[erikdennes]

Portrait sketch in my sketchbook from yesterday.  Conte on toned paper.

[erikdennes]

I think I am done with this now, unless anyone can find some areas I can improve.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by erikdennes.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by erikdennes.

[erikdennes]

Great rendering on the skull!  This is a great study, and very well done.

Nice drawing, and good luck!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by erikdennes.

[erikdennes]

Something like this, maybe.

[erikdennes]

The range of contrast in the water is too high.  The reflected light under the trees is particularly too bright.  Everything under the trees should be dark since it is in shadow. Smooth out the range of contrast in the water.  Decide which zone is going to have the highest range of contrast (focal point).  For me,  I like where the light hits the top edge of the bridge and the detailing of the stonework on the bridge.  So to make that stronger, everything else has to come down. Make the range of contrast in all of the other zones less than what is in your focal point zone.  Good Luck.

[erikdennes]

Nice work.  Keep it up!!

[erikdennes]

I think if you separate in value the trees, the water, and the architecture, you will have a much clearer statement.  The trees could go darker and be your darkest darks.  The water can go darker than it is, and be your mid-value.  Make sure that the darks in the water and the reflections read as one group. – The lightest lights in the water reflections should be darker than the darkest darks in the architecture.  With just a little value work, I think you will find you will have a much stronger piece.  Watch Bill Perkins lecture on value grouping and major and minor key.  He does a couple landscape demos in the “beginners” series, but talks about this concept in several different series.

[erikdennes]

I’ve been using conte on smooth newsprint.  It will mass in better than my charcoal pencils.  I sharpen it like a pencil, and use a charcoal holder to hold it.  I modified a Jack Richeson Charcoal holder to accept the square conte instead of a round charcoal.  Works really well.  It is very soft compared to a pastel pencil, so you have to use a light touch.  The charcoal holder helps immensely with this.

[erikdennes]

Looks like you are getting the right idea.  Keep working it!!  I would also like to recommend the Russian Drawing course for figure drawing.  I would start with the fundamentals section.  That will complement the Vilppu course nicely.

[erikdennes]

I like the mark making in this drawing a lot.  I am confused about the light source.  You have very dark shadows around the left eye socket and nose, left chin, and left side above her mouth, which all tells me there is a light source to the right.  But there is a strong light on her left cheek, which should be in shadow if that were the case.  Also, maybe a little more structure in the nose would be helpful so we can see a clear top plane, side plane, and bottom plane.  Nice job though, especially for a 20 minute pose.

[erikdennes]

It looks to me like to are focusing too much on contour and not enough on spacial volume.  I really like Karl Gnass’ figure drawing series on the NMA website.   You should check that out  and pay particular attention to the construction phase.

[erikdennes]

Sketching “in the field” is great practice.  Keep it up!!  Are the Mall’s open where you live?  Where I live you could only draw people with masks on.

[erikdennes]

That is great to hear!  I am looking forward to that course as well.

[erikdennes]

Here are a few ideas.  To make the face more of a focal point, I brought down the value of the rest of the skin so the face has the lightest values and the most contrast.  The right contour of her body needs to be adjusted to show the scapula and the curve of her ribcage.  The dress line needs to be concave and not convex to show it wraps around the cylinder of her torso.  I also put some lights to indicate the reflected light at the top of her dress.  I put some darker values in her hand to make it go behind the left arm it sits on.  I also put some highlights on the fingers to make it a secondary focal point.  I put darker values in the shadow side of her arm to separate the arm from the torso more, and I put a little more modeling in the torso.  Her jaw line, the way you have it goes too far back, so I changed the jaw line, and brought the hair forward a little bit.  I also extended the hair a little on both sides to better capture the gesture of the hair and separate it from the background a little better.  I lightened the background at the bottom so there is a clear separation between the front of her body and the background.  I put some darks around the eye sockets to describe them a little better and changed the shape of her left eye socket to fit into the perspective better. Hope you can see all of this in the included image, and I hope this helps you with your work.

[erikdennes]

Great job!  How can you use the background more effectively to help accent the portrait?  Where could you lighten or darken it to help bring out the foreground more?

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