FOUNDATIONS in Portrait Drawing Volume 2. Michael R. Britton

Transcription

1 FOUNDATIONS in Portrait Drawing Volume 2 Michael R. Britton

2 FOUNDATIONS in Portrait Drawing Volume 2 Table of Contents Lesson 8: Drawing the Tilted Head Page 4 Lesson 9: Rendering Hair Page 8 Lesson 10: Drawing Children Page 16 Lesson 11: Drawing a Portrait with a Large Hat Page 24 Lesson 12: The Construct: A Compleat Arabesque Page 29 Lesson 13: Incorporating a Hand in Your Portrait Page 35 Lesson 14: Elements of Facial Expression: Part 1 Page 40 Lesson 15: Elements of Facial Expression: Part 2 Page 47 Lesson 16: The Foreshortened Reclined Head Page 55 Lesson 17: The Clavicles Page 61 Lesson 18: The Neck: Form & Structure Page All rights reserved.

3 This second volume of Foundations in Portrait Drawing is comprised of eleven portrait drawing lessons that were originally written for my drawing students and subscribers of my Drawing E-Zine. Over the years they have proved very popular and, more importantly, effective in teaching how to draw portraits. In Lesson 16 I will introduce you to sanguine contè which is a reddish drawing crayon. The conte crayon should also be sharpened with a razor blade and sandpaper. Lessons 17 and 18 are anatomy lessons on the clavicles (the collar bones) and the neck. As you proceed through these lesson you will find yourself needing the antomy in order to further develop. Except for Lessons 9, 12 and 15 all of these drawing were done from life. I have supplied the photograph for Rendering Hair for you to work from. Foundations in Portrait Drawing, Volume 3 continues your learning process at an advanced level. Tools for Portrait Drawing The art materials required for these lessons are quite simple: my preference is the Staedtler Mars Lumograph Pencils. They are available in a large range of softness to hardness. The 8B is the softest, whereas the 8H is the hardest pencil. For these lessons you will only need the 8B, HB and 2H or 4H. You can expand on these of course. A few small pieces of medium grade vine charcoal are useful for blocking-in. You can also use the 8B pencil for blocking in. You will also need about two or three sanguine contè crayons. As valuable as your pencils is the kneaded eraser. These are usually gray square wrapped in cellophane. The kneaded eraser is meant to rolled up and kneaded in your hand which warms up the eraser and proffers a wide range of painterly possibilites in addition to correcting mislaid lines. My preferred paper is the Fabriano Ingres ivory or buff colored. You may or may not like this paper too but I suggest trying out a variety of different brands of charcoal drawing paper. At this early stage, though, keep with the light colors. For sharpening my pencils and contè crayons I use a safety razor blade and medium grade sandpaper to sharpen the leads to about tapered to a very fine point. A thin knitting needle and plumb-bob are also very useful for checking the measures of your drawings.

4 Using a soft 8B pencil further block in the darks paying attention to the direction and gesture of the major locks of hair and blocking in only shapes of darks where there are many minor locks. The most difficult thing is to refrain from plunging into an area of detail. This requires both mental discipline and faith. Once again I stump down using my fingers like paint brushes short, stubby paint brushes. And, again, using a kneaded eraser I paint out the lights. This is a layered approach that progressively stalks the arrangement of the hair lock by lock. You ll notice, too, that I have softened the edges of the hair line so that it blends into the face. Hair does this naturally.

5 Now the Construct needs to be checked for accuracy. There is no fast and hard rule. Instead what needs to be found is a sympathetic correspondence of the height/width proportion via sighting. In other words, we need to find a vertical measure from one landmark to another that equals a horizontal measure from a different landmark to another. In this pose the horizontal measure from the intersection point of the jaw and arm (this is a landmark) to the top of the head (another landmark) equals the vertical measure from the back of the head to the tip of the middle finger (a more discrete landmark, but a landmark nonetheless). These general measures must correlate directly to your Construct. If they don t then now is the time to correct.

6 Condyle Nasal Prominance Anterior Nasal Spine The all-important arabesque is first struck and its primary height/width proportion checked and verified by sighting. This critical skill is fully taught in my Mastering Portrait Drawing 1: The Frontal Pose DVD Workshop. The facial proportions, including the facial angle, are now established. This is where the foreshortened, reclining pose either succeeds or fails. The correct fixing of the brow-ridge (nasal prominance) is the key it is surprisingly high up on the head. Drawing a foreshortened, reclining portrait by utilizing the standard facial divisions of 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 or by placing the eyes at the mid-point will not work. The same goes for the base of the nose (anterior nasal spine), the mouth and the hinge of the jaw (condyle).

7 Even at this early stage once the initial tones of the face and features are indicated the proportions of the brow ridge to anterior nasal spine, etc. become plausible. The features are worked up tonally with some line work. Particularly close attention must be paid to the negative shapes vis-a-vis the alar and bi-lateral cartilage of the nose and the eye. However at this juncture your main concern is the accurate placement of the large masses. Always work from the general to the specific bearing in mind that portrait drawing is an asymptotic process of error and correction. There is also another important consideration in the reclined portrait and that is the effect of gravity. The flesh is pulled downwards and across the underlying skull. I believe the term for this is recidity (I really need to invest in a larger, more expansive dictionary). As a small aside though, Hollywood films love-making scenes, particulary those from the waist up, with the actors and actresses posed vertically (standing up) thus defying the effects of gravity. Seeing is not always believing.

8 The last, and largest, muscle is the Trapezius. The extensive, triangular muscle extends from the base of the skull to the top of the shoulder. It inserts mainly into the spine of the Scapula, the shoulder blade. This muscle forms the visible structure of the back of the neck. Now that I have introduced you to the anatomy of the neck, let s continue onwards to the surface landmarks that these anatomical structures form.