Deborah’s 100 Day Figure and Head Challenge

[Debbie H]

This is the view from our house, looking at Mt Wellington. Hobart is just beyond and to the right.

[Bryan Mccabe]

Wow, that is a really beautiful location. Have you thought about painting some landscapes🙂?

[Debbie H]

Day 62: ‘Vanna.’ Graphite. Complete, unless you have any feedback that could help me improve it.

Thanks Bryan 🙂. So far I’ve have had no desire to paint landscapes, though I certainly enjoy being in a nice one! That could change one day but for now, I’m happy doing what I’m doing.

[Donatella Taghetti]

wow, beautifull view :-))) lucky to have such a panoramic infront of the house!!

[Donatella Taghetti]

it is very nice , she have a sweet outstraling!!! did u copy from a Photo?

[Bryan Mccabe]

Really beautiful work Deborah 🙂.

[Debbie H]

Hi Taghetti. Thank you for your kind words 🙂. I did use a photo, one of the NMA reference photos, but I have been doing a lot of work recently to understand skull and head structure and the planes of the head. Thus whilst measuring from the photo, I also used the knowledge I have been learning. I could not have done it simply by trying to copy facial  features. If you go back to my previous page, you can see my progress photos for this drawing. I also changed her hairstyle from the photo.

Thank you Bryan 🙂

[Debbie H]

Day 63: Procreate. Inspired by what Joshua has been doing on his feed, I decided to do some initial investigation into female head profiles. Go look at Joshua’s if you want to see it done correctly. These are tracings of five different models, lined up according to ear position and brow line. I’m confident I’m not doing it correctly but it’s interesting to explore what remains consistent and what doesn’t. The ear, brow, eye position and bottom of the nose seem relatively consistent whereas the profile of the face plane, skull shape and jaw vary pretty wildly.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Debbie H.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Debbie H.

[Debbie H]

Hi again everyone. I’ve had to do an emergency trip back up to Devonport – we thought Dad may have passed away on Thursday/Friday. He has rallied, but the palliative doctor said he likely only has weeks left. Sorry I’ve had to ditch the challenge again for a few days. I’m home again now and will do my best to post as normal from tomorrow, but I may end up being patchy in my posting and replies for a while. I will finish my 100 days… My apologies for the comments I’d like to leave on your work but may not be able to.

[Bryan Mccabe]

So sorry Deborah.

[Joshua Jacobo]

Deborah,

Great work here. I’m looking at your portrait of Vanna. The nose is constructed out of alignment compared to the rest of the face. Remember part of the idea of the box is just to get the parallel lines to work correctly!

Also if the skin tone of the model is low key, it can be useful to use the highlight to model the form more than the core shadow.

[Debbie H]

Thanks Bryan.

Thanks for your feedback Joshua. I’ve done some reworking of the nose. Does it sit correctly on the face now? I took it in to Procreate and put parallel lines over it which helped me to see what was going wrong. I find the centreline of the muzzle difficult to find as it protrudes from the face and thus doesn’t sit on the face’s centreline. Something I’m trying to figure out. As well as making changes to correct the nose (and tweak the mouth slightly too), I added tone to create more curve around the form of the muzzle. I will do more work trying to understand the head inside the box, but it’s going to take me time to figure out. Thank you for the idea of using highlights to model form. I probably need to take my darks darker to give me the value range to make this work effectively.

I learned a lot from this portrait – I will keep trying and learning.

Day 64: Vanna portrait, improved.

[Bryan Mccabe]

I admire your willingness to go back and try to fix your previous work 🙂

[Debbie H]

Day 65: Beginning a new portrait. I already see adjustments I need to make, which is a good thing.

Thanks Bryan. Question is, did I fix it 😆?! I’ve started a new one today.

[Bryan Mccabe]

I think so, but honestly I didn’t see anything wrong with it the first time until Joshua pointed it out 🙂

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