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Day 23,
Today I decided to try something loosely inspired by Rembrandt, using a brush freehand with no pencil sketch, and expressively communicating the planes of the face.
Day 24,
Today I did a bit of a montage of head quick sketches in my sketchbook, using a combination of the NMA 3D planes of the head model, my own skeleton model, and a small plaster bust that I have in my studio. I mostly used tone to explain certain planes, similar to how Glenn Vilppu uses it at times just to indicate form, rather than capture an actual lighting scenario.
Day 25,
1/4 of the way there! Today I did some more exploration of famous faces. I was more focussed on exploring mark making techniques in combination with getting a quick read for the likeness, so I went right in with a thin pen and built up the drawings instead of doing pencil drawings first.
Day 26,
Today I was mostly focussed on working on a piece from my celebrity portraits project. Here is an in progress stylized Bruce Lee portrait for an editorial context. If anyone has any suggestions for the background vignette, I would love to hear them as I don’t want to just leave it white, but I’m also not sure about what I have already(mirroring the scar shapes on his cheeks).
Day 27,
Today I continued to develop my Bruce Lee editorial portrait and experiment with a more dramatic use of colour, borrowing from the colours used in his vintage film posters.
Day 28,
Today I tried something different and did a quick value block in of a portrait of Amina. I left out most of the detail, and instead focused on blocking in large areas of dark and light. This is really really rough, but I want to train myself to start thinking in abstract shapes and value patterns.
Love that portrait of Bruce Lee. I think you have too much separation between your lines and tones. Try to unify them. Tones can behave like lines and vice versa. Try to get the light and dark illusion to merge more with your linework so that as the viewer we are less aware of the difference and simply experience the illusion.
Thanks Joshua! I was really struggling with unifying the piece, but I think I have some ideas for how to make everything go better together! I’ll probably be posting another version in the next few days!
Day 29:
Today I decided to do something a little more familiar and create another animal portrait. Its still quite rough, but I like the idea of using atmospheric perspective and diminishing detail in the background to draw attention to the subject. Puffins are my favourite birds by far, and I hope to have a chance to see some up close in person one day!
Day 30,
One month in! Today I decided to experiment again with freehand brush pen drawing. I find that it helps me to connect the analytical and creative parts of my brain. While I prefer a more realistic look, this sketchy quality is really popular right now in editorial and lifestyle illustration, so I definitely plan to experiment more with it down the road.
Day 31,
Today I continued to develop my Bruce Lee portrait, this time trying a rim lighting technique to enhance the drama of the scene. It still needs some development, but I’m liking the direction that its heading in so far!
Day 32,
Today I did a 30 minute painting study. It definitely needs a lot of refinement, but I tried to stay more focussed on masses of value. I actually started out using grey’s and experimented with Procreate’s multiply and colour layers to add some colour to it. The eyes aren’t working at all and are more of placeholders, but to be honest I didn’t really want to keep rendering this image because I am more interested in the overall mass of the head at this point, and I know that smaller details will come in time as I get a better handle on my media and edge control.
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