Ian’s 100-Day Art Challenge: Faces, People, and Places

[Iliya Mirochnik]

Hi Ian,

I really like all the stuff you’ve got here, it’s quite a variety, and I’m always a fan when different media is used to achieve similar effects. It helps create a base of fundamentals that apply to all media. I’m working on something like this right now. I do want to comment on this most recent portrait you posted.

Firstly, I think that it would’ve been a little bit more complex of a color relationship if it wasn’t so complementary, the orange is contrasting too heavily with the blue I think.

As for the structure, I think it’s fundamentally important to treat the eye as a socket first and then build the eye into it, with all of it’s component parts laying on top of the spherical form. You are showing the structures very clearly in the skulls above but here they’re a little hazy.

I think the hair on the left side could’ve been lighter as it would work better with general light on the head.

And, personally, I feel that more information could’ve appeared in the lit cheek. This would’ve totally flipped some accents (which would then need to be readjusted) but it would emphasize the underlying anatomical structures a bit better.

And my final recommendation is to not paint the open mouth so dark, it begins to take on too much attention and distracts from more important areas.

 

Other than that, I think this is a good study!

Keep up the great work!

Iliya

[Ian Coltman]

Thank you so much Iliya for your comments and suggestions! I am in agreement with all of them and will focus on some of these areas for improvement in my final lap.

 

Day 82-84 | Vilppu Planes 2-3 – reference: NMA The Planes of the Head model (Vilppu layer)

Moire head study and pen practice… been busy preparing for a move so my focus has been limited.

The Vilppu planes from 45 degrees and front turned out to be more complex than the profile drawing. I leaned on the gel pen heavily to keep the 45 in play, then slowed down on the frontal to avoid too much reliance on it. The gel pen provides a living document of trouble spots which actually seems useful for this type of thing.

[Jan]

I recently did the same study in pencil. I’m extremely impressed that you accomplished this in ink! Wow! I just looked back at your other work so I’m not as surprised now. You’re very talented in so many different media! I love Day 25-26 and Day 27 Ballpoint Pen Figure Drawings.

[Ian Coltman]

Hi Jan,

Thank you so much for your kind words! Having a gel pen helps me hide many of my mistakes on the Vilppu planes, but I’ll take the compliment!

 

Day 85 | 10-minute Park Sketch 

 

 

Finally made it to the park today, and had a few spare minutes to sketch.

3 Ahab fountain pens with a cool red, light blue, and dirty yellow. Plus a brush and water. I’m hoping to find the right palette of three inks to take on sketch trips as an alternative to watercolor.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 85 | Ink Drawing from Imagination 1

 

Did this last night using the kit from my visit to the park.

Loosely abstracting some of my plane studies while experimenting further with ink palettes.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 85 | Ink Drawing from Imagination 2

 

[Ian Coltman]

Day 86 | Trace in RYB ink scheme – reference: Trace

 

 

Continuing portrait and ink materials study with a drawing of Trace.

 

[Ian Coltman]

Day 86 | Vanna in RYB ink scheme – reference: Vanna

 

[Ian Coltman]

Day 87 | Scott in RYB ink scheme – reference: Scott

 

 

One last rainbow RYB ink scheme before I decided to switch things up.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 87 | Scott in RYK ink scheme – reference: Scott

 

 

I diluted the red with water to tone it down and substituted black for blue for this one.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 88 | Scott Portrait in mixed Sepia ink – reference: Scott

 

 

Dirtied my yellow ink back up with Nightshade to create a custom sepia… also gave Scott a nose job.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 88 | Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’em in mixed Sepia ink – reference: Scott

 

 

Same ink as last one, though watered the mixture down slightly.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 88 | Work Song digital composite – reference: Scott

 

 

I still wanted to do a Scott composition, so I threw together the last few into a digital spread.

In contrast to creating a spread on a single sheet of paper, this process feels more like a collage and exercises slightly different motives – involving deference to existing form instead rather than active intervention.

[Silke Kemp]

These are so lovely, good work

[Ian Coltman]

Hi Silke,

Thank you so much for the encouraging words!

 

Day 89 | Maddow & Hayes Caricatures – reference: Google image search

Over 70 days have passed since my last caricature attempt. The Vilppu planes were echoing in my head a little when I did these… but not enough. I’m going to do a few more mixed-angle studies of the planes next.

This was drawn on an iPad with Infinite Painter using the Proko Pencil.

 

[Author]

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