Bald Eagle

This is a carbon pencil portrait that I recently finished. 
I've had the reference photo of this eagle for a number of years but never got around to drawing it.
The darker sections of this drawing proved a challenge. Early on I'd decided to cover the whole area black, and then erase the feathers. The other option would have been to leave the feathers white, which would have been a bit too fiddly. 
I'm really happy with the contrast in this picture - carbon works so well to get those 'black blacks'. 
The one thing I'm not too happy with is the background. I'm not too sure how to get a smoother grey with carbon - as opposed to being quite grainy. 

Lightning McQueen - finished

Well, it took another 6 months to actually get back to completing this drawing. It's obviously been a busy year, with not much time to sit down and pick up a pencil.

The side of Lightning McQueen was probably the most difficult to draw. I've seen others' attempts of this same picture, and they've left a lot of the detail out - but I was keen to keep as much in as I could.

I'm using Strathmore paper (Bristol - smooth), and Prismacolor soft-core coloured pencils. 
I've also been experimenting with applying some odourless mineral spirits to sections of the drawing to blend the wax of the pencils to a point where you can't see the tooth of the paper. I feel like there is mixed success with that technique here.

Lightning McQueen 1

Second drawing in colour.
It took quite a while to get the outline complete for this one.
I'm enjoying finding out how to blend with colour and use different tones of the same colour to get the effect of a shine. 
Should be a bit of fun, this one.

First portrait in colour

Carson from Downton Abbey.

Here I am using Prismacolor Premier Pencils.

I've steered away from using colour for a long time now. What is it that scares me so much!?

I had done a lot of research on creating skin tones before working on this, but I still find that it looks so washed out.

I'm fairly pleased with it for a first attempt. 

I found it's one thing to get shading correct using shades of grey, but it's a different story when colour is involved.

I'm really looking forward to getting more used to coloured skin tones. It's interesting being in this position again. When using solely graphite, I started off being so cautious and every looked so faded. I'm sure that this will happen with colour too.

So watch this space!

Bono

This was a portrait I drew using carbon pencils.
For some reason it took only 11 hours, as opposed to the average 19 hours that my other portraits have taken.
This may have been because this is a side-on portrait, meaning that there isn't the forward facing eyes, which takes so much time to get so accurate.

I drew this for a good friend who is an avid U2 fan. He has a dedicated room for music, and this picture is on the wall joining albums, guitars, amps and an electric keyboard.

I love the contrast that carbon creates. I like how the skin tones are slightly darker through the glass.

Portraits Framed

Ahh! Finally! 

This was goal from so many months before.

Last year I completed a two day framing course. It feels so good to have drawn these portraits, measured and cut the mats and joined the moulding together.

Very happy indeed!

 

Melody - finished!

This is the final of four portraits! This was finished over a year ago. 
I've been neglecting the blog for a long time now - time to get back on the horse!

Annalise - completed

Annalise - progress

Here's a progression of the drawing within one post. 

I've been scanning as I've gone along, but just not adding to the blog.

A few thoughts about this portrait:

• So much dark! I had to be as brave as I could (why is it scary to use a 7B pencil?). 
• I was quite happy with each section as I went along, without the need to go back at the end and change a whole lot of stuff. 
• I wish that I could've had a technique to make the solid colour of her shirt more solid looking. A bit patchy. Hmm...

     

 
     

Cara-Jane - completed

Cara-Jane - progress 10

Okay, so it looks like I'm done, but I'm not just yet. 

I like how my last post finished by saying "Hopefully not too much longer", and here it is, over three months later! It says a lot for the hectic start of the year I've had. Looking forward to getting back into this.

There's still another look over and make sure that everything is spot on - especially the skin tones.

Stay tuned... (see you in 3 months...???)

Cara-Jane progress 9

Getting there with the face. 

Still not as dark as it needs to be on the right hand side. It's hard to get the darkness right. Your mind says, "Woah, you can't go that dark!" But unless you do, it won't look right in the overall picture. 

Hopefully not too much longer!

Cara-Jane - progress 8

I got very frustrated with this next section of hair.

At a micro level, studying the light and dark shades, and replicating it either by drawing, smudging or erasing, I was never really happy with the result. However, upon scanning in the image and seeing the whole picture 'zoomed out', so to speak, I'm actually very happy with it.
I wonder it it's because my mind doesn't really know what it's drawing. Braided hair from this angle doesn't look like a braid at all, just a criss-cross of lines. As the picture comes together more, my brain makes more sense of it.

This is just an initial shading of skin tones, especially around the eyelid and under the eye. It will end up being a lot darker than this. 

From here I'll probably keep working from left to right, except for the clothes. I'll leave them until last.

After a few weeks off with holidays, I am now at the stage where I'm itching to spend time on this and finish it off.

Cara-Jane - progress 7

This is where it starts getting exciting. All of the outlining seems worth it now.

From the start I'm using a combination of HB and 2B to shade, getting the correct amount of dark in the hair.

I'm shading from left to right, so as not to smudge any of the graphite as I go. I do, however, always have a small piece of paper that my hand rests on when outlining or shading, to keep the paper clean. I never touch the paper with my fingers or my hand, as the natural oils in the skin can make it difficult to rub off graphite the paper.

Cara-Jane - progress 6

Woo hoo!

At this stage I can't rush ahead and begin shading. Just because the outline looks complete, I need to go over it with a fine toothed comb to double check that every is in place and ready to go. This doesn't take too long, and we should see some progress in the shading side of things very shortly.

This portrait is going to be awesome.

Cara-Jane - progress 5

Getting there.

Cara-Jane just came up and said, "Dad, is that hard?" The answer was that no, it isn't any harder than drawing the eye or shading the hair, it just takes longer.

I find that so odd. When you see the finished product, a cheek tone looks so much 'easier' than an ear or a braid of hair, but there is no difference. In fact, sometime skin tones take much longer to get to the right shade.

Here's a close up of the detail in the shirt.
Click on the image to get a further zoomed in view.

Cara-Jane - progress 4

It's been a while since I've drawn and it's really time to get back into it. My goal was to have all four daughters done by Christmas, but I probably won't even get two done. That's alright though. Keep ploughing on.

You can see in this scan the density and complexity of the floral shirt. There's not a predictable pattern to it, and not much uniformity in terms of size of flowers or length of stems.
This makes it a painstaking process of measuring, cross-referencing and checking to make sure it looks how its meant to.

I'm really looking forward to the shading of this picture, but I know that there are a few more hours to go until I get to that stage. Hang in there!

Cara-Jane - progress 3

Getting there.

I figure I don't have to be too exact with the hair at this stage, as when I shade I normally put a blanket colour down, then work from there.

Time to tackle these flowers! Let's do it!

Cara-Jane - progress 2

Okay, so the one eye thing is a bit freaky, but this is where I made it up to tonight.

I'm trying to get the outline done a bit quicker than normal to see how it goes, but that's virtually impossible when it comes to eyes. If the eyes aren't right, then it doesn't look like the person at all.

Still not tackling the floral top yet. Just you wait, it's a doozy!

Cara-Jane - progress 1

It's been too long since I've drawn.

The portrait of Phoebe was four months ago. I need to speed things up a bit, or our girls will look so different by the time I've finished!

Once again, the outline stage is slightly freaky. Teeth were never meant to be outlined!

You can't see it now, but Cara-Jane's top is very densely floral and will be the biggest challenge in this portrait.

But for now, it's head down and get this outline underway. A few hours into it now.