Myriam’s 100 Days; portrait, heads

[Myriam]

#95

Blue. I struggled with the tongue. Does it looks like a tongue?

[Myriam]

I meant “look”.

[Myriam]

#96

Graphite and charcoal. A model from the internet. Happy Saturday everyone!

[Joshua Jacobo]

You’re so close to 100!

Last head appears a bit deep. Also try to think of the hair in an more planar way. Even if it’s all dark locally we should get different values depending on the direction just like the face!

[lizzomatic]

Hi Myriam,

I’ve also been experimenting with different mediums/pencils to get the best darkest darks in my drawings. I have a few suggestions other than what I see in this thread: 1)Have you tried using a smoother paper? With a textured or rough paper you often have to push harder with your pencil to get even dark tones. 2)Have you tried using prismacolor pencils or wax pencils? The black is much blacker than anything you can get with a graphite pencil. You can’t really do much erasing, but I love the rich blacks you can get and tonal range you can get when using them in combo with verithin pencils. Chris Legaspi has a good tutorial on how to use them (I think it’s in his materials series, but it’s been a bit since I watched it). 3)I recently discovered water soluable graphite and I’ve been able to get some really nice even dark tones, even on a rough paper, when I go over the darks with a water brush. I found some Schwan Stabilo water soluable pencils that I really like: I have a graphite one, but I like their black colored pencil better for getting really dark darks. A problem I keep running into is getting a surface sheen when using dark tones with graphite and I’m still playing around with combining colored pencils and graphite in the same piece…I don’t think they play well together.

I haven’t tried carbon pencils to my knowledge, but I will pick one up next time I’m art supply shopping. I’ve been playing around with different mediums, so thanks for the tip! And good luck with your art!

[Myriam]

Hi, Joshua! Yes, almost 100!
What does it mean the head “appears a bit deep”??
True what you say about the hair, thank you!

[Myriam]

#97

This is from a model I found in Pinterest. I did it too quickly. Not very proud of it. I would like to draw more freely. Now I see the jaw is not right, like many other things.

[Myriam]

Hi, Lizzomatic! Thanks so much. Yes I have to experiment with different kinds of paper. Normally I draw  over a regular sketchbook paper but I should try a better paper without being afraid of spoiling it!

As for the prismacolor, yes, I have tried it.  I don’t really know if I like it, I need to try it more. I must say I don’t know what pencil or what paper I prefer. I should spend a week drawing with all kinds of pencils. My house is almost like an art shop so I will 😄

 

[Myriam]

#98

This is slightly better that yesterday’s, isn’t it? At least right now I am not 😬 cringing at the sight of it.  😁 What do you think?? Maybe in half an hour I will be wondering why did I uploaded it?
I have discovered thanks to NMA‘s teachers  that you need a lot of concentration to do a proper head drawing. Maybe one never stops needing that kind of high concentration even if you have drawn a million heads. Vilppu says so.
One just learn to see better and better with time. You don’t realize it, it just happens.
For me, the most difficult part is the unlearning. You need to unlearn a lot to be able to do this right. That’s why Art should be compulsory at school and history or maths should be forbidden. 🙂

Sir Ken Robinson has died. 😢 If you haven’t watched it yet, go and watch his TED Talk now, please!  Wonderful stuff.
It’s called “Do schools kill creativity?”

[Myriam]

Ten minutes later, I can see the eye on the right is too high! So it’s not better than yesterday’s. 🙁

[Joshua Jacobo]

I meant that the depth dimension– front to back, appears too great on that drawing.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Joshua Jacobo.

[Myriam]

Thank you, Joshua. It’s an interesting comment but I still don’t understand it. My fault. I’ll think about it. Thanks anyway.

[Myriam]

#99

This is my daughter. I struggled with this one and erased a million times. As a result it looks messy. And it’s number 99…

I shouldn’t erase.

I wonder why do I still feel so afraid of drawing if this is what I like to do more!?

I must say in the paper it looks better than in the picture. Why is it? Is it like when you see a huge full astonishing moon and you try to capture it with your camera and you see this little white dot in the photo instead of what you see with your eyes. Not that I see an astonishing drawing…. but a little better than this it is.

[Myriam]

I wish I hadn’t uploaded #99. I think I was making an effort to do a good drawing and when that happens I just do these awful things. She is cross-eyed and everything in it makes me cringe.  The mouth, the eyes, the shadows, the hair,…  I can’t understand what happened. #98 and #99 are the worst I’ve uploaded I think. I am embarrassed. Maybe #100 is even worse.

[Christopher]

Hi Myriam,

Even if the mistakes you noticed might be true, I would still ask you to stop and take a deep breath. At least in my opinion saying your work would get worse couldn’t be farther from the truth.

I think the complete opposite is the case. Especially in the last weeks I thought your work got much more accurate and consistent. For example I found your improvement from day 97 to 98 to be really impressive and in general do I really like your renderings, especially the ones that look like day 98.

Sure some of the things mentioned here still might not work out yet but only because you know of a problem doesn’t mean you’re able to solve it overnight, it just means you’re conscious about it and can therefore work on it.

Did you never thought of the possibility that you only got the feeling of your work getting worse because your eye and therefore your ability to see those mistakes improved? And don’t be ashamed for posting it, see it as opportunity. If your work here would be perfect nobody could lead you to weak spots you haven’t noticed yourself.

For example for your current reason of frustration I would simply suggest to take a small break or start another drawing after you finished your linear lay in before continuing with the rendering. That’s often enough to spot alot of mistakes you haven’t seen while working on your portraits. And because you seem to identify those mistakes shortly after posting them gives me the impression that you are not doing that or at least don’t wait long enough to approach your drawing with fresh eyes before rendering.

So please try to stay positive. I always liked your portraits and I’m already kind of sad that it’s only one more day 😅👋

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Christopher.

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