Week 4, The Nose Knows

This week, we were lucky to have Ellis, long time Islander and commercial fisherman, model for us. We started by simplifying the nose into 5 basic planes, and analyzing each plane: the top ridge, the two side planes, the under plane, and the top of the nose where it begins just below the brow, the "keystone" area. We felt the slight diamond area on the upper bony part of the nose, and felt the soft cartilage of the ball of the nose. We talked about the shape of the nostrils, and how much is exposed depending on our point of view of the model.
The nose brings out other interesting aspects, like disappearing edges on the sides of the nose. And, how to make something come forward in space, by high contrasts, as found at the tip of the nose with highlights and core shadow values in a very tight curve of the ball of the nose.
Our book to review this week is a figure drawing Classic, The Head by Bridgeman. Though written 75 years ago, the information is great!

One of my favorite drawing tools is a stabilio pencil, you can draw with it, and then use a wet brush to liquify the pencil into tones. The third drawing is with just stabilio, and the last pair shows before and after with the stabilio pencil.

Week 3, All about the Eyes.

We started this week by looking at master artist, Nicholi Feshin. People shared their work done outside of class and we even had an invention! Ruby came to class with a lap easel that hooked on her knee and gave her a somewhat verticle surface while sitting, very clever!! Here are the great drawing from this week.

Week 3, It's All in the Eyes Part 2

Today lesson was focused on drawing the eyes. We observed each others eyes and noted how eyes look when they are looking in different directions, how much of the white shows, and that the whites of our eyes aren't really white. We observed light on the eyebrow, the lids and the lower lids. Today's model, Claudia, did a wonderful job and here are our efforts.

Second Sunday, Sally and Shadows 2

More drawing from today class, see previous post for information about today's class.

Second Sunday, Shadows and Sally

Today's emphasis was on shadows. Our homework for the week is to observe shadows, everywhere. We talked about 2 kinds of shadows. First, the Cast Shadow, with crisp edges, typically found under the nose. And second, Form Shadow a soft edge shadow that turns away from the light, a typical place to find a form shadow would be on a cheek. We also talked about how light hits a sphere, noticing, light areas, dark areas, and within the shadow, 2 kinds of values: dark core shadows and reflected light, still dark, but not as dark as core shadows. With this in mind, we had a wonderful model today, Sally, and here are our drawings. New to the class is a 10 year old artist, Sophie, I will post her impressive drawing first.

Great Start to Our Portrait Class!

We started our portrait drawing class by having an 8 year old girl, Jillian, model for us, such a good model! We talked about setting the features and some guides to help place the eyes, nose,and mouth. Today was a terrific start, here are some of today's drawings. Along with Jillian and everyone hard at work, measuring and checking angles.....

Great Drawing from Sunday's First Portrait Class -2

More great drawings of our model Jillian. Note that the last drawing was done by a woman who has never taken an art class, ever...very impressive!