Talking Heads 1

Drawing the human head is among the most challenging tasks, which for many of us remains a perpetual struggle.  For this series of exercises I draw on "Drawing the Human Head" by Bruce Hogarth published by Watson-Guptill in 1989.  It's a great book that I'm just edging into it and I'm going to share my struggle with you.

Drawing a human head

Heads are round, right?  We'll, sort of - but more like intersecting elipses.  

Here's a plain round head. 😕  and here's what it's based on...

 

So, that's a more complicated idea and we need to break it down. Let's start by thinking about the basic proportions. from the front  If we go back to the round head idea for a second, change the round shape to an oval 3 high x 2 wide

heres' my egg head!

From the side, we can abstract that complicated skull shape into 2 ovals, a vertical one and a horizontal one, about the same size... the drawing below is from "Drawing the Human Head".

Here's my take on the 2 oval profile view (drawn with Paper 53 on an iPad)

We can start looking at the "facial mass" as distinct from the "cranial mass"

 And for fun, start to manipulate the facial and cranial masses to render more complicated angles. This is where it starts getting tough!

up views and down views

I'm going to keep working on the "masses" before I tackle detailed rendering of features like eyes, noses, chins, hair etc. Let me know how you make out!

Excercise 1 - update

Jeff gave me (belatedly) his Exercise 1 (self portrait) yesterday.  I thought it was pretty good - he's now moving on to exercises 2 and beyond.

Exercise 5 - Fun with Folds!

Folded fabric (or, if you're getting on, skin) is a fascinating brain teaser to draw.  Light reflects most strongly at the top of the fold "ridge".  Folds aren't parallel, but I've simplified a diagrammatic fold in the sketch below to show basic rendering of a simple fold.  Add light source direction, shadowing from one fold to another, undercut (how fabric folds under itself) and other myriad issues to make fold studies a must do when seeking humiliation.  

In the detailed rendering below by J. Snow you can see all these complexities beautifully handled.  

Now it's your turn - set up your own drapery model still life, it could be clothing, curtains, a cloth.  Render it as best as you can using the general idea of keeping the "high points" the lightest and following the fold convergences to their crease points. Not happening?  Keep working on it. 

Here's a nice one by our friend Raphael.  You can just feel that fabric.  

And then there's the incomparable Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chávez "Vargas" (1896-1982) with this lovely fold study below... in this case, the black lace is rendered transparently with shadow at the side and maximum transparency on the ridges. 

Exercise 5 - try your own fold study!

Exercise 4 - Gesture Drawings

Where contour drawing is slow and painstaking, gesture drawing is mad with abandon.  Draw what the figure is "doing" rather than the edges.  Draw through the figure quickly showing the essential action, weighting or "gesture" of the pose.

The image above is from the Natural Way to Draw and shows gestural drawing with weight, intent, and movement.

You can practice with a real model or on the site below.  Set the "controls" to any way you like, but I'd suggest 30 or 60 seconds with both male and female figures.  Clothing is up to you.

http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/

Happy drawing!

Exercise 3 - Contour Studies

Credit www.jasonwitte.com

Three types of drawing; Contour, Gesture and Modelled drawings form much of the technical basis of of drawing.  All tremendously useful study types and worlds apart, when practiced independently, the approaches can be re-integrated into the process of "drawing".

This week we're going to look at "Contour Drawing" using Kimon Nicolaides, The Natural Way to Draw (1941) as a basis for the exercise:

Contour Drawing - 1-2 hours

Different from an "outline", a contour is a careful and painstaking study of an object or grouping, keeping the eye on the subject and the pencil on the paper. In fact, the eye doesn't even look at the paper since it is instead looking a a particular part of the subject.  The pencil traces the contour edges of the subject so as to create in the mind of the artist, an unmistakable sense of what edge the pencil is tracing.  Nicolaides says to, "exactly coordinate the pencil with the eye" and to "be guided by the sense of touch more than that of sight".  An interesting trick to be sure, and one that, when practiced, yields a much stronger sense of connection to a subject, necessary to execute believable drawings.

Set up in a comfortable location with paper of about 15"x20" (40cm x 50cm) and a 3B pencil.  Fasten the paper to a hard backing and sit close to your subject.  "Wait until you are convinced that the pencil is touching that point on the model upon which your eyes are fastened".  Start anywhere and stop anywhere.

Contour Faces (credit www.youthareawsome.com/contour-drawing/)

backpack (credit www.drawing-fun.net)

here are some that I did last week

Raphael master copy - Exercise 2

Whew, I learned a lot from this one... turns out Raphael (Sanzio da Urbino) was rather good at his job

Here's the first one I tried - there was something going wrong somewhere so I abandoned it ...

The second one was a bit "better" so I worked it up, but it's still problematic.  Proportions are still not quite right but there you go.  Good crosshatching practice anyway and the shoulders were interesting to work on.

By exploiting the new science of "grid" based technology, I got the proportions more like the original

and here is try number 3 with most (but not all) of the grid erased (conté on paper)

ok, this one is still way better - but it's RAPHAEL for crying out loud!

Exercise 2 - Master Drawing Copy

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCPcz_CoBpqRR-QCM-DzZh90GRAYwtTL6WC5xi00I6lECfPW1qMOI5N7pbCSyQdkPrGojc7Y04WOZhyk3JRTDDoBtklE8ffrYmdnjlj434tptlPWKT4fHBrVJWWVkinU47iKJraUxqjnIk/s1600/Raphael2.JPG

This week, copy this Raphael drawing in your medium of choice ... there's a link above.  It would be good to print it and copy at about the same size but if you can handle the scaling, go for it.

Happy drawing! Mark

Exercise 1 - Results!

hand 1 (conte on newsprint) - M Potter

hand 2 (conte on newspint)- M Potter

selfie (conte on sketch paper) - M Potter

portrait from memory (iPad) - M Potter

Just got my first result from Jeff 

Exercise 1

Exercise 1 - 

From Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Ok kids - this is an ALL PLAY
You have until May 7th to do this exercise and send me the results by email at f.mark.potter@gmail.com

Remember it's an exercise, NOT a contest!  I will post the results (unless you don't want me to).


3 Drawings - 1 to 1.5 hours

1. Draw a self portrait using a mirror (20-30 min)
2. Draw a portrait of someone you know from memory (20-30 min)
3. Draw one of your hands (20 min)

this is what we're shooting for...

but it could be more like this...

Results will be posted (if received) on Saturday May 7th!

Learning to Draw ... Naturally - Mission Statement

Hello,

Although, I'm an architect and should be drawing all the time, my work is largely about writing, meeting, talking on the phone and crunching numbers.  Even so, I've drawn all my life and, while some days I'm ok at it I'm never really better than just ok.  Sometimes my efforts to depict the unfamiliar are doomed and I've turned out some serious rubbish.  But that's ok - it's practice.  Now, at age 61, I want to learn and relearn how to draw to be able to connect better with the world, my brain and the paper I'm working on.

And ... I want company.

Jeff, who lives down the street, shows an interest (and aptitude) in learning to draw and paint. As the second youngest of 5, he's the only one in the household who has this strange gene.  We thought it would be fun to go through exercises on 3 seminal books on drawing together:

• The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides, 1941
• (The New) Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edward, 1999
• Lessons in Classical Drawing, Essential Techniques from inside the Atelier by Juliette Aristides, 2011

I'd also like to acknowledge a suberb Toronto Beaches area watercolourist, Elizabeth Berry who patiently teaches the "seeing brain" approach to painting without lines. 

So, here's what I do - 

When life hands you lemons - M Potter (Pencil53 on iPad) 2016

20 minute sketch, Piggott building, Hamilton, Ontario - M Potter (pencil on paper) 2015

Fried eggs - C. Potter (watercolour) 2015

First some inspiration:

“All art is but dirtying the paper delicately.” 
― John Ruskin, The Elements of Drawing

“I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.” 
― Beatrix Potter

“The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance” 
― Leonardo da Vinci

On to the exercises then.