Portraits – An ongoing challenge
Using some tips and tricks from Brian Duey, from his website (who I consider to be a master at the portrait) I was able to come up with this portrait. I am not at all satisfied with it. I guess it is a good start. I’d be able to pick the girl from a lineup if she ever does something wrong based on this at least. I am not trying to create mug shots.
I never sprayed fixative on this either so it’s a little smudged from letting it sit in my sketchbook for about a month while I worked up the courage to post it.
This blog is about trying to become a better artist, not just posting the good stuff. I think my pride gets in the way of that sometimes.
The girl in the drawing is about 9 so some things I notice that are wrong.
- The spatial element of her forehead is off. It should be bigger.
- I need to work on drawing teeth too.
- Capturing an expression is difficult for me but it is key to developing the personality in your portrait and showing emotions.
- Capturing the subtleties of hair also needs work.
I figure if I don’t bare all in terms of my own artwork, I can’t really grow as an artist. We’ll see if that theory holds true.
2 Comments
Hi … yes portraits are very hard to do, even if (like me) you are not bothered so much about getting a likeness as getting a really ‘believable face’.
This looks as if you did it in pencil? if so that’s a really hard medium to use! Or maybe it is charcoal? Have you tried Conte or soft pastel on Colorfix paper? … far more forgiving and easier to manipulate IMO (and wonderful for Hair!).
Anyway this looks a ‘believable face’ to me. I know what you mean about teeth (and eyes, too) – I find a good rule is the ‘less is more’ one, i.e. don’t try and draw every detail – let the viewer’s eye do some of the work.
Her expression is great …. just like a 9 year old! You are far too hard on yourself ….
have a great Christmas
You are very Kind. Yes, that is pencil. I do like conte, that is pretty fun to work with. Pastel just turns into a mess for me when I am trying detail stuff.