Getting Started: Charcoal Self Portraits

I like to use charcoal self portraits to get my drawing started. The reason artist self portraits have been so popular for centuries is that they always had a willing subject.I like to use soft vine charcoal on sketch paper for the project.

Step #1: Use a small hand mirror or compact mirror to study your subject. Take the charcoal and start with a oval or egg shape.

Step #2: The first feature to start with is the eyes, I use a light guideline in the center of the oval for the eyes (most common mistake is the eyes are too high). Continue to look into the mirror as you draw. Are your eyes close together? Are your eyes far apart? The eyes are generally a oval or football shape. Don't forget to add eye lids, pupils, and lashes.





Step #3: Eye Brows - Look into the mirror and draw your brows. Are the brows heavy or light? Do the eye brows follow the entire eye or are they just on top.
Step #4: Use one of the eye brow to draw the nose. The nose can be drawn a s a "J" shape, look into the mirror ans see if its long, short, small or fat.
Step #5: Look into the mirror and draw the two line under the nose.
Step #6: look into the mirror and draw the lips, start with line for top of the lips. Then draw the center line to finish the lips.

Step #7: Look into the mirror for the ears, the generally start at the eyes and end at the top of the lips.
Step #8: Look into the mirror and notice the the neck starts right below the ears.
Step #9: Look into the mirror and see where your hair begins, its generally half way between the eyes and top of the oval.
Step #10: Time to add your finishing details.

Step #11: Lets try it again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Artist: Paul Klee - Cat and Bird

Image
One of my favorite artist is Paul Klee, his work is simple and complicated at same time. Paul Klee was a Swiss artist and teacher from the early 1900's who liked to turn things he saw into simple geometric shapes. His "Cat and Bird” painting from 1928 is a classic example of his philosophy. Klee grew up in a musical family and was himself a violinist. After much hesitation he chose to study art, not music, and he attended the Munich Academy in 1900. Klee loved to use continuous lines in his work, the cat's head and the bird were drawn with one continuous line . Our lesson experiments with both geometric shapes and color. Materials: Your choice of materials, we have used the "Cat and Bird" for acrylic painting, watercolor painting. oil pastel, chalk pastel and pencil. Step #1: Draw a border around the paper. Draw light guidelines down the center and across the middle. Draw a large "W" type shape for cats head. Step #2: Draw the cats eyes and snout
Read more

Artist: Van Gogh Sunflowers

Image
Vincent Van Gogh (1853- 1890) was son of a Dutch pastor in The Netherlands. He was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. Little appreciated during his lifetime, his fame grew in the years after his death. Today, he is widely regarded as one of history's greatest painters and an important contributor to the foundations of modern art . Most of his best-known works were produced during his final two years in Arles France. He painted several studies of the Sunflowers as a deliberate experiment in color. Our project uses one of Van Gogh Sunflower still life to work on the elements of composition and color. Materials: I have used acrylic paint, oil pastel, watercolor paint, watercolor pencil and chalk pastel for this project. I like to have the students be like Van Gogh and try the project several times and then look at the results. Step #1: Draw the bottom of your flower vase. Dr
Read more

Picasso Rooster "Le Coq"

Image
I needed a animal drawing for one of our programs and I came across this fabulous Picasso Rooster from 1938. I fell in love with the line, shape and color of the this Picasso pastel. Pablo Picasso was one of the most famous and prolific artists ever. Picasso had tremendous diversity and abundance to his career. The Rooster is a work from 1938 when he was experimenting with color and line. Picasso had a great love for animals and birds, he even named his daughter Palamo which means dove in Spanish. We find several works where used chickens, roosters, sheep and goats. Picasso used line, color and shape to create emotion and movement in this work. Our lesson works with shapes, lines and color to create our rooster, we use combination of watercolor pencils with pastels. Materials: Heavyweight paper, sketching pencil, water color pencils and pastels either chalk or oil. Step #1: Draw guidelines across the center and down the middle of the paper. Start with a oval for the mouth and sm
Read more