Beautiful Eyes, Looking at Features

We couldn't have had a better model today, especially with today's lesson about the eyes. Grace, who drew with us last session was wonderful! And, she gets the Stone-Statue Award. We first talked about our homework, thumbnail sketches of various portrait paintings, leading into the idea of starting a portrait with a quick thumbnail to help with the composition. We felt our own eye anatomy and looked at our neighbors eyes as well. We talked about the eye socket, the lids, shadowing on the eyeball, the shape of the iris, and where the highlights are. Today's work was very good from everybody.

Week 5, Expressive Mouth Part 2

Today we took a close look at the mouth, noting the philtrum, above our lips. and the curve of the upper lip. We saw how the upper lip is often in shadow, and the lower lip catches light. The cast shadow from the nose moves over the topography of the philtrum. We saw that the line across the mouth isn't a straight line, instead following the lobes of the lips. We also noted that the corners of the mouth have soft indentations. Our model today was outstanding, local musician, Dave M., held fantastic expressive poses. I have a photo of Dave and then a posterized version, showing how the shadow shapes become a flat shape before we add details. It's hard not to go straight to details, but artists will get better drawings by mapping out bigger shadow shapes and major construction lines first, and adding details later once things are in place. Across the board, everyone is making great progress!