Life Drawing at the Academy

Here is a portrait that I did yesterday afternoon at the Sofia Art Academy. This is the first portrait I have done where the drawing actually starts to resemble the model. Not quite there yet but it is getting better.

Portrait of David (February 2010)

It was a long time ago since I posted anything here but now I have been able to produce a couple of portraits that I wanted to upload and show. The two portraits in this post is interesting because they are done 9 months apart. It is of the same subject (Michelangelo’s David) from almost the same position and I can see that there is a difference in quality between them. Still have a long way to go but it is getting better…

Portrait of David (November 2010)

Human figure drawings

Here is two pictures of a couple of drawings I have worked on at the art academy. They are both not finished…mostly concerned about the construction side of things right now and I will do one where I apply tone as well…but one step at a time I guess. The picture quality isn’t the greatest. I need to come up with a better way of digitizing my drawings.

Anterior view

Posterior

David's ear - Final

Here is the final version of the ear. It took two sessions at the Art academy to get to this point. 

Most of the work during this session was spent on making the background look less flimsy as well as make the outline of the shape more precise. This was achieved by adding more tones to the drop-shadow.

David's ear - Part I

Next part up is the ear. This is one of the easiest facial features to draw and it went pretty quick to get the results seen here: 

Basically the ear consists of two ovals. One big on the top and one small on the bottom. The trick is to get the proportions of these ovals correct. You size the width/height of each oval against the entire length of the ear to make sure that the proportions are correct. It is also important to capture the direction of the oval so it looks like the model. After the initial construction work you start working on the details which was a lot of fun. Left to do is to add more layer of tone so that ear looks more realistic…enhance the contrast between areas.

Drawing Tip #4 - Beware of outline!

While drawing the contour of an object it is easy to make it look like it just an outline…a dark line. However, this doesn’t look very realistic, things don’t have an outline in the real world…everything just blend together. That is why it is important to look for areas on your drawing that looks like outline and softening them up by eraser or trying to blend the neighboring areas with the same tone.

David's lips - Final

Completed my drawing of David’s lip. Pretty happy with how it turned out. Sofia from Sofia Art Academy showed me how to make the lower lip to look more full. Trying to make the strokes follow the shape as much as possible and paying attention to how the tone changes depending on the light that strikes the lower lip.