Profile Portrait

I was pretty excited to do a portrait this time. I asked my mom to model for the portrait drawing, and she reluctantly agreed. I kind of felt bad because she was so busy and tired…she kept falling asleep during the time I was drawing. I told her I would do some chores in return but I never got around to that.

Anyways, it was actually a good thing I felt pressured to work on the drawing quickly! I’m really surprised at how fast I finished. My previous drawings took a while (ten breaks with a whole night’s sleep in between) while this one I accomplished in a short time. One of the good things that came out was not worrying or getting so frustrated at a certain part, and instead being able to tell myself to draw what I see.

A tip shown in the book.

This portrait uses all the skills accumulated from previous chapters, like negative spaces, how to measure proportions, etc. Speaking of proportions, there is a great deal of information the author mentions regarding the proportions of a person’s face. For example, there is the rule of “Eye level to chin equals eye level to top of head” (Edwards 180). That basically means the eyes are placed in the middle of the face. I kept this suggestion in mind, as well as a few others given, when drawing the portrait.

One of my few steps when starting was using my picture plane to decide on a composition, then choosing a basic unit. A basic unit is just a “convenient size and shape to guide proportions as you draw” (Edwards 193). I decided to choose the distance between the eyes and chin as my basic unit. Knowing this, I marked a few of the major proportions, like the top edge of hair, the back of the head, etc. on the picture plane. I transferred these marks onto the actual paper to begin my drawing (Edwards 193). Then I started on the lines, and when I came across some challenging parts like the nose and mouth, I focused on drawing the negative spaces. In addition to this, the author also noted to check the angles of these shapes or spaces with the pencil (Edwards 194). 

Finally, I polished it a bit by adding some tone. Personally, the lights and darks of the portrait seem too messy to me. All of the example drawings in the book show well defined lines, highlights, and darks, which I can’t seem to get yet. I can still focus on proportions such as the eyes as well. But overall, I’m pretty happy with the end result! What makes me feel even better is that I didn’t really overthink on this drawing and just went along with it.

What’s something that you've accomplished fairly quickly, yet led to a surprisingly good result?

Citation:

Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence. 4th ed. London: Penguin Group, 2012. Print.