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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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.
Okay I know what your thinking, candy cane stripe gesture lines, really? Yes really. This funny name came about in class one day. I was trying to explain how to draw with flowing gesture line. However there were a few students who were just not getting it.
I could tell they were starting to get a little frustrated. So the first thing that came to my mind was a candy cane stripe. Who knows it might have been right around the Holidays.
You see when we draw the portrait and the figure for that matter we tend to become too timid with our lines. We start drawing, attempting to get the likeness and we draw with short choppy lines. Sometimes drawing with a short choppy line is appropriate. Especially in the initial stages of the drawing.
You want to start integrating a looser more flowing continuous line early in the process. Almost as if your are drawing a ribbon wrapping around the features of the head.
Whether you want to call it a ribbon line or a candy can stripe, it doesn ‘t matter. What matters is that you try to draw in a state of flow keeping your pencil on the paper for two to four second intervals.
There is not one specific place I can point to start using this candy cane stripe gesture line. You’ll know it when you see it. It will be different on every portrait you draw. Perhaps it could start with a flowing stand of hair. It can start with a shadow shape shown in the critique video below.
You want to start drawing with these loose flowing lines early in the process when you are starting to flesh out the portrait. You know I’m a big proponent of using the angles and measurements technique. Adding this loose gesture drawing technique into the mix early adds balance to your process.
I challenge you to actually practice drawing cylinders with a ribbon like stripe wrapping around them. You could also think of drawing a mummy’s head. Wrapping a strand of linen around the structure of a head.
There are many words for me to use when trying to describe how to draw in a loose manner. Drawing with candy cane stripe gesture lines is just fun playful way to help you remember to draw with continuous line that wraps around form.
We are here to help you improve your drawings. Whether you are into drawing portraits or the figure we can help learn the necessary skills to improve. Click here to start improving today.
I have to say that I’m one lucky guy. I keep meeting these incredible students, their raw natural talent is awesome. Their work ethic is certainly over the top in some cases. Jun is certainly one of those cases. Not only does she have a natural ability to draw, her work ethic is incredible.
Jun is super young. She is in her first year of college and boy o boy has she sprinted out of the gate. I’ve really been impressed with Jun. She is an easy going quiet gal who puts her head down and cranks through each exercise in class. She also cranks right through the homework always going that very long extra mile.
Now Jun knows that she is just getting started. She certainly has a lot to learn. She always asks me how to improve. Right now she just has to keep doing what she has been doing, putting in the pencil time. Working on the exercises taught in class.
However on her own time Jun has to study more anatomy. She also has to study more about form. Plus she needs to understand the patterns and rhythm of the body.
However let me tell you, there were no students like Jun when I was a freshman in college. She is really kicking some serious butt. I would have loved to be in this class back when I was eighteen years old. Of course my fragile little Italian ego would have been beaten up a bit. But man I would have learned so much just hanging around Jun. I can certainly say her work ethic would have rubbed off on me the most.
I ask my students all the time about their dream job. It’s a super important question. It’s sets you up for clear thinking in terms of which direction you should take your practice.
Jun wants to be a character designer for video games. I’m pretty confident in saying that’s exactly what she will be.
My favorite Jun quote, “I don’t like to go out and party, I like to stay inside and draw in my sketchbook all night”. Unstoppable focus comes into my mind.
Now get out there and draw. Don’t be perfect, just draw.
Nope Jun doesn’t have a Tumblr, Deviant account nor Instagram. She says she is too lazy to update that stuff. I’d say she is right on track to conquer the world.
Jun draws completely from her memory for some drawings in her sketchbook. For others she uses photo reference for inspiration as well as to copy. She also draws a lot from life . Jun uses Prismacolor Col-erase pencils as well as HB mechanical pencils.
Do you love figure drawing as much as I do? I’m certainly most passionate about drawing the figure. But when I first started my drawings looked flat. My figure drawings had hard edged outlines.
Back in the day when I first started out as an illustrator I certainly wasn’t getting a lot of work. My agents introduced me to one of their established illustrators. He was so busy they suggested that I help him out while they were trying to get me work.
I agreed and I’m glad I did. He turned me onto the whole whole convex line thing. He actually did it through painting. Specifically portraits. It was like the floodgates of form driven art had opened up for me. That old saying is pretty true, you don’t know what you don’t know. All of my drawings had that awful hard edged flat outline. I also outlined items in my paintings too.
Now through years of life drawing I almost take for granted the whole convex line thing. If you study the work of the old masters you’ll see what I mean. The line they use on the edge of the body roles into the figure creating three dimensional form. Just like I demonstrated in the video critique.
I highly recommend that you complete a copy of the old master drawing up above. You can download a copy of the original here. Then compare the copy to your own work. You will immediately notice the difference. Especially in the contour line.
Raphael is certainly a master at merging his line and tone.
Knowing where to put these form lines in and around the figure can be a bit confusing. Especially if you haven’t taken the time to study anatomy. I see this big time with my students. They are freshman, so most of them haven’t had the chance yet to study anatomy. When they draw a clothed figure I see that they use form driven convex line, but drawing the figure, no way. It just doesn’t click for them.
I suggest to my students to study one bone a week. Where you see bone close to the surface of the skin, that’s where the convex lines are. Mostly at the joints of the body. The knee, ankle, elbow etc.
So be conscious of your line. Study anatomy and use form driven convex line to create three dimension within your drawings.
Thanks for reading.
Looking to learn more about line? We have a whole mini course on how to utilize line over at Drawing Tutorials Online.
