Commissioned double portrait in graphite.

[LEWIS MACKENZIE]

A friend recently moved house and asked me to do a portrait drawing of her kids as a gift to her husband to mark the occasion. Ethan and Emily WILL NOT pose together so I had to do a kind of compositing exercise using photos she supplied, and come up with and arrangement that hopefully kind of worked. She loves it and it’s in the post now, so no backsies, but I would be grateful for some feed back on the design.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by LEWIS MACKENZIE.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by LEWIS MACKENZIE.

[Timo Kähara]

Nice work! You have captured those emotions well.
Design-wise it works aswell. One might think that her arm is too close to the edge but visually the sitting boy (left from the centerline) is balancing it. Maybe the whole composition should be slighly more to the left, but that’s just maybe.
In terms of anatomy i’m not sure about her left elbow, but maybe it really looket that way.

Thanks for sharing!

[Carlos Perez]

Hey Lewis, It’s super that you had that comission and that she liked it.

Craft wise I’ll suggest you get deeper into your fundamentals studies, here is a list of New Master courses that will walk you through .

Beginner’s guide to Drawing with bill perkins

Strees Free sketching with Sheldon Boreitein

you could continue with

Constructive Figure drawing with Steve huston

Composition for visual artits  with bill perkins

All of them are super enjoyable , we’re super looky to have them .

[LEWIS MACKENZIE]

Thanks Timo! Sorry for not replying sooner. I agree, I think things maybe could have been shunted leftwards a bit. I know that elbow looks a little unusual, but I think it’s because of a developmental condition both kids were born with.

Carlos – thanks for the content and the list of suggested courses. I am planning to work through the Russian academic course once I get some more materials together. We are really spoilt for choice on this site!

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