Drawing Hair

Original Post: 3/28/2010


The best starting point to drawing hair - is to draw a lock of hair. And the best reference to learn how to draw hair is Mike Sibley's book "Drawing Line to Life".

Creating a natural highlight by lifting the pencil:

Use a sharp point of a harder lead (HB or harder) and smooth paper (with no texture). Practice creating strokes pressing hard on one end and lifting as you get to the center. This will create a 'natural highlight' in the center.

Creating a highlight using blu-tack eraser:

Roll a small piece of blu-tack into a cylinder. Roll the eraser over the center of the drawn hair. This will gently lift the graphite off, leaving the pencil strokes behind. (See the actual pencil lines of graphite on the eraser.)

Diane

Pencil Grip

Original Post: 3/21/2010

If you find yourself using a 'death-grip' on your pencil or your pencil strokes are tight, try holding your pencil under-handed with the back of the pencil resting on your little finger. Do not flex at the wrist but create your pencil stroke using your whole arm. Also do not rest your hand on the paper.


It takes a bit practice to learn to control your pencil stroke, but it's much more fluid than the writing position. Anytime you find yourself tightening or using the death grip on your pencil, force yourself to change the position to under hand.

Drawing the Ear

Original Post: 3/14/2010

The EAR.

In portraiture, the ear creates a sense a balance and overall continuity to the entire head. The placement and correct position of the ears seems to be more a challenge than rendering the actual details. The base of the nostrils should align with the base of the ear and the length of the nose should coincide with the length of the ear. When viewing the head on the side (profile) view, the ear is angled back and is about halfway between the back of the head the front of the facial plane.

The ears are very different from the rest of the facial features, not only are their shape different but the skin and texture are totally different as well. The ears are made of cartlidge and the structure is designed to channel sounds into the inner ear. The interlocking folds of the ear help to channel these waves. While these folds vary on each individual, learning the general parts of the ear will make identifying them much easier.

I like to think of parts of the ears as folds of satin or silk cloth. As you draw these folds, identify and apply the seven components of light and shade. Highlights, shadows, cast and contact shadows, core shadows, key highlights and reflected light.

I've attached an anatomical map of the ear along with a sketch and blended rendering of the ear.

Drawing the Mouth

Original Post: 2/28/2010

The mouth is a close second to the eyes as the most expressive feature of the face. Learning from masters as Andrew Loomis and Giovanni Civardi really helps. Here are a number of sketches from their instruction references.

Stan Prokopenko has a wonderful tutorial on drawing lips.
http://www.stanprokopenko.com/blog/2009/07/draw-lips/
Here is my realistic attempt using his references.

Emphasizing the planes or curvatures of the lips will help with creating really 3-dimensionality. How light plays off the curves will bring more depth to them. You can "feel" the fullness of the form. The shadows under the bottom lip are as important as the lips themselves to create the illusion that the lip is not a flat surface.

One more item that I didn't understand or realize the importance of, the node. Stan's tutorial explains how the muscles of the face all connect to the corners of the mouth. This is called the node and he compares it to a bean. By emphasizing the wrapping of the muscles around the corners of the mouth can bring the smile to life and depth to the cheeks.

Drawing the Nose - Part One

Original Post: 2/13/2010

The nose is the most undefined of all facial features. It relys on shadows, angles and planes to create it's form. So understanding the structure under the skin is important to really grasp how to draw the nose.

As you can see below the cartlidge bulges and wraps itself around the nasal bone. This is what creates the shape of the nose. Looking at these images is not enough....every artist should take some time to sketch and practice these shapes.

Drawing different angles of the nose allows the artist to experience how lighting and perspective impacts the presentation. Here are a few sketches:

Drawing the Nose - Part Two

Original Post: 2/21/2010

In part one, we discussed the sub-structure, planes and general form of the nose. In this section we will explore the most important tool that will assist us in creating realism – depicting light and shadow.

There are 5 key components of light and shadow. By translating these components into tonal values of shading and highlights it will create realistic depth to the nose.



The light source has the strongest impact on the nose than on any other facial feature. If the light is too strong or harsh, it will create strong cast shadows and unusual shapes. If the light is flooded (using a flash in front of the person), the light diffuses shadows and the nose has no form. A natural (northern light) from above at a 45 degree angle creates soft subtle shadows and emphasizes the best features for portraits.
For more examples of portrait lighting and choosing a good photo reference:

Giovanni Civardi’s “The Art of Drawing Portraits” page 30
http://roshdygroup.com/books/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/drawing-book.jpg

Stan Prokopenko’s Blog Tutorial
http://www.stanprokopenko.com/blog/2009/04/choose-good-photo-reference/

Shading Techniques

Original Post: 2/11/2010

Let's talk about shading....

By using various pencil strokes and varying the pressure and grade (hard to soft) of the pencil lead, you can create a variety of effects in your drawings. One of the most important aspects is creating smooth, gradient shading. Here are a few exercises and techniques that can help.

Exercise 1 (Shading - left half of image below)
Use a 4B, 2B, HB, 2H and 4H and shade from dark to light - keep your shading as consistent and even to create a smooth gradient or transition.

Exercise 2 (Shading - right half of image below)
Start with a 4B and shade one third of the way down, then use HB and shade two-thirds of the way down (shading over the 4B). Then finally shade with 4H over both the 4B, HB and the rest of the section.

Exercise 3 (GrayScale)
Start with the softest lead you have (4B) and shade the blocks into smooth gradient from darkest to lightest. See how many blocks of distinct grays you can make. This shows 18 but the average used in a drawing are between 4-8 shades.

Exercise 4 (Pencil Strokes)
You can create gradient tones by varying the type of pencil stroke you use. This sample shows 4 different pencil strokes:

Circular - small irregular circular strokes, layered over each other. This is especially effective if you don't want visible directional strokes.

Crosshatching - most commonly used - layering closely spaced hatch marks with each layer in a different direction. The more layers, the darker the value.

Scribbling - Make small, controlled scribbles. Increasing the pressure produces darker values. Layers of scribbles result in an even texture.

Additional techniques to create smooth even tones:

Blending - for a smooth blended texture, create light cross-hatch layers, then wrap a tissue around your finger or use a tortillon (rolled paper) and use a light circular motion to blend the lines together.

Burnishing - For a smooth even tone, apply a harder lead over a softer lead. Apply an even layer of 2B and then use a chisel pointed lead of a harder grade (4H or 2H) and "burnish" over the 2B. This creates a beautiful middle tone that smooths out the graininess of the softer lead.