My favorite part of having Ron as a student is teasing her about not liking Chocolate. Every once it a while I’ll purchase fun snacks for my students. Sometimes it’s candy while on other days it could be donuts. One day I noticed Ron didn’t touch any of it, she told me she hated chocolate. So I started buying her fruit, it gave us both a good laugh.
Maybe it’s best that Ron doesn’t get that sugar low. The sheer volume of drawing’s in her sketchbook is pretty inspiring. The craziest thing about Ron, she primarily drew digitally before enrolling in my class. No pencil. When you look at the improvement it has got to push you to draw more.
I hope you enjoy browsing through Ron’s sketchbook. She flipped through it at a pretty fast rate. There is so much to see. The more detail Ron puts in her art the more it pulls me in. I love that about her work. What do you like about Ron’s sketchbook?
I wanted to take a moment to share another student sketchbook with you. Clara has an awesome sense of design. Her use of color is pretty cool too.
As I browse through Clara’s sketchbook it’s almost as if I’m taking a tour of her home. With each page representing a different room with it’s unique feel.
I’m really fortunate to have met Clara. Clara was not originally enrolled in my class, thank goodness she stopped by on week two to ask if she could register. Thank goodness I said said yes!
Clara has so much to offer. All of the the other students gain so much from watching her work. She offers so much diversity in her technique and design.
Clara just really rounds out the classroom with her sophisticated design.
As you work in your sketchbook experiment with some of the techniques used by Clara in her sketchbook. Try adding some more color, shape and texture.
Also try using different pencils and markers. Your sketchbook should be a fun safe place to experiment. Be different and unique.
Thanks so much for taking the time to check out Clara’s sketchbook video. Leave us a comment letting us know what you think.
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Pretty short blog post today. I’ll let Scott’s work speak for itself. I just absolutely love the gorgeous line, the fun cute characters, the environments, it’s all super cool. I really love everything about Scott’s sketchbook!
What is going on in your brain while drawing a portrait? Are you stressing over your pencil paper combination? Are you concerned about not being able to draw the models likeness?
Wow that sounds really familiar to me. I’ve stressed over both of those concerns many many times. Especially when I first started drawing. What works much better is thinking about several core portrait drawing techniques.
Don’t think about what is not working in your portrait drawing, instead focus on what will help you. Take a moment to watch this short video critique below.
The question you should be asking yourself, where is the light coming from. Get a clear picture of the light shapes and shadow shapes. Of course when you start physically drawing you want to draw with angles and measurements. Specifically with portraits you want to focus on the negative space around the head.
Form is another element you should be thinking about. How are you going to draw a three dimensional portrait? Do you know the major landmarks of the skull?
How about your value set up? Having a clear goal for your value set up in huge when drawing a portrait.
Below is a list of several core drawing techniques you want to focus on. Write them down and keep them close by the next time you start a new portrait drawing.
Start with angles and measurements.
Be aware of the negative Space.
Be clear on the light direction.
Draw the shape of the hair versus the shape of the face.
Promote form, be clear with showing surface planes.
Shade the shadow shapes in a top to bottom solid way. Use a simple three value set up.
Stay loose working the whole drawing, don’t get stuck in one area.
Of course when it comes to teaching portrait drawing words can be clumsy. However rotating this short list of drawing techniques will help you tremendously.
If you would like to learn more about portrait drawing consider subscribing to Drawing Tutorials Online. We love drawing portraits, it is certainly our biggest department.
I wanted to take a moment this Holiday weekend to share a pretty cool sketchbook with you. Phoebe is an incredibly talented student enrolled in my foundation drawing class at the School Of Visual Arts in Manhattan New York. First off I have to thank Phoebe for sharing her sketchbook. Phoebe is wonderful to have in class. She puts her full effort into every assignment.
What I love most about Phoebe’s work is the diversity in her character design. No two characters look the same. She has a natural ability to draw a characters personality with little effort. Her characters show both emotion and movement. Certainly not an easy thing to accomplish.
Phoebe’s life drawings and character designs are one in the same. She can really draw people with their emotions shining through.
This is certainly a unique gift Phoebe has been blessed with. Phoebe’s work will certainly grow and mature with time. I am really looking forward to watching her progression, it will be amazing.
