Braid

Just a quick 'n' dirty sketch. Haven't used plain pencil in a while, I'm rusty.

Back to painting, I think...

While I wait for a painting to dry...

...I broke out some white Conté crayons and decided to do a quick portrait. Unlike most of the portraits that I (attempt to) do in black on white paper, this one was reversed. Slightly different process, I think.

(White Conté crayon on black paper, A3)

This time I tried to keep it sketchy instead of smoothing it out too much, otherwise it starts to look too unnatural. That said, I've noticed that when I try a portrait, I usually end up drawing the eyes much bigger than they are supposed to be, thereby making it unnatural anyway. Hah. I guess that's my thing then. I must really like eyes.

Good hair day

I know I'm not good at portraits. I also know that I'm not too good with oil paints. So why I combined the two, I don't know.

I used painting knives instead of paintbrushes because I wanted to experiment with creating texture this time around. I spent a lot time on her hair, where all the texture was. I started to paint her face and upper body with a knife as well but it wasn't translating well. By the time I decided to use paintbrushes, the paint already began to solidify and so the textures have stuck. I'm not too fussed, we'll call it 'character'. Anyway, I'm not going to pretend that this was going to turn out like a portrait from an Old Master. It was just me moving a load of thick paint on the paper.

Bumpy...

Illustration Friday: soaked

Seeing how the end of the world hasn't panned out today, I might as well post my entry. No colour this time:

(charcoal, A3)

Third portrait in a row. Still not brilliant at doing them, but they are fun to do.

Maybe the hellfire will come later...

Shhh!

(charcoal, A3-ish)

It's oh so quiet.

Earrings

(charcoal, A3)

Keeping it sketchy.

Cat in a hat

Another quick portrait, 20ish minutes, #3 (I think) #4

(charcoal on paper, A3)

I should draw more light-haired people.

IF next, that's if I can get the idea from my imagination onto paper.

Afro

Quick portrait again, in a similar vein to my others (take a reference picture, grab some charcoal, sketch fast, ignore the details). I did this one because the afro is spiffy:

(charcoal on paper, A3)

The proportions are off (the face should be bigger and turned much more to the side) but that wasn't really my concern. I just wanted to draw fast. If I tried to draw it picture perfect then there's really no point in drawing it (/self disclaimer). Again, about 20 minutes on this, maybe 25 with colouring the afro.

The reference I used was of Marsha Hunt. She used to rock a cool afro in the '60s and '70s. Pretty too.

And finally a closeup photo, the full shot doesn't really pick out the different shades of black and grey too well.

 

I might get an A2 pad, A3 feels a little small to do these kind of drawings...

More adventures in charcoal (20 mins, #2)

Another portrait!
Like my last portrait I spent about 20 minutes drawing it, focusing again on the shape and form of the face and hair rather than detail. The charcoal helps enormously with that. It's a pretty good exercise in restraint:

 

(charcoal on paper, A3)

Thanks to the unknown girl who put her picture on the net and ended up on my computer as a reference. I probably should look for some male faces to draw just to mix things up a little, but girls are just nicer to look at.

An A3 scanner would be great for these. Taking photos of a bigger than A4 piece just isn't the same, even after adjusting the tone and colour levels.

(I promise to try my best to not make certain people look fat in their pictures when they aren't at all...)

20 mins

Just a quick portrait done in charcoal.

(charcoal on paper, A3)

This was pretty easy to do. I only spent about 20 minutes on it because I wasn't trying to make it overly detailed. I might make this type of drawing a regular thing (yeah, I've never said that before...). Besides, I need a LOT of practice drawing human form.

Happy birthday Kinga

I wanted to do something nice for Kinga's birthday, because when I last saw her she was stressing out about all manner of things. I'm not the best portrait artist in the world, so what better gift to give than a portrait? :P

For Kinga Bee :)

(graphite on paper, A4)

My first attempt at drawing her was in charcoal and looked like a different person. This one looks more like her so I settled for this one. She said I made her look prettier than in real life... uhm, no that's not possible ;)

I didn't need her permission to post this but I did get her approval. Besides, I'd prefer that she was happy with it and plant a big kiss on my lips than be angry and slap me.

And just so there's no sense of embarrassment, here's a self-portrait that I did in college when I was around 16-17, in acrylic, when I was just starting out in acrylics and even worse at portraits.

Why do I look angry? I dunno, maybe because this was frustrating to paint, especially with cheap student-grade acrylics that were like painting with water. Or it's most likely the angle of the paper distorting my face. The best thing about this self-portrait is the jacket, heh.

Visit Kinga's art blog here.

Vintage

Another drawing in charcoal.

This time I tried to get the proportions right so that she didn't look like she jumped out of a cartoon. Drawing a different pose also helped. I wanted to draw her whole body, but the paper was too small and I don't think I can capture fine details with charcoal just yet.

Charcoal is so damn messy, but so much fun to play with. OK, time to wipe the dust off my table :)

New medium

2 posts in 1 day? Well, yeah :)

I've always wanted to try drawing with charcoal (drawing on concrete floors and walls excluded). My interest was renewed after watching the title sequence of The Pacific. Now what I've drawn is hardly in the same league as the aforementioned title sequence, but I think still decent for a first try. I also found it much easier to use than soft pastel, probably because it's even softer and monochrome.

I referenced a random picture I found on the internet, so I don't know who the girl is. I was just drawn to her hairstyle and dark hair which translated really well in charcoal. She also looks a bit cartoonish and child-like because I drew her eyes bigger than normal. Yes, I messed up her facial proportions ever so slightly, but we'll call that artistic license :)