Category: Faces

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Drawing Faces People

Missing Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey, Sketched from TV
Downton Abbey, Sketched from TV

I loved Downton Abbey and I’m missing it now that it’s over but at least I have these sketches I made while watching the shown on TV.

Only Mr. Bates is semi-recognizable on the right
Only Mr. Bates is semi-recognizable on the right

Poor Mr. Bates. I hope he’s doing ok in prison. Do you think he really murdered his terrible wife?

Lord Grantham, bottom right
Lord Grantham, bottom right

I was so fond of Lord Grantham. In looking him up on the Masterpiece Theater website, I noticed they have a character likability scale and chart of all the characters and the actors who played them, and full episodes available to watch online.

More Downton Doodles
More Downton Doodles
Anna Smith, Head Housemaid (R) and another maid
Anna Smith, Head Housemaid (R) and another maid

Poor Anna Smith. But wasn’t Mr. Bates rather too old for her anyway? I liked him in a sweet British series, Lark Rise to Candleford, where he played a similarly earnest and good man and every show has a happy ending.

Another good British series I enjoyed was Bramwell, starring Jemma Redgrave as Dr. Eleanor Bramwell, a headstrong woman doctor during the late Victorian era who fights for the right to practice medicine and opens a free clinic for the poor.

Categories
Drawing Faces Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting People Self Portrait Sketchbook Pages

Coffee and Me

Coffee with Pre-Trip To Do List
Coffee with To Do List

I’m back from my fantastic, amazing, intense week-long portrait workshop with Rose Frantzen, the best teacher I’ve ever had, in Scottsdale, Arizona. I will share my experiences once I have fully processed them and recovered my blogging mojo.

Meanwhile, I’m going through caffeine withdrawal again. After months with zero caffeine I needed extra energy to paint 8 hours a day on little sleep for a week. First it was just a morning cup of green tea, then black tea, then an afternoon diet Coke, and by the last day,  a morning cup of bad coffee AND the diet Coke in the afternoon. Now, after two days of withdrawal migraines, hopefully I’m over the worst of it. And it was worth it.

Self portrait with grey sweatshirt, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Self portrait with grey sweatshirt, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

I felt like sketching and the mirror was handy so why not draw myself, cozy in my gray sweats. My grandma Gertie had a “house dress” she wore all the time at home and out back to hang her laundry. Just a yellow cotton smock that snapped up the front. I have my “house sweats” that I wear when I’m at home. So comfy and warm.

Categories
Art theory Book review Drawing Faces People Sketchbook Pages

Learning to Draw Heads: Practice and Study with Skulls and Loomis Method

Smiley Skull and Smiley Guy study, HB pencil, 4x6"
Smiley Skull and Smiley Guy study, HB pencil, 4x6"

In preparation for my Alla Prima Portrait Painting workshop with Rose Frantzen next month, I wanted to work on my drawing skills so I can keep up in class. Although I draw all the time, I discovered I really had no understanding of head and facial construction.

Skulls and Faces, HB pencil, 11x9"
Skulls and Faces in the Same Positions, HB pencil, 11x9"

I usually draw what I see, compare shapes, angles and plumb lines to try to get some accuracy, but I don’t worry about it too much. That wasn’t cutting it when it came to drawing heads.

So I turned to the great book by Andrew Loomis, recently back in print, Drawing the Head and Hands. His books are also available as PDFs here on the web. There is an excellent explanation with clear examples of the Loomis approach here on Stan Propopenko’s blog so I won’t go into it here. All of my drawings in this post started with the Loomis ball divided in thirds with the jaw then added on.

Skulls and Muscles from Loomis book, 11x9"
Skulls and Muscles from Loomis book, 11x9"

I worked through the Loomis book and when I came to his skull and muscle drawings in the book I tried copying them (above). I also tried some other books’ methods of constructing heads (using an egg shape, a block, double ovals, etc.) but none worked as well as the Loomis approach.

I wanted to do more than copying sketches so I started drawing skulls and people I found on a Google image search, drawing the people in about the same position as the skulls (the two pics at top of post and the one below).

Continue reading “Learning to Draw Heads: Practice and Study with Skulls and Loomis Method”
Categories
Faces Ink and watercolor wash People Self Portrait Sketchbook Pages

Cringe-Worthy End-of-Journal Self-Portraits

End of Journal Self-Portrait #1, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
End of Journal Self-Portrait #1, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

I finished my Sock Monkey Journal on New Years Eve by doing my usual end of journal self-portraits, drawing directly in ink. I did several, trying again and again to get a likeness. Each of them had bits of me, either in feeling or appearance, but none got a real likeness. This was my favorite, above.

Trying a profile (again and again), 7x5", ink
Trying a profile (again and again), 7x5", ink

Since I only had a few pages left in the book I did all the starts above on one page. It’s tricky drawing a profile view in a mirror. You look, then draw, then look, then draw. It’s also rather painful looking so closely and seeing the effects of another year of gravity. But better than the alternative!

Worst one, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Worst one, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

I think the one above is the worst of the bunch. At this point I realized that I needed some serious studying and practice at drawing heads which I began doing the next day.

Self portrait with ponytail
Self portrait with ponytail

Had I not added all the stupid ink to try to make shadows before painting it, this one might have been OK. Instead of using a mirror for this one, I took a photo with my iPad propped on the window sill while looking away from it and then worked from the photo.

Since I did these, I’ve already learned a lot about drawing heads from the Loomis book, “Drawing the Head and Hands.” I’ll be posting my practice from that book soon.

Categories
Drawing Faces People People at Work Portrait Series Sketchbook Pages

Working People Pre-Portrait Portraits in Blue

County Fair Taco Seller, ink, acrylic, watercolor, 7x5"
County Fair Taco Seller, ink, acrylic, watercolor, 7x5"

I finally started working on a series of 16×20″ oil portraits, mostly of people who work in my neighborhood shops. It took a long time to figure out how I wanted to approach the paintings and in the meantime I made several preliminary sketches in my journal.

This blue series began as a way to cover a really ugly page in my journal. To cover the mess, I mixed some Golden Absorbent Ground (gesso-like, but designed to prepare surfaces for watercolor painting) and some ultramarine blue watercolor. I didn’t mix it very well, as you can see from the streaks, but I actually like it this way. Drawing with a pen worked well on it too. When taco girl (above) dried, I painted in her very red hair.

Kim the Barista, ink & acrylic & watercolor
Kim the Barista, ink & acrylic & watercolor

I covered two more pages in my journal with the remaining blue Absorbent Ground. Something went a little wrong with my drawing of Kim’s eyes (above) which don’t quite match in size or location. Oops. I sketched Kim before (see pics here) when I was taken by the scene’s resemblance to Manet’s “Bar at Folies Bergère.”

Elliot, Meat Manager, ink and acrylic
Elliot, Meat Manager, ink and acrylic

I felt a little embarrassed to ask Elliot to let me take a photo of him behind the meat counter but I had to. There is something old-fashioned about him that always makes me picture him in a Norman Rockwell painting. I had a little problem with one of his eyes too, but his oil painting is coming along nicely.

Taco Girl and Kitchen on Fire Spread in Journal
Taco Girl and Kitchen on Fire Spread in Journal

This is the spread in my journal where this series started. The Taco Girl oil portrait is half done. It will be a while before I finish and post the oil paintings but I am enjoying working on several at once, so that while a layer of one dries another is ready to work on.

And I’m so happy to have figured out how I want to paint them: I’m painting how I paint! More about that in another post.

Categories
Art supplies Bookbinding Drawing Faces Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Self Portrait Sketchbook Pages

End of Sketchbook Self-Portrait with Birthday Flowers

Birthday Flowers Self Portrait, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Birthday Flowers Self Portrait, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

To put the finishing touches on a completed journal, I make a self-portrait for the last page. Since it was also my birthday, I wanted to incorporate my birthday flowers in the painting. So I hung a mirror with a yellow clip  from one of my swing-arm lamps on my drawing table and put the vase of sunflowers between me and the mirror and then drew what I could see in front of me: the flowers in front of the mirror, with me and the flowers reflected in the mirror.

As usual for my end-of-journal self-portraits, I wasn’t willing to measure or try to draw and place features accurately but I think I did capture the feeling of me or the me as I was feeling.

In the next post I’ll show you my new journal and another idea I tried out for sketchbooking minus the sketchbook.

 

Categories
Drawing Faces Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Kensington Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching at Kensington Circus Pub

Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

It was a cold and rainy night so we met indoors at the cosy Kensington Circus Pub (named for the traffic roundabout it faces in Kensington, on the Berkeley border. It’s a very pleasant place to sip a beer and sketch. After eating a delicious sandwich I spent most of the evening facing the bar and doing the sketch above. I wore my L.L. Bean flashlight hat to see to paint and it worked great.

Old friends plotting at Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Old friends plotting at Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

Then I turned to face the other direction and sketched these gentleman who were in a booth a few feet away but didn’t seem notice or care that we were drawing them. They were meeting to dine, drink and plot a business venture from what I could overhear.

Categories
Drawing Faces Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings Urban Sketchers

Mohawk Fashion Victim: Subway Drawings

Mohawk Fashion Victim, Ink & sticker, 8x5"
Mohawk Fashion Victim, Ink & sticker, 8x5"

You can imagine my glee when this gentleman in full Mohawk sat down across from me on BART. Entranced by his cell phone, he never noticed me sketching and held perfectly still. It must have taken him a long time to get his hair to stand up so perfectly–and why? Especially first thing in the morning? I awarded him a sticker (on his page) from National Geographic.

UPDATE: Larry Hatfield sent me this link to a great Mohawk at a crazy website: People of Walmart where photos of actual shoppers and products at Walmart make you laugh, cringe and/or swear never to go to a Walmart.

Sedate Subway Reader
Sedate Subway Reader

And above, bonus BART rider sketches, people reading actual books, not a cellphone/Kindle, etc.  And below some subway feet sketches.

BART rider feet
BART rider feet

I was amused by the variety of guys shoes, from super point to square toes to waffle soles.

Categories
Drawing Faces People Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Sketchers and Doodling Meetings

Doodling to Stay Awake at Meeting
Doodling to Stay Awake at Meeting

On my first day back to work after being sick for weeks we had a staff meeting. I wanted to put my head down on the table and nap so doodled to stay upright and awake. Later I pasted the page in my sketchbook with the added note about antibiotics.

Sketching Sketchers #1
Sketching Sketchers #1

Then my first night back at Tuesday night sketching (at the Bread Workshop) after I drew my food I sketched the sketchers at my table. I had to add that shading to the right of Amy’s face to “erase” the splotch I made by her nose that looked like a booger.

Sketching Sketchers #2
Sketching Sketchers #2

I added one too many lines, which lead to more lines to try to fix them, in Sonia’s hair which had been perfect until I did that. I made a note to remind myself to STOP at “good enough” and not keep going.

Categories
Drawing Faces Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Sketching People Close Up at Peet’s

Handsome Guy at Peets, Lamy Safari pen with Carbon Platinum Ink in Moleskine
Handsome Guy at Peet's; Lamy Safari pen, Carbon Platinum Ink in Med. Watercolor Moleskine

I could have reached out and touched his face. But he was so absorbed in his computer he didn’t notice me drawing him at the next table, our knees almost touching. The lady at the table on my other side was watching me and said I captured his likeness perfectly and should show him. I didn’t though, just in case he might not find it flattering. Our own ideas of our appearance often don’t match others’.

Older Guy at Peets, same tools as above
Older Guy at Peet's, same tools as above

This gentleman was sitting at the table after the guy above. I think he might have noticed me sketching but didn’t seem to mind. I think he needed the coffee as he dozed off reading his newspaper at one point. I missed on the shape of his head and just redrew it taller. And then in drawing his large ear lobes I’m afraid my shading there might have made it look like a big hole.

Some fashion victims actually do have big holes in their ear lobes that they intentionally create by inserting devices that gradually stretch them so they look like this. What a weird fad. There are many websites like this one that sell such devices. Why would anyone want to do that?