More face sketching practice from magazine advertisement photos. Unfortunately there is a piece of dust on the scanner and visible on two of the faces, but I'm too tired to go back and rescan them!
The scan really shows a difference in the pupils that is not as apparent on the sketch. I will definitely need to work on these.
Four lemon-scented soaps in a clear plastic bag, purchased during our October 2005 visit to Sorrento, Italy:
I need to spend time working with reflections - more now than ever! It took me several days to find something to sketch and paint - and then I could see the reflections on the plastic, but just couldn't make them sparkle. I know that these areas should be bright white, and the next time I try this I will mask the areas and try that.
I'm enjoying drawing figures and faces and hope to upload a few of my practice sketches each week.
Both of these sketches were from photographs and each was done with watercolor pencils. I wet the figure and left the face dry.
We keep salted white pistachio nuts in a hand blown glass bowl on our coffee table (when the grandchildren aren't there) or on the fireplace mantle (when they are). There is no relationship between the size of the nuts on the napkin and those in the bowl - I just wanted to sketch some bigger.
One of my Goals for 2008 is to learn how to draw faces. In preparation, I purchased two complementary books which I read and now will use as references as I work myself through a series of photos to understand the basics.
Carrie Stuart Parks. Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces: The is portrait drawing as taught by a forensic artist and she covers every part of the face individually.
John Raynes. Drawing and Painting People: This is a more complex book, covering drawing and painting faces, facial expressions, and poses.
Here are a few of my first practice pieces. I really do need to learn how to sketch with pencil without smudging it all over the page! I wanted to have a reasonable number of baseline sketches so I can redo them at the end of 2008 to see if my concentrated effort will improve my skills.
I came down with a head cold at work on Thursday and in the evening this photo for a spa advertisement looked very tempting and soothing. So I sketched it.
