how to sketch a portrait

You can have fun drawing online at BenettonPlay. This is a 35 frame animated gif. The whole process is managed through a Flash 9.0 application. I suspect given how long it took to save and render that if you've got dialup and an old computer try the 5 frame animations. My prototype was 100 frames. Um, everything died. It is fun, and the results are easily achieved, albeit slowly. I particularly liked the 'onion-skin' approach as this allows for quite accurate animation and tweening, if that is your wish. I didn't need it for this anim, but it's good never-the-less.

Hmmm - no really, although we draw at 5:30 the model didn't have a 5 o'clock shadow. Grrr - still working out how to keep the paper from going muddy, and keeping the colours incisive. There's not much room for error. Coloured pencil on coloured paper.


Purple. Good grief - purple? Hey, if it was a long-lost Picasso from the blue period you'd be excited. Of course, Picasso would've drawn with greater clarity. Even he started somewhere though. I'm quite enjoying the experiments of adding darker and lighter tones over the mid tones. It feels like a whole new area to explore. Coloured pencil on coloured paper.


I feel as though this new season of life drawing is really starting to work for me - the big break through, he said, feeling slightly stupid about the whole thing, but pleased nevertheless; is being able to keep the model on the page. If nothing else, the drawing stays on the page. I attribute this to the more sophisticated and experienced Wellington models. Coloured pencil on coloured paper.

I'm working on capturing likenesses. It's still an exciting opportunity for improvement. Not only would nobody recognise the model from this drawing, the model themselves would disavow all knowledge of the experience. 10 minute poses don't enhance themselves to me - I still have a long way to go. Aquarelle on glossy (clay coated?) paper.


Coloured pencil on coloured paper. 20 minute pose.

This model was such a funny, laughing, life of the party sort of person it made my drawings easy to do. I certainly did feel any concerns about making mistakes, and I made a number of quick drawings - say two x 5 minutes drawings within a 10 minute pose. This was a 20 minute pose. Aquarelle on paper.


20 minute pose. Aquarelle on paper.

colours

One of my drawing buddies suggested getting this gloriously cheap, slightly scary coloured paper from the Warehouse. It's not of a particularly high quality, but it's ok for fun and experimentation. This is my first take - ink and aquarelle. The paper is soft and unstable when wet which makes it not overly useful for the aqua part of aquarelle. I'll try next session with coloured pencils instead.


Oh dear - the coloured pencils are too hard for the soft paper, so the paper cockles a little, and I have to work the colour again to get it to show how I want it. I like the colored paper despite this and I think I can get a better look.

For some reason tonight I was inspired by the cave paintings of Lascaux. I felt very satisfied by the work and on the rare occasion I show my drawings from my books other people seem to like it as well. Aquarelle on paper.

Sometimes it's easy for me to get into a cruisy drawing mind set, and that doesn't always serve my work well. This was a short pose - 10 minutes - and the model exuded a real dynamism. I really like the drawing - much better colours in the real than here on the net. Aquarelle and gold ink on paper.


After the break we settled in for a slightly longer (15 minutes), and a more reflective pose. I find the short poses quite difficult from the perspective of wanting to get every last detail - but the quite poses end up looking less contrived. I envy my drawing buddies who can knock out a reasonable likeness in the time it takes me to connect a pencil with the paper. Practice, practice, practice.