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Day 41
I drew on some reference images to better understand the structure of a real head, and I also tried different approaches for the breakdown in each image.
This is great Isabella! If you want to take it further, have another look at the shape of the eye sockets in particular and use the lights and shadows, as well as your skull drawings, to really see the shapes of the skull in the model. Good on you for practicing from imagination 🙂!
Thanks, Deborah! Making those drawings from the imagination was good for me to see how much I had retained. I’ll look at my later studies and the models and work on the eye sockets, as you suggested. I notice that I’m still struggling with it.
Thank you, Jonathan! Unsplash is a stock photo site with high-quality images free to use. I used to practice using images from there, but now I’m mostly using the references from NMA.
Day 42
After a tiring day, I wanted to have some fun, so I did exercises from the Loomis book “Fun with a Pencil.” Well, it’s still head construction. 🤷♀️
Tomorrow I’ll be back with the regular studies. 😅
Hi Isabella,
Great work since last time I commented.
Regarding showing ugly things. I don’t know if that’s necessarily good but the nature and the way I approached my first and also my current challenge solidified a habit of not caring about the outcome (depending on its purpose). Until know I found this to be pretty healthy since I don’t tend to be as frustrated about bad work and move on faster.
Did you also found overlays to be a good way to get answers for questions you had? I found them really helpful for that.
Your newest block in looks good, is it Yoni? 👋
Hi, Christopher, thank you!
This healthy relationship with failed drawings and bad work is something I’m working on. For a long time, the pressure of making things perfect stopped me from making and sharing anything at all, and, as a consequence, I didn’t improve. I think your approach is correct since we can only get better at something if we keep working and moving on. It may seem obvious, but for me is something that I’m still learning, that in practice the process is more important than the outcome.
The overlays were really helpful for me. I was having a hard time bridging schematics of the structure to real references, and sometimes I got lost in what I was drawing (also because of my habit of drawing too small and just guessing where things should go 😅); this exercise provided some good answers.
The last block in was actually of Barry, but I see the resemblance with Yoni 😄.
Hey this is some great work! I especially like day 43 those eye sockets and skull parts are fantastic! And they look great, like the highlights. I just wanted to mention that I have the same struggles drawing bigger, I tend to draw everything small and the same size, So drawing bigger can be really uncomfortable and very difficult! I’ve had the feeling of being lost many times, in my experience it’s like I have to relearn the basic structure and proportions, like you did with the overlays. and worst of all after all the work things end up badly skewed or stretched! but hopefully with practice and time it soon won’t be a big deal. I tend to just eyeball most of the time when I can and call it a day lol, not that measurement isn’t important, it needs to be internalized, but I think eye measuring is just something you improve with over time doing it.
Anyway great work, day 44 wow, almost halfway!
Hi, Mattias, thanks for your comment! It’s so exciting that I’m almost midway through this challenge. Since the beginning, I’ve learned so much in technique, but it also helped me develop a more consistent practice habit.
I’m trying to train my eye measuring, along with using measurement tools. I think it used to be better a few years ago, but then I stopped practicing. Now that I restarted to study drawing, I sometimes get frustrated with the results. Still, I think I’m finally improving this skill.
Day 45
I am rendering the drawing a little to understand the form better.
Hi Isabella 🙂. I also love your day 43 work! Really lovely! I think the model’s left eye on your day 45 drawing is very successful – it’s clearly sitting nicely back into the eye socket. There’s a lot working well in that drawing; I just pick up on that because it’s something I’m still struggling with and you’ve done nicely. Don’t worry about ‘ugly’ work. That’s why we’re here – to learn, not to perform. I have plenty of those days, where I wish I didn’t have to post, but I think, like Christopher said, it’s good to have the challenge commitment, because it kind of forces us to push through and keep working and accept the ‘bad’ as part of the process, which of course it is. I think that if everything we create is working perfectly then we’re not pushing into difficult areas and won’t learn/grow as fast.
I also wanted to thank you for the link to Rogério Lupo’s document that you posted in Christopher’s feed. I really connect with his style and will pour over it as soon as I have time.
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