a culmination of the prior lessons. Today, I worked solo using the same source picture.  The next several days, I plan to finish up class with the straight on view and 3/4 view.  

Overall, progress has seemed slow and resemblance is still a big issue, but I’m pleased with where I’m getting by showing up and working each day. I think I will continue with portraits in March. 

It’s A Face

Since the month is more than half gone, I decided to look to some of my other resources.  That meant pulling a beginning drawing book off the shelf and looking at the pages devoted to doing portraits.  This book had a different way to approach the proportions of a straight on view.  Trying this was good and also it was good to go back to trying a full, but unfinished, portrait, since I’ve mostly been practicing noses, eyes, and mouths from the Sktchy class on the Loomis method.  I noticed that I’ve been getting a little too fussy about it all and I think I need to pick up the pace to a slightly uncomfortable level to keep moving along and prevent getting stuck in one place for too long.  That started to happen with noses.  Right after I felt like I was really starting to get noses, I lost it. I wanted it back so I started to try harder, which didn’t work.  It got frustrating.  Eventually, I realized that it was better to move on. When I took Roz's online drawing class, the pace was brisk. I'm not going for that.  I want a pace that leaves me just slightly off balance.

Here’s what I did today.  It’s a face. I used my own reflection from a mirror, but the resulting drawing is not my face.  It’s vaguely related to it (like maybe a 2nd to 3rd cousin), but it’s not my face.  Since I’m working on newsprint, it’s also a crinkly face.  This paper does not lay flat on the easel and any crinkle in the paper catches light in a weird way.   

All of that is okay, since resemblance is not the goal.  Working on portraits this month has stretched me and has been helpful.  I feel like I’m making better lines, seeing more clearly, capturing shapes better, and improving proportions and placement.  

So There

 I'm not going to say that it's good.  The ear is positioned incorrectly (too high).  The eyes are wrong, out of alignment, and even disturbing.  The glasses aren't the right shape and the shadow from the glasses does not work.  The nose is too long.  It also lacks much resemblance.  I could go on and on.  Let's just say that there is a lot which is off.  Perhaps this shouldn't be the first thing I draw after completing the drawing portion of Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain and working on getting skills to improve accuracy.  Too bad, because in another way this is a perfect drawing.

Portrait - 8" x 10"

I just went for it.  It's what I wanted to do and I did it.  So many times, I put myself in this little box where there are all of these rules which just get in the way.  I am trying to dispose of that little box.  I've wanted to try this ever since I watched this video which Roz found and shared shared with her students, since several of us are working on self portraits.  

I did an initial drawing and filled in the first layer of highlights. I lost this shape as a I kept working. 

My original drawing wasn't that accurate.  I was working upstairs and the lighting wasn't that good when I started.  I had trouble seeing the underlying sketch and it got worse, although I'm not going to complain about a sunny day in January.  It was too hard to move every thing and, by that point, I was beyond worrying about accuracy.  I just wanted to play and be a little audacious.  

Yup, the internal critic showed up and I didn't tell him to bug off.  I should have.  I really, really should have.  Instead at some point, I forgot he was there since I was so into coloring.  I know this makes me sound like the people in the little white jackets might need to stop by for a visit, but if you have ever really listened to the voice in your head you know what I mean.  I also know that this is where the box and the stupid rules come from and I'm trying to banish those too.  

I want to continue to improve my accuracy, but I also want this type of freedom.  It took me awhile to figure out that when I look at other people's artwork, I almost always see freedom in what they are doing (although they may not see it that way) and what I was really seeing was what I want for myself.  

I used Caran d'Ache Neocolor II crayons and it's the first time I've used them.  It won't be the last time. They are really fun and you can really layer with them.  When I first added all of the yellow, I thought "Ugh", but you don't see any of the harsh yellow at the end. 

Here's the last full drawing from when I was working through the book.  It has a much better resemblance, but also has a few issues.  I had my hair pulled back tightly, since it's really starting to bug me.  I haven't had a hair cut since June or July.  At some point when life gets safer, I am going back to short hair. 

I really like my glasses, but they are hard to include while also trying to get accurate eyes.  They also cast shadows which are a pain to deal with.  I might try to do some self-portraits without them, since I mostly need them to read.