Deborah’s 100 Day Figure and Head Challenge

[Bryan Mccabe]

Nice, I’ll make a note to check out those supplies at some point🙂. I’ve heard of all of those brands, but I’ve never used any of their products. So far, I just use Strathmore drawing paper and a Staedtler Mars Techno pencil. Thanks for the advice.

[Debbie H]

Day 43: Progress. Adding in the vertebrae and beginning to work out where the shadows go. I got my new Grafwood pencils today and am using them to shade this. I’m looking forward to doing more. I did the line drawing with my 2B Faber Castell. Bryan, we don’t have access to a lot of Strathmore paper – mainly just their toned sketchbooks. I believe it’s great paper so no need to switch if you’re happy with it. I think I  remember Iliya recommends the 400 series in his materials lesson. Staedtler’s great too. I’ll let you know how I get on with these new pencils 🙂

[Debbie H]

Day 44: Working on skull shadows

[Christopher]

Hello Deborah,

the line work of your last WiP looks really clean and accurate! Is that done just by eye or also measured with pencil/needles like explained in some of the NMA courses?

Besides that the shading of your last post looks really promising. Just the range of value might be to low. If I remember correctly you already said that you find it difficult to get dark values with graphite. I for myself also use graphite from Faber-Castell and since I’m still practising alot I mostly use any cheap paper I can get. So because I stuck with my pencils and used so many different types of paper I found the paper makes the biggest impact on not only how dark you can get but also how smooth it will look without smearing.

Anyway keep it up I’m interested to see how it will look finished 👍

[Natacha]

Hi Deborah,

Your trait is so clean, define and detailed, I love looking at the last illustration. From what I see also, the proportions are well done too.

I also can’t wait to see it full finished. Amazing work 😀

[Debbie H]

Hi Christopher. Thanks for your feedback! I am measuring with my pencil when I need it, particularly larger measurements, for example the distance from the front tooth to the end of the back tooth. Smaller distances I find by looking at the relationship between lines (angles, negative space and distance), then check my measurements if I’m unsure. I’m finding with more practice that I’m able to place a line by eye then measure, and my measurements are gradually getting more accurate. I also make many small adjustments as I go. So the keys are practice and patience 😆! You’re right about the paper – it makes a big difference! As I said toBryan, this is Arches HP watercolour paper, which is probably overkill, but I had it and it’s wonderful to draw on. I will take your point of darks into consideration. Thank you!

Thank you Natacha for your kind words! I enjoy drawing this way. I’m glad you like it 🙂!

[Debbie H]

Day 45: A little more progress. I had wondered at the beginning of this whether I should just do line drawings as I could get more skull drawings done (and give you more variety to look at), but the rendering is really helping me understand the changes of planes and textures of the skull. It’s taking longer, but as well as being enjoyable, it’s definitely worthwhile for learning.

[Bryan Mccabe]

Awesome work Deborah 🙂. I’m learning too from looking at your drawings.

[PaulDidier]

Deborah, thanks for the info on the Caran d’Ache Grafwood pencils. I’m going to definitely try them. Getting rich darks has always been a challenge with graphite. Sounds like this will help.

Nice study too. I’m going to check out the 3D model.

[Debbie H]

Thanks Bryan 🙂. I’m glad they’re useful.

Hi Paul. You’re welcome – it’s great to be able to share resources and tips. I’m using this drawing to really test drive them – so far, so good. I want to do a black background with the 9B. That will really test them!

[Debbie H]

Day 46: Skull Profile Complete?

After another 6 hours, I think I’m done. I took this photo into Procreate to test backgrounds digitally before I went and wrecked my drawing. To be honest, I’m unsure. As mentioned, I was going to draw in a black background, but it is quite dominant and I quite like this as is. Any thoughts?

The 3D model is awesome. I don’t have a skeleton model to work from, so this was great.  There were lots of times I went back to the model and rotated it to understand the forms. It meant that while yes, I’m drawing from a screen, I’m not mindlessly copying a photo but understanding and ‘sculpting’ the form. I’ve loved it. Definitely worth using.

[Bryan Mccabe]

I was waiting to see if anyone more experienced in this type of drawing had an answer for you about the background, but my own opinion is that you don’t really need one. If you look at Da Vinci’s anatomical studies for example, he really didn’t have much of a background for any of his drawings. Keep up the good work Deborah🙂

[Debbie H]

Day 47: Left – before, right – after. I made some changes to this drawing following feedback I got from Charles Hu on the open critique forum, around ideas for shading the background and deepening shadows to make the zygomatic arch stand out more. I also altered the jawline a little. Today was busy, so this is all I was able to do.

 

Thanks Bryan. You’re right. I’m really appreciative of your opinion. I’ll leave it like it is 🙂.

[Debbie H]

Day 48: This isn’t pretty or good, but a thought process. I was challenging myself to see how much I’d learned from my detailed drawings. It turns out quite a lot – I’m feeling the beginnings of a familiarity with how all of this goes together. I used the 3D model again for this, but drew with very little measuring, instead relying on what I’ve learned about alignments etc, how the skull sits inside the head and on my eyes. The head felt impossible a couple of weeks ago. It is beginning to feel that over time, it will be conquerable.

[Shazad Madon]

Hi Deborah,

The drawing from the NMA 3d model is absolutely fantastic! This inspires me to one of these layered drawings in the future.

[Author]

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