Some more portraits

I'm finding it hard to get time to draw at all for months now. So, with much effort, I'm just trying to draw anything whenever I get a moment.

Some quick straight watercolor sketches.

 

And finally, a bit of mail art. 

Some pencil sketches over breakfast

Otaki Beach at sunset

A face a week #40

Prismacolor sepia pencil, A5 paper. I'm trying to capture her expression of looking intently at something, or trying to figure something out. I think it is all in the tilt of the head, the compressing of the neck, and the posture. I think when someone is concentrating on something very intently, their eyes might be closed slightly, but their jaw is relaxed and loose (which is shown by it being a fraction forward, and probably a fraction less shaded, depending on which direction the light is coming from). 

A quick miniature sketch of a guy looking out a window to try out my new Conte Pierre Noire and Prismacolor colorless blending pencils.

Drawing people smirking

Over breakfast (and morning tea) I sketched one of the Cardinals photographed in the NZ Listener magazine. 

I've been reading Giovanni Civardi's excellent book Drawing: A Complete Guide and I really like how he does his portraits with a style that is at the same time exact, but loose and relaxed. The cross hatching is methodical and beautiful, but fast and expressive. A bit like in my other favourite book, John Raynes' Drawing and Painting People. I thought I would give this a go. I used my Derwent Onyx pencil (medium), and it did take quite some effort to get the darker shades, which on thin paper can buckle the paper a bit. I'd still like to order a the dark version of this pencil and try that out.

It has also made me think about how to sketch someone smirking - what is the crucial thing to include in the sketch that differs from a closed smile? It depends on the lighting, of course, but I think a smirk involves the lips being pursed and pushed out, and the chin jutting forward slightly. Plus the usual things that accompany a smile, such as raised cheeks, dimples, wider mouth and slightly closed eyes. 

Pursed lips are shown by the shadow above the mouth stopping before the lips, so that there is a line of blank paper above the top lip, and slightly deeper shading under the top lip. This is due to light catching the lips more because the lips are pushed out, smirking. Usually in a sketch, the edge of the mouth's lower lips are not drawn, but are implied by the shadow on the chin under the curve of the lower lip. But in a smirk, there might not be as much shading on the chin (in this case, almost none) under the lower lip, because in a smirking smile the chin is being jutted forward so much.

Sketching mischievous grins

Another portrait: a woman in a shawl. I quite liked this woman's slightly mischievous expression. I think sketching a mischievous smile involves sketching pursed lips, the cheeks raised, and the eyebrows raised but also tensed together (the muscles on the forehead tightened), so the eyes are not quite as pushed closed as in a grin. Charcoal on $2 shop paper. I had some trouble with my charcoal pencil again, leaving scratches in the paper but no charcoal.Although, I think I might have figured this out: it is a 2B charcoal pencil. I thought charcoal was charcoal.

Castlepoint, North Island, New Zealand

Sketching cheesy grins and wide toothy smiles...

These are just "Notes to Self¨ for future reference: 

A lot of people that I want to draw are happy people, who are grinning widely, even cheesily. If I am sketching a large portrait, then it is easy to draw the grin and the teeth. But if I'm drawing a tiny sketch, like a quick sketch in a sketchbook, a cheesy grin is quite tricky.

When I look at a person grinning, their mouth and their teeth are really visible and clear. But if you actually draw the mouth and the teeth quite clearly, then the person looks very odd (see below). I can't figure out how it is that there lines and tone that we can see on a subject - they are actually there - but when we draw them in a small sketch, they look wrong. I think it is that, when recognising faces in a sketch, our brain wants to fill in some of the lines and tone itself. 

So far, I think that when doing small sketches of people who are grinning widely, the trick is to draw just enough that the viewer's brain fills in the rest.

Usually you would draw the upper lip lightly, but reasonably clearly. This seems to be so, even if the woman is wearing lipstick. If you actually draw the lipstick in darkly on both lips, the person will probably look like an evil clown. Usually the upper lip is drawn in because the light is usually coming from above in some way, and the upper lip is therefore in shadow. I think that even if it is not really in much shadow (compared to the lower lip), our brains are really used to this convention, and will interpret it properly.

The edges of the mouth are usually dark, because the cheeks are pulled back. Draw the edges of the grin darkly, but don't let it follow too much down the lower lip.

I think that if the person is grinning so widely that there is a gap between the teeth and lower lip (see above), then you draw a little bit of the darkness, with just the faintest outline of some of the front teeth along the lower edge. Don't completely draw the line between the teeth. I think the viewer's brain knows they are teeth, and fills in the rest itself. The lower lip is not actually drawn too clearly (or somewtimes at all): just draw the shadow which the lower lip makes underneath.

If there is no gap between the person's teeth and the lower lip (see above), I think a faint suggestion of teeth along the upper lip works OK. But again don't draw in the actual lines between the teeth (even though you can see them in the subject). Another way to think of it is that you are drawing the shadows made by the upper lip on the teeth, not the actual teeth lines.

A face a day (11): drawing pensiveness

Another portrait from the face a day exercise in Carla Sonheim´s book Drawing Lab. This one is of Dr Weir from the tv show Stargate Atlantis. She is supposed to be pensive, staring into the distance. It makes me think, what makes a person look pensive, as opposed to sad, concentrating etc? I think drawing pensiveness entails having the eyes squinting slightly, but the cheekbone muscles not raised (as they would be in a smile). The rest of the face is also totally slack - especially the jaw, which should be loose, and a little forward, I think.

I haven´t concentrated as much on shadow, or value, as my plan is to go over this sketch in pen and ink. I almost can´t bear to though, in case I mess it up... I used H, HB, 2B, 6B, 8B pencils, and a blending stick slightly.