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Day 58,
Today I decided to revisit an old Amy Winehouse portrait I did, revising the structures of the face, correcting some proportional errors, and improving the likeness. The revised version is still a work in progress, but here’s the before and after so far. Charles Hu’s head drawing course has really helped me to have a better understanding of the structures of the face, and Chris Legaspi’s portrait series has been really helpful in quickly capturing a likeness.
Day 57,
Today I did some head quick sketches from the NMA reference library in my sketchbook, focusing a little more on constructing the planes and massing in areas of value to indicate a sense of form. It felt good to switch back to a more analytical mode which gets a bit lost when I do freehand pen sketches, because in those I tend to focus too much on economy of line and hitting the right strokes, rather than building up the structures.
Day 56,
Today I did a freehand portrait sketch of Diana(adding a hat and some street clothing instead of viking helmet so it looks a little more like a contemporary lifestyle or editorial illustration). The proportions and structure did not turn out well, but I looked at courtroom art as a source of stylistic inspiration, and I do like how I was able to use very subtle watercolour notes to suggest color and let the lines do most of the communication. I hope to try this approach again, but next time with a pencil sketch so that the feature alignments don’t drift.
Day 55,
Today I switched gears a bit, and focussed on drawing some birds of prey heads in my sketchbook, using what I know about bird skulls. I also tried to apply some of the energetic hatching that I’ve been observing in Frank Frazetta’s head and figure drawings. My goal is to at some point draw human heads as confidently as I can draw animal heads.
Day 54,
Today I did some Frank Frazetta head studies in my sketchbook, using my new nib pen. I did these freehand with no pencil sketch, so there are a few proportional and mark making errors, but I’m more interested(when studying Frazetta, at least) in how I can integrate some of his expressive mark making into my own portraits, as well as some of his design solutions for depicting a face at a really small scale. I can definitely see some influences of Bridgman in his work, having also looked a lot at Bridgman head drawings lately!
Day 53,
I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to do more Bridgman studies because I admire not only the structure and simplification of forms, but also the calligraphic line that Bridgman uses to communicate. Here is a page from my sketchbook with a combination of Bridgman head and figure studies, using a new pen I bought that allows me to use nibs and dispense ink with a button for thick to thin line variation. Unfortunately I’m still getting used to the pen itself, so you’ll see a number of unintended ink blots.
Day 52,
Today I did a speed paint of Audrey Hepburn, limiting myself to half an hour. This is as far as I got, but next time I would limit my focus to just the planes, as I see a lot of issues with the orbital structure on the far side, and the likeness is lacking due to spacing issues between the eyes. My goal though in addition to focussing on the head was to paint more often, so I expect to try this again applying what I’ve learned soon!
Day 51,
Today I did one of Chris Legaspi’s head drawing exercises that he has on his youtube page, where he essentially takes a block of post-it notes, then makes a series of quick drawings, no more than a couple of minutes each at a time, focusing only on the iconic 2D graphic shapes of the head as a key component of capturing the likeness. You then fill in the area around the silhouette with a blunt marker to quickly see how well you’ve captured the shapes. My proportions slipped a little bit because I’m not used to drawing this small, but I highly recommend this exercise as it is a lot of fun!
Day 50,
Half way there! Today I’m continuing to develop my ongoing Bruce Lee portrait, experimenting a bit more with dramatic rim lighting. I’m currently reviewing Charles Hu’s head drawing course, so I expect to revisit the features in day’s to come as well.
Day 49,
Today I decided to do something different and try an ink nib/ windsor newton series 7 brush study of an old comic art piece by John Buscema. I really admire how comic artists, particularly those of the past, use very subtle lines and mark making to indicate planes, recesses, ect., and establish a likeness with as minimal marks as possible. I want to try and incorporate more of this approach into my own portraits, even if I don’t stylize them quite as much! You can also see a bit of a William Stout study peeking in from the corner, but this one has less of distinguishable personality.
Day 48,
Today’s activity wasn’t specifically focussed on the portrait, per se, but I’ve been studying Bridgman lately for his use of calligraphic line, and the way that he leaves spaces between certain line to create dynamic rhythm by allowing certain areas to rest and leading the eye around the subject. In other words, while Bridgman is of course an excellent resource for anatomy and construction, I’m more interested in channelling his influence into my portraits through the use of counterbalances, fluid line, and selective tones. I definitely expect to post some Bridgman inspired portraits soon! I did these studies on my iPad in procreate, but I didn’t allow myself to use the eraser at all so as to be mindful and economical with my lines.
Day 47,
Today I started on the rough sketch for a new celebrity portrait, this time of rockstar Meatloaf. He’s such an interesting character with a dynamic performance style, so I’m really looking to play off the angles and counterbalances of the head and body. With my portraits I don’t copy a specific photo reference because Im seeking to create poses that never existed before, not that different from character design. This is just the pencil sketch where I explore the gestures and rhythms before using tracing paper to refine.
Day 46,
Today I tried experimenting with my Bruce Lee image’s colour palette to see what the image would look like with a different mood. I have to say that even though I really like this nighttime palette kind of look, I like the warm analogous scheme I’ve been using in the previous versions better because of the mood that they create. What I might do though is create a GIF once the image is done and shift between the two colour palettes.
Day 45,
Today I decided to explore caricature for fun. This is an ongoing piece about former national security advisor John Bolton, heavily inspired by the caricature work of Al Hirschfield. Some of this work is digital, but for the most part I inked it using a nib dip pen, which I’ve really been enjoying using because of the dynamic line width variation that it allows.
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