Value Sketches for Portrait

This afternoon after preparing the backgrounds for a few paintings amd feeling so frustrated that I couldn't finish anything, I decided to do a value sketch in preparation for a small portrait I am hoping to do tomorrow. By small I mean 5" x 5"! I haven't done portrait work for ages and I needed to get to grips with the drama of the photograph I am working from as well as the tiny format. This sketch was done rather quickly at night and as a result, I found it hard to capture the nuances of the half tones on the model's face. However, I now know more for when I come to paint the real thing. This was fun but I am not drawing at night again until I get really good lighting. I also tried giving it a blue tint as the background of this portrait will be a bright saturated turquoise. Can anything go wrong?

Preliminary Portrait Sketch
Pencil on Cartridge Paper - 5" x 5"

Preliminary Portrait Sketch - Blue Tint
Pencil on Cartridge Paper - 5" x 5"

Sketches at last...

I haven't posted any drawings or sketches on this blog for nearly six months due to spending most of my time painting. This has resulted in mediocre drawing which is frustrating. Today, I decided to practice drawing faces as I am entering a blog challenge this month with a self portrait. I just threw pencil at paper today and came up with these two strange sketches but I have to say, I enjoyed doing them for some reason or another. Maybe it was the lack of messy oils and not having anything to clear up afterwards that was a bit of a break, but even though they are not that hot, I am putting them up here to chart my progress with my self portrait project. The first drawing is from a photograph and the second one is a 'made up' face I did while listening to an online class, which was a strage experience, but there you go.

Pencil on Cartridge Paper
8" x 8" (Approx.)

"Looking Down"
Pencil on Cartridge Paper7" x 5" (Approx.)

Charcoal "Homage to Rembrandt - Variation I"

I haven't been drawing or sketching successfully for quite a few weeks now. Most of my works have been thrown away and only last night I decided to take on a drawing of a Rembrandt self portrait from 1659. The reference itself was a head only shot of the original work, and I aimed at representing it as accurately as I could, with all the nuances created by those magnificent brushtrokes. I nearly pulled it off, but got some of the proportions wrong. This wouldn't have happened had I traced it and it was a much larger scale than the original photograph I was working from, so the up-scaling of the work took its toll. However, I adored working with charcoal on such a large format again, and I intend to get to grips with this medium more and more in the future. The original drawing is much darker than the photograph and shows the vast range of tonal ranges - I found it almost impossible to capture the almost black charcoal. More lessons.

"Rembrandt Portrait - Variation I"
Charcoal and White Pencil on Cartridge Paper - 16.5" x 23.5"

Charcoal Portrait - Final Version

After looking at the charcoal portrait I did last night in the cold light of day, I saw a few changes that had to be made. I am happy with the result. I must do more of these and get the correct paper for charcoal. This paper is not smooth enough.

Portrait

Charcoal on Cartridge Paper - 11.5" x 11.5"

Charcoal Quickie.

Ages have gone by since I have had any remotely acceptable drawing to post on this blog, but tonight I decided just to do 'something', 'anything', so here it is; a charcoal sketch of a photograph I took recently. I am finding it so hard to photograph drawings and sketches, as the blacks come out grey and flat. I have sprayed masses of fixative on this one and tomorrow morning when this has dried and settled, I am going to make minor adjustments to the mistakes I am noticing already and then re-photograph it to see if I can get a better result.

Portait

Charcoal on Paper - 11.5" x 11.5"