Abraham Lincoln - Final

Since the last post I have worked on the hair as well as giving some details to the suit. I feel like I am at a state where I can say that I am finished. I have spent roughly 6 hours on this drawing and feel pretty good about it. I will be taking this to Sofia Art Academy on Sunday and have Igor, Sofia and the rest of the gang take a look at it and give me some pointers. Always room for improvement though but I think I will find some other motive to draw for my next project.   Click on the picture if you want to see a larger version.

Abraham Lincoln - Part 2

Yesterday and today I continued on my drawing of President Lincoln where I focused on adding more layers of value and refining the edges. I detailed the ear and then started to develop the beard. Working on the beard was very tedious and I think it came out pretty OK. Next step will be to work on the forehead and the hair. I should probably also work on his suite but that can wait until the actual portrait is closer to done I think. Click on the picture if you want to see a bigger version.

Abraham Lincoln - Part I

A cornerstone of learning classic drawing is that you copy various plaster casts and I have been doing that for more than two years now at Sofia Art Academy. For Christmas, my wife Anne gave me a Abraham Lincoln bust  so that I could practice at home. Last weekend I started to draw the President and the picture above shows how it looks after the first layer (1.5 h worth of work). I have focused on the proportions of features and capturing the various shadow shapes in order to achieve a likeness. Next step will be to further develop the shadow shapes with more value as well as refine the edges. Refining the edges means to keep the form shadows soft and the cast shadows hard.

Live model figure drawing

Had a Live model class yesterday at Sofia Art Academy and here is what I did. This was just my second live model figure class so I still have lots to learn..

Pieta doodle

This is a quick doodle I did last night somewhat inspired by Michelangelo's Pieta. I didn't use a reference for this drawing so it doesn't really look like anything but I thought it came out kinda nice with the shading. This was just a 20 minute sketch but next time I think I will take more time and use a reference photo and try to capture the likeness of this magnificent statue.