Again, please bear in mind that the whole reason I am doing this project is because I don’t have inherent talent in this area. The while point of this is to practice practice and practice until I get good. Or as close to good I can ever get.
So with that here are my second set of six portraits.
First set of three drawings:
Remember, I take the drawing photos late at night right before I paint, so they are not the best. But I still like to have them as a before and after. Here they are, painted:
and then here is the next three drawings:
and painted.
I have 300 more of these to make.
Constructive criticism always welcome but only if you can actually be constructive. No need to stroke my ego, I know these need a lot of work. I am ok with that 🙂
Six Portraits a Week is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
I can see through the eyes that you are trying your hand at conveying different emotions and attitudes. I’m really impressed with the difference in such a short time.
Karen, kudos for taking on portraiture. You did not take the easy way out (i.e., fruit in a bowl). Keep up the good work. I see you are incorporating some shading/ shadowing. Excellent. May I suggest you begin to expand upon that? For instance, instead of drawing the crease in the eyelids, you might indicate the crease with some blended shading. This could be added to hair, as well. I find that comics are often an excellent source when starting to see lights and darks, as in shading. Comics are exaggerated, but make it very apparent where the highlights and shadows fall. Also helpful is looking at hair and makeup ads with close-ups of models. THe photos help flatten out the shading, as you would be doing on your own drawing/painting. Seeing them in 2-d helps your eye convert the 3-d shading to a 2-d surface. I like to cut a little square out of a 4×4 piece of paper and lay it over the area of the photo I want to “copy”. THis helps me focus on what I really see in just that one small area, and takes it out of context so you can examine it without all the visual noise of seeing THE WHOLE picture at once. HTH!
LOVE your blog.
ALso, suggested kids books ( I have an 8 yo ds):
The Boxcar Children mystery series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
The Encyclopedia Brown mysteries
Just So Stories/The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (about Almonzo Wilder’s childhood)
The Runt by Rick Boyer (an excellent dog book)
thank you so much for the great detailed advice!! I need to print some portraits and have them at my desk for studying and reference. and thank you for the books!! my husband says he loved the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries so I will check them out!
Holy cow! If I tried to do portraits they would look like stick figures. Drawing is SO not anything I am good at. So, color me impressed! Impressed because you are trying and working on it and DOING it. Awesome!!!
I’m impressed! Love the different hairstyles!
Oh, one more thing on books. For those weeks that are busy or where my schedule gets “rearranged” for me, I keep a stash of books on CD. Greathall Productions has their selections age-graded so you know what to buy for your child’s age range. Some are compilations, such as “American Tall Tales.” Another company with a wide range of stories on CD is “Your Story Hour.” Everything from American History to classic stories. If read-aloud time gets railroaded, we often listen in the car.
that’s a great idea. I will have to look into that, thank you!!
These drawings/paintings are showing more texture in the hair. Keep at it, you’re going to make it!
I really liked how the hair on the first one came out! I’m not a painter so…not going to offer any criticism. Just keep at it ’cause you’re doing great. 🙂
I like how you drew the last one looking off to the side rather than straight ahead like the rest. It makes it stand out that much more. Even if you don’t feel any progress after awhile, isn’t it enough just to have done it?
yes it totally is!! I know in my heart that there will be progress after many many. so for now, i just work on doing one at a time 🙂
Hi Karen,
First I have to say I love your blog. It is also amazing to me how consistantly you keep building on it. I can always count on seeing a new photo, story, project, etc.
I have to congratulate you on taking a new challange with the portraits. It seems like you have found a way to draw portraits that you feel comfortable with and now it is time to break through.
I remember when I went to my first drawing class in college. The teacher asked “did anyone have any training before?”. I was one of the few who held her hand up proudly. The teacher then said “you guys have the disadvantage, you will first have to forget what you know and start over.” He made us draw with our eyes closed for hours and then without looking at the canvas for days. It was very liberating. We felt like there was no right or wrong, no rules only new lines and styles to be discovered. Since that day whenever I feel like I am stuck I draw without looking on the canvas for a while. (But you have to always look and study your subject, in your case yourself)
And I would get different mediums, see what happens when you use them together, get messy messy messy!
I would also think about what you want to express with your portraits. What kind of feeling do you want to evoke? Does it have to be a full face, front view? You can snap different angles, close ups, different body parts, etc with your camera and draw from them.
Anyway I hope this helps,
best,
Katya
heh i am always scared of the mess. i think messiness comes with a certain level of confidence that I don’t have yet. i think i don’t do expressions/feelings because i feel so elementary. i feel like i can’t even make an eye i like yet. a normal eye, let alone one that might be surprised, pensive, excited, etc. I feel like i dont have the basics down enough yet to experiment. but maybe that’s not the right way to go about it? I honestly don’t know. i look at it the way i did at photography. you get the basics down (aperture, iso, shutter) and then you take a million photos. then you slowly start developing your own style. your way of looking through the lens…i think my conversations in my head are loud and detrimental in this case. they scream so loudly about how i cannot do it that I cannot quiet them down enough to try.