Week 4, The Mouth

Pete Dawson was a fantastic model today. We started the class by reviewing the eye, and the shape of the head. We talked about the parts of the mouth, the lobes of the lips, the philtrum, and what happens at the corners of the mouth. We saw a drawing of the "donut effect" around the corner of some mouths. We also noted that the line between the 2 lips is not straight, but follows the shape of the lips.

Week 4 part 2, the Mouth

We thought about using angles while we draw the portrait. Some people tried to draw exclusively with angles, and the results were quite good. We also emphasized punching dark highlights, dark accents, at the end of the drawing session. I'm happy to see everyone developing an expanded line vocabulary, and better observation skills.

A few sketches from Drawing class

Two with china markers and one with aquarelle stabilio pencils.

Emphasis on the Eyes, Week 3, Portrait Drawing

Our portraits are getting stronger each week. We reviewed value scales and hopefully everyone will try a value scale this week: 1 to 10. This week we mainly talked about the eyes in detail, and you can see that a lot of new information is being added to the drawings, many good observation of our model, Heidi. Who could have asked for a better model for a lesson on eyes?

Drawing the Head, Emphasis on Eyes Part 2

We continued with our good habit of doing 1 minute thumbnails first.

Working from the Model with Thumbnails, Week Two

We finally have our sunday drawing class back on track, and it's a great group. Everyone is quickly grasping a good feel for the gesture and tilt of the head, and general placement of features. After a demonstration portrait drawing, we introduced the thumbnail sketch and made time at the beginning of each pose for a quick small thumbnail. Everyone is making good progress, seeing, and trusting their eyes. In no particular order, here are drawings from today's class. The model may be relaxed, but this was not a relaxing pose with the head tilted back, foreshortening the features.

Working from the Model with Thumbnails, part 2

More great drawings, note the one minute small thumbnails, a great quick gestural tool for seeing the big shapes. It's fun to compare quick thumbnails to more developed drawings, and how much information was captured in those quick sketches.