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Friday, February 08, 2008

Drawing a Head: Three takes on the same view


Drawing a Head 7th February 2008: Getting there in the end?
graphite on heavy white cartridge paper

copyright Katherine Tyrrell


I always set myself a challenge for each drawing class - and I decide what it's going to be before I get there. Last night I was trying to decide between two alternatives. One choice was doing a series of drawings where each lasted no more than 15 minutes - paring down to the essentials. The other involved drawing the same head from the same perspective three times - to see what happened. Guess which won!

As usual I had two sessions of 45 minutes and the final session was 30 minutes. I'd forgotten to pack my pencil case so was limited to what was available - which was one of my mechanical pencils. (Dip a hand in any pocket and there's normally a pencil or a pen in it!) As before they are all on one piece of paper.

The drawing evolved - more or less as I expected. However it was still very interesting to see how the drawing changed.

Drawing the same head from the same perspective three times seems to mean:
  • you notice something new each time
  • your measurements get better - but still don't necessarily reflect real-life
  • values and proportion compete for attention - mastery of lost edges always seems to me to be the real challenge
  • the drawing always changes - and there is always scope to do better.
Any other suggestions?

The first time I saw values and tried to get a sense of relative proportion and lost and found edges.

The second time I got more of a sense of the 'real' face and a better sense of proportion.

The third time I think I got more of a sense of the 'real' person - but lost some of what I'd learned about proportion.

See if you can work out which is the first and which is the last drawing.

What I need to do for a future class is to have my paper set up in advance with 8 slots (4 to a page?) for the 15 minute drawings.

Click this link to can see my blog posts about my "drawing a head" drawings or visit my website to see a slideshow of my drawings a head drawings.

4 comments:

  1. I'm thinking the first one is the middle one and the last one is the bottom one. The best proportions look to be in the middle drawing---the eyes here seem as if they're placed most accurately (albeit I didn't see the model!) In the bottom one, the face is the most expressive, so I'm guessing that is the one in which you say you've captured her personality.

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  2. I think the first is the middle on the right - hard to know which is second because I like the bottom one best - so I'm going to say that is the last. It must be a good resemblance to your model, Katherine because they look like triplets!

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  3. I'd guess the first drawing is the middle one. The second is the top one and the third is on the bottom. I like them all. There's no substitute for drawing practice.

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  4. Now for folks reading this on Saturday, I have to tell you these three ladies are GOOD!

    I was out most of Friday and hence moderated all comments when I got home - so they didn't see what each other had said. However they all said the same thing - and they were all correct!

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