Who? Beats me.
I slept for crap. Seems I picked a bug somewhere so coughing and a runny nose kept me up almost all night. So I figured if I’m already in a foul mood might as well push myself to the very ends of hell.
Drawing. Yes drawing. For the last 10 years or so I been only doing illustrations. I tried many sorts of techniques and mediums and to me it seemed like ages before I found my style or should I say a niche. So naturally, when I did found it I stuck to it like glue.
The thing about finding your own style is - you place yourself in a comfort zone. In a way you become untouchable. This is me, this is how I do my stuff, take it or leave it.
The last time I did a portrait was in my college years … so … almost 15 years ago. We had to draw my schoolmate. Let’s skip to the ending of this story. She didn’t look anything like herself.
And here I am again. I was intrigued … and scared. I was actually nervous how this will turn out. Oh don’t get me wrong I am extremely rarely scared of other people’s thoughts and opinions. I am scared mostly of myself. Let’s just say I have no mercy when it comes to my work. It’s simply never (and I do mean never) good enough.
So let’s do this. I took pictures of the steps in case someone can find use of them.
1.) For the love of pretzels I could not decide between gray and black paper. I wanted a darker brown shade of it, but when you live in the middle of nowhere you are lucky to even get colored paper.
2.) I ended up picking the gray one and after the sketch I started filling in the details.
3.) When I got to the hair…I knew I should have went with the black paper. After some intense swearing and a smoke break I forced myself to kind of finish.
4.) The drawing itself needs about 2 more hours of work.
Pros: I’m happy enough with the colors, shading and some detail parts.
Neg: The guy doesn’t rly look like himself. :) Think the blame is in the face being too broad, nose is not long enough. I think I should go with more artistic way with his right eye and kinda make it more similar to the left one. But at that point I was too scared he won’t resemble himself if I took too much artistic freedom with it. But it happened nevertheless.
nice drawing ±D
Ty! :)
Despite you saying it doesn't look like the person that was modelling, the work you did looks really nice.
ty :)
:[) I think you are too hard on yourself @atopy and you should be very pleased with your entry as it is a very good likeness. I know what you mean about being scared of yourself and having no mercy when it comes to your own work as I think most artists are like this but if you haven't done a portrait in a long time I think this is an amazing result.
And the post itself is also brilliantly presented!
Hope your day is going well my friend! :[)
Yes. I know. :) ...and i think i will end my day right now, since its over 1 am. :) Good night o/
Goodnight @atopy. Sleep well! :)
This looks great! I think Faber Castell's a good brand, or Prismacolor (pricey though). I'd like to buy a set so that I can draw in color again. Your drawing was awesome, really, it's like a Chibi Doctor!
...yes...and u got me...thats what i usually do. Chibi like stuff. :) So when it comes to propotions im lost. Faber is super great and super cheap (here). But i left my set at work (am on vaca now)...so took whatever i had at home. Will go and pick some fabers tomorrow since im gonna be on vaca for a very long time.
I like their watercolour pencils, it's a 2 in 1 drawing tool and it costs the same too. I think their polychromos is way better, but more expensive too.
i have cretacolor (watercolors) - so far im pleased... larger sets always cost to much. A basic set here is super cheap tho but sadly not enough shades ... but it will have to do till september.
Your vacation is long.
yes.... teacher - summer break :)
Cool. That's why. My father-in-law and mother-in-law are also teachers, same with my wife's uncle and aunt.
Great process post @atopy! This is exactly what Tony wanted his contest to become, a way for those with higher skill levels to demonstrate their own personal techniques and teach others so they could learn from it.
Yes and also get some retrospective i think. Self-learning sorta speak. I know now it did me good to pick those pencils after so many years. See where i stand, etc. Think the idea is great so ty (to you and Tony) for pushing us (me) to try/excercise. :)
It was the same with me about 2 weeks back, I found Tony's contest and thought to my self - well, I suppose I could swipe my son's color pencils and see if I still have it in me.
It's been fun so far. I need to get to my "off he record" entries for this week as well - just to keep up to speed with everyone.
He looks like a hypnotist. He's like "Relax, look at my finger..."