Deborah’s 100 Day Figure and Head Challenge

[Christopher]

Hi Deborah,

even if I followed your thread regularly I’m glad to have some time again to leave a comment.

As I said before I like how you work on implementing structure and after your skull studies I’m curious to see how that will affect your portraits 👋

[Debbie H]

Day 66: A much improved pencil sketch. I redrew everything except the nose (which I also tweaked). The ear is still wrong and needs fixing. The model’s hair in the reference image covers both the ear and the right (her left) side of her face, so I’m using my new structural knowledge muscles, but they’re still pretty weak. If anything else stands out as incorrect, I’d love to know…

Thanks Bryan. I’m at that point too – what I’m learning is just far enough beyond me that I’m sometimes having trouble picking up mistakes. I’d love some coaching at some point.

Hi Christopher. The structural knowledge I’ve been learning is most definitely helping me with the portraits. Although I don’t feel at all confident with portrait drawing, I feel the beginnings of a familiarity with the basic facial structure and that’s definitely helping me. The structure affects shadow shapes etc as well as outlines, so understanding it is hugely helpful when working from reference, and crucial for eventually being able to work from imagination, which is one of my end goals. I highly recommend it.

[Bryan Mccabe]

I think it’s important to remember how much we’ve improved in such a short time 🙂 It takes years of practice to really master some of this. I agree about the extra support. I might take a painting class at the University of Florida once COVID is over.

[Debbie H]

Day 67: Progress.

That’s true Bryan. We have come a long way. I’m excited about the years ahead 🙂. That would be great for you to do study at Uni. Your year starts pretty soon doesn’t it? Are they planning on starting on time or waiting until after Covid? I do hope it ends soon.

[Debbie H]

Day 68: More progress.

[Bryan Mccabe]

Looks really good Deborah. I like the softness with the shading 🙂

For Covid, the state government is scrambling to put plans in place for school re-opening, but it is all a mess. Schools are supposed to start towards the middle of next month.

[Debbie H]

Day 69: More progress. I’m glad I was brave enough to have a go putting the background in, but I think I’m going to have to darken the shadows in the face so they don’t get lost once I have the background complete. Thoughts??

Thanks Bryan 🙂. I do hope schools can reopen on time.

[Jan]

Your progress is very impressive! I’ve learned so much from following your thread especially since I’ve been doing many of the same exercises in the portrait drawing series. I also like completing longer drawings as a break from videos and quick studies. I had to laugh because I started on a drawing of Amina from the reference images but wasn’t sure I was ready for the hair over her face. You handled it beautifully! Although the shadows and her eyes are quite dark in the photos, it seems that the way you’ve modeled the forms really attracts the viewer to the lighter areas. If you made the shadows darker on the face it might take away from the contrast between the background and her face. But I’m struggling right now with value design, so it will be interesting to hear what someone more experienced recommends! Keep up the amazing work! Also, I wanted to say that I’m so sorry about your dad. I went through a similar experience. I hope you all find peace.

[Debbie H]

Day 70: Complete, unless you have feedback that can help me improve it 🙂.

Hi Jan. Thank you for your encouragement and your kind words about my dad. He’s hanging in there for now. I’m sorry for you too. I know how you feel about adding the hair, but I’m really trying hard not to be too precious – it’s all practice and learning, even if something doesn’t go well. Go ahead and try – you’ll do fine! I’m glad you’ve found some help here.

[erikdennes]

Hi Deborah,

 

I really like this drawing.  You did a great job on it.  I think the right side of her forehead needs to be cut back a little bit and some more shadow added under the hair line.

[Debbie H]

Day 71: Back to figure sketching; specifically hips and Steve Huston’s ‘coke bottle’ torso logic. I didn’t allow myself any measuring today, just observation.

Thanks for your encouragement and feedback Erik. That’s most helpful. I won’t post it again here, but will fix those two things. It’s always helpful to have someone look with fresh eyes.

[Debbie H]

Day 72: Today I drew along with Steve Huston’s lesson on proportion. This is very sketchy – I need to do it again WAY more carefully.

[iamjakeroo]

really nice to see some of your work from start to finish

it encourages me to do the same with a few of my own

looking forward to seeing more

[Debbie H]

Day 73: Figure sketching from Steve Huston’s beginning figure drawing videos. I’m still battling the urge to make perfect marks. No measuring today (testing my observation), with varying degrees of success. I prefer doing more precise drawing, but towards the end of this, I began to get into the flow and enjoy the process. It’s good for me. I’m beginning here to play with moving a pose slightly to test my imagination/memory.

Thanks iamjakeroo 🙂

[Bryan Mccabe]

These look good Deborah. One technique that I use that you may wish to try is to just draw a bunch of lines without regard for accuracy, and then choose the correct ones when the drawing is finished. I do it with charcoal and pen. I don’t worry that much about how it looks as I’m drawing because I just choose the correct lines to ink and wipe off the charcoal underneath. I think Honore Daumier used a similar technique for his drawings/paintings.

[Author]

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