Head drawing class flashback 4: Wonky Self-Portrait

The assignment, of course, was meant to be a regular self portrait (not a semi-creepy weirdo version).  I had super high hopes for it, as I’d been pretty happy with my other images throughout the semester and I’d done self-portraits before that had caught a likeness. Unfortunately, something went awry maybe 10 hours into the project… and no amount of layering on pastels could…

Head drawing class flashback 3: “Man with Hat” (oil redux)

Remember the guy from last week’s post? Well, for another assignment in my head drawing class, we had to use another reference photo of him, but this time we had to “draw” with oil paints. We were supposed to thin the paint out with turpentine, but I hated the smell so ended up using something else- mineral oil, I think?  Anyway, the concept was…

Head Drawing Class Flashback 2: “Man With Hat”

A follow up to last week’s post – another pastel drawing process for “Man with Hat.” I know, I know, where do I come up with these titles? Here’s the black underdrawing…. …and the smeary black chalk overlay… … and then oops, apparently I forgot to photograph the other middle steps. Here’s the finished product:

Head Drawing Class Flashback: “Girl with Dreadlocks”

So, my posting schedule started to suffer at the end of the Fall 2012 semester when I was working on assignments for a head drawing class. Luckily I still have the files for most of them so I’ll post a few of those before my classes for this fall get going in the next couple weeks. After focusing on sanguine/white studies on tan paper,…

caricatures for character design

Caricatures are crazy – how is it that you can exaggerate/minimize features and somehow get a likeness that can – when professionally executed – be more recognizable than a photo?  This guy – Wouter Tulp – is one amazing caricature artist (among his many talents). Hanoch Piven manages to create very abstract caricatures with amazing likenesses, using objects and minimal color. Here are a few…

two portraits of nick

We finally had a module of Head Drawing that required us to take our own photo reference, to practice 3/4 and side lighting for portraits. Nick was very patient as I adjusted the camera and lights a thousand times to take two rounds of photos before they were improved. Each of these drawings took me about 4 hours to complete, using sanguine & white…

man with hat portrait

Here’s a portrait assignment from week 6 of Head Drawing.  Think I went a little wide on this head, he’s narrower in the photo reference. 

focus on ears

Here we had a focus on ears – both for the 3-hour portrait and for the study section. For these ears, my drawings are on the left with the reference on the right. 

focus on mouth & nose

Another one from Head Drawing, focusing on rendering the mouth & nose. The studies are master copies from William Maughan, and the man is from the provided reference photo – I’ve included that here so you can see that the likeness is getting there!

focus on eyes

In Head Drawing, we had a recent module focusing on eyes. The top two are master copies, and the woman is from the provided photo reference.  I think I focused so much on rendering her eye that it ended up out of place! I could probably play with this in photoshop to move it closer in to her nose, and up a bit… but…