Progress Report (Art) 1
Here is a woman I drew last night.
The assignment (in a sense) was to identify and recreate some of the general proportions of the face. For example, how it is common for
1.) the eyes to be about one eye apart,
2.) the bottom of the lip to be equidistant between the bottoms of the nose and chin,
3.) the mouth tends to run from about the middle of one eye to the other, and
4.) the brow line sits evenly between the hairline and the bottom of the nose.
I would argue that I did fine with the first three of these. The fourth one… let us say that no person fits neatly into these rules, and everyone will vary somewhat. The woman in this portrait has a longer nose and lower hairline – no problem!
Resources
I found and bought these two books on a whim, when I saw their On Sale stickers at Barnes & Noble. So far, they make a fine introduction to anyone new to drawing or, in my case, returning after many years away from the subject.
This portrait may serve well as a ”before” sampling of my work, since I have only just begun the Drawing People workbook. I am eager to see how my work transforms as I continue to learn and practice and refine my process.
Also, I was quite pleased to put some work in with my new blending stumps (also called tortillons). As a child and teenager I would always use my fingers to blend my work. But experience taught me that it’s a great way to turn your hands black with graphite, and smudge your art to bits.
We evolved to use tools, did we not? These little sticks of rolled paper are cheap, and come in sets of variable sizes – so there is always an appropriate one whether you’re “painting” the whole sky with gray, or perfecting fine details.\
Bonus
One of my all-time favorite games is Final Fantasy XIV. For the practice, I took the below screenshot. You can see how I did drawing it by hand afterword.
I genuinely love how it turned out, and I’ll probably use video game references for future practice. They offer a huge variety of subjects, from the realistic to the absurd.
Here are some rocks as well. Why not? Until next time!~
