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Great notes Deborah. I took a screenshot so I can use them🙂. I’ve been forced to learn about color theory and drawing at the same time because of the challenge I signed up for, so I’ve been focusing on how they both fit together equally. I’ve learned that you can ruin a great drawing with bad colors, and you can ruin great colors with a bad drawing. I’ve also learned that colors go a long way in helping to achieve the illusions of depth and emotion. One thing that has been useful to me is to take a look at the drawings of professional artists, and then look at the way they use those drawings in their paintings. Yesterday, I was looking at the the work of Paula Rego. Have you heard of her? Her drawings have great exaggerated gestures and show a lot of movement and emotion on their own, but the colors really enhance and define all these ideas. That study you mention is interesting. It makes sense though. If people are too preoccupied trying to create one work that is a masterpiece, they might freeze up and never accomplish much. I saw a Ted Talk about the “imposter syndrome” that discussed similar ideas. I also read somewhere that a lot of artists dislike the artworks that made them famous. A few even tried to throw them away.
Day 15 of 100: Quick Head Drawing. I’ve discovered again that I don’t do brilliantly when I try to do something quickly. These were supposed to be timed 1 minute sketches from Steve Huston’s first constructive head drawing class but I took somewhere around 5. I can’t even think it through in one minute! It made so much sense when he did it 😫! Tomorrow I’ll take more time to let the content sink in properly.I’m glad they’re useful to you Bryan 🙂. Once again, I’m glad we’re here studying and not trying to prove anything! There’s so much to learn. I hadn’t heard of Paula Rego but looked her up. Interesting work. You seem to be doing heaps of research which will serve you well. This forum has been good for me to deal with impostor syndrome. I dislike social media because of it whereas this seems different because people on the whole are here to practice.
Deborah
These look good Deborah. I can see the point of one the one minute sketches. It is basically to train you to be able to draw relying mostly on memory. It’s a great skill to be able to draw something as complicated as the head accurately almost from memory. We will get there. Just takes tons of practice🙂.
Day 16: Head Construction from Steve Huston’s Constructive Head Drawing class. It’s beginning to make sense.That’s true Bryan, but when there are no skills in my memory, drawing from it isn’t of much use 😆! Yes, practice is the key. I’m really enjoying and looking forward to practicing now.
Keep it up! Remember to set the eyes far back enough in the head. Also the ear and jaw angle back. It’s not a vertical construction. 👍🏼
Thank you Joshua. I appreciate your feedback. Advice is duly noted :). Thank you.
Day 17: More head construction. Steve Huston adds in more detail of construction as he teaches through the course, so these are still at the beginning stages and lacking correctness of features, though they’re improving I think. I had a muck around with the head 3D model last night – it’s amazing! I need to do skull studies as well as drawing from reference photos and am lacking time to do too much. One day at a time. Our kids are allowed to start school again in a couple of weeks due to slow lifting of covid19 restrictions, so hopefully will have more practice time then. Thinking of everyone in the midst of this pandemic.
These look good. I need to watch that course. Is the eye spacing right on the third one in on the top row? The eye seems a little far from the nose to me, but I’m no expert 🙂. Kids are just about to get finished with school here for the summer. It’s been all on line here for about a month, but my wife and I don’t have any children.
Day 18: Argh! I’m late! There was a website error so I haven’t been able to post all day :(. Heads are hard!!! It took me over an hour just to get this pencilled in more or less correctly. Still not sure the mouth is correct, but it really needs shading, not linework. I suspect it needs to sit out from the face a little more and therefore needs to shift slightly to the left. I’ll get to that. My husband and I have three kids Bryan and the house has been pretty full!! It’s been good spending more time together though. Just busy!
I agree Deborah, heads are hard. These look pretty good though🙂. I agree with you about the mouth. Some advice I read recently is to imagine you are putting details on a globe instead of a flat surface. Easy enough to say, but incredibly difficult in practice. I share your pain about how time consuming this can be. On YouTube, there are a bunch of videos with titles like “300 hour drawing.” Gives me some perspective on how long it can take to make a great work of art, especially when you have other time commitments. I just keep reminding myself that it doesn’t all need to be accomplished in one day, or even in one week 🙂.
Day 19: Just one head today. Yes Bryan, easy to say 😆! I think I should try to draw the muzzle in as Glenn does and then draw the mouth on. I’m finding getting the features correct and also correct in relationship with each other is challenging. It will come with practice. The good thing about drawing figures and heads is that it forces accuracy. You’re right – learning takes time 🙂.
Day 20: Another busy day and wanting to work through video lessons, so only one more head today. I’ve made it to day 20 😆!
Day 21: Eyes practice. Does anyone else find it difficult to make both eyes look the same direction? Steve Huston did explain it in his lesson in terms of how elliptical the shape of the iris/pupil is from different perspectives and I understand that in theory, but still had to fiddle with them multiple times to get them right. It’s not just the shape but also getting it in exactly the right spot. There’s NO room for error! Just practice I’m guessing but if there are any tricks to getting it right, I’d love to know!Those look really good Deborah. I like the subtle outlines of the figures. Sorry I don’t have the answer to your question. I watched a video on YouTube by a pastel artist that helped me some. Maybe you would find it useful. He is definitely working in a particular style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNjhewlVUIc&t=2337s
Keep up the good work 🙂
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