Lucas’s 100 day challenge : all things portraiture :)

[Lucas a.k.a “Roams”]

Hi everyone, My name is lucas, im new to NMA.

Been taking my art seriously for about 6 months or so and joined nma just short of two weeks ago to get into figurative art and portraiture. Iam absolutely loving the content here, its fenominal. Havent even been here 2 weels and already learned heaps.

So for my 100 day challenge I’am going to focus on all things to do with the human head. Ill post a drawing each day of something to do with portraiture. Iam hoping by the end of this challenge that ill be alot better at achieving a likeness and that my drawings will be structurally and anatomically correct. I may even work on some paintings, these will also be portraiture oriented.

so to kick things off here is a skull drawing from reference I drew a couple days ago 🙂 any critiques welcome. I’am here to learn.

[Birgith Schei]

Very good drawing. I look forward to see more of your work

[Alexandra]

How exciting! I can’t wait to see your progress over these 100 days.

[Joshua Jacobo]

Awesome idea. Tip: the mouth barrel looks too large in this drawing (may have been intentional). Can’t wait to see more!

[Josseline Jeria]

Hi Lucas,

Welcome and glad you’re enjoying NMA so much already. I did as well! I’ve been here since late October 19. and yup, it’s still phenomenal.

This is a great challenge to set for yourself. Setting it to a specific subject matter is good, gives you more direction but also broad enough to give you lots to work with.

Great skull drawing! And I love your profile pic 🙂

All the best, looking foward to seeing your progress

[Lucas a.k.a “Roams”]

Hey thanks for the replies. Thanks for the tip Joshua, it may have been the reference i was working from but i will definitely keep this in mind for the future.

So for day 2 I have done a study of John asaro’s planes of the head sculpture, from Iliya Mirochniks course. I really enjoyed this one.

Mine however was done on newsprint not on stretched paper, but will try this method sometime in the future.

[Joshua Jacobo]

Nice work! Watch your widths. They tend to be where we get less accurate. We tend to notice the vertical measurements more.

[PaulDidier]

Nice studies. What size are they?

[Lucas a.k.a “Roams”]

thank you Paul. The skull is in an a4 sketchbook and the sculpture study is on some newsprint that i cut myself from a big roll. its roughly 40cmW x 50cmH

[Lucas a.k.a “Roams”]

Day 3:

2 portraits from the reference images on nma. the 2 models were Patrick and Amina. The first one was done with graphite and the second with a Faber Castell classic colour (black). I spent about an hour on each of them. They are drawn on newsprint and are about the size of a hand

I tried to combine all the things ive learned so far from the portraiture lessons I’ve watched here. thinking about the structure and anatomy aswell as all the different forms. portraits are pretty tough tbh, but I’m glad I’m doing this challenge as i want to master this skill.

I will include the reference images.

[Lucero]

You’re definitely capturing the likeness, and you can see that you are thinking about the underlying forms. Can’t wait to see the progress. Thank you for sharing!

[Josseline Jeria]

Nice drawings 🙂 You may already do so, but think about the eyes as a sphere sitting within the eye socket and keep an eye on your proportions

[Lucas a.k.a “Roams”]

thanks lucero and josseline. yes i will probably do some facial feature studies in the next few days. I do think of the eyes that way and always draw the ball in the socket and try to wrap the lid around it but I really struggle to get it to look like what I’m thinking. hopefully some studies will help.

[Lucas a.k.a “Roams”]

Day 3:

A study of  Giuliano de’ Medici by Michelangelo. from the reference images on nma. I found this very fun to draw from a plaster cast. i struggled with the hair alot, wasnt really sure how to draw it at all so just rolled with it and drew what i felt.

started it late last night and finished it this morning. probly spent about 2 hours in total. the fact it is a plaster cast really helped me to see the shadows and forms though. wish i could draw it from life but i guess pictures will have to for now.

drawn on newsprint with black colouring pencil.

[Josseline Jeria]

Oh yes you can tell you do. You did it best on her left eye, Patrick’s eyes you can see you did but didn’t translate as well. just need to keep having that idea in your head as you continue to practice and develop, especially when things like more droopier eyelids and the like disguise the forms more. I absolutely empathise – I have the exact same problem. It’s all about developing  and improving the eye to brain to muscle neural connections to improve the output – drawing.

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