I'm interested in being able to do a semi-realistic portrait... I say "semi" because, in general, I don't normally have a strong desire (or the patience) to draw realistically but there is something magical about being able to capture a face in a drawing*.
(*Not that a drawing needs to be "realistic" to capture a face - but realism is just tickling my fancy at the moment...)
Unfortunately, despite going to art school, I know next to nothing about how to do this*.
(*This is because, they really don't teach any kind of classical technique at art school... at least not a decade ago and/or not where I went to school.)
So I post the little drawing below as a "baseline". This is where I'm at without having done any research into the matter of making a (kind of) realistic portrait.
I don't even want to say who it is because I'll get laughed off the block... or the blog...It's not that I think it's a horrible drawing... it just looks nothing LIKE WHO IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE!
It's from a photo I got off the internet. I probably shouldn't have started with such a grainy photo with such weird lighting.
I know that some people, when working from photos, use a grid technique. I'm not sure if I want to do that kind of thing or not...
a) I don't think I have the patience for it and,
b) even though it would feed my ego to do a very precise thing that easily attracts praise, I don't think I would get much learning-value from it in the long run.
Then again, it wouldn't hurt to try it.
(Ack! Internal-artschool-snob-struggle-angst!)
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We used to work out from two sets of two intersecting lines (one on the page you are working on, the other on the picture you are working from), rather than a grid. Do a shit ton of measuring to get the construct (fancy art school word for outline, I guess) and then move into mapping out dark and light patterns, and then refine the details. Atleast that's how they taught us at Humdrum College.
ReplyDeleteps, this is Steph from life drawing. I just can't remember my bloggityspot password. Again.
Hey Steph!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info! That intersecting line idea sounds very helpful (and much less tedious than doing a whole grid!!)I'll give it a try.
Are you still life-drawing?
I haven't pursued it yet in Ottawa but I want to get back to it.
Cheers and thanks for the advice!
R.
I am still life drawing indeed. Class starts up again next week! It should be good so long as I can force myself to not eat all of the cookies.
ReplyDeleteps, keep up the highly entertaining blog!