MATERIALS
• 320gsm watercolour paper (to enable me to work the drawings hard).
• Two pacer pencils with HB and 2B leads
My subject is a fellow called Damien. I took a few photographs of him on my mobile phone under fluorescent lights. The quality is not great, and the angle I used to shoot the photographs is kind of awkward and distorted. However the image offered a challenge … and Damien’s strong features created shadows and an overall dark image.
In this drawing I deliberately overstated the features and pushed the darks as hard as possible.
The beard and elongated shape of the face gave the image a ‘tribal mask’ type of quality, and for this reason I completely obliterated the neck and shoulders and worked the face as an independent shape.
In the photographs for this demonstration drawing, the subject’s strong features created shadows and an overall dark image. The artist deliberately overstated the features and pushed the darks as hard as possible.
STEP ONE
This is essentially the ‘block in’ stage where I map out roughly the position of the nose, mouth and eyes. I usually start with the contour of the head and the strokes are usually a lot lighter than in this demonstration. I try to keep things light and move things around until I get a feel for the face.
STEP TWO
I then start to look at the contours and find form within the face. I try to keep the lines simple and descriptive of specific and unique forms. I also start to block in large areas of shade, avoiding small areas where possible and focusing on broad planes and cast shadows.
STEP THREE
This is where I start to draw inside the drawing. Here I am looking for shapes, contours and overlapping forms that bring the drawing together. This stage of the drawing is about uncovering structure and finding how it twists and turns across the face.
STEP FOUR
I continue to develop the drawing, concentrating on tonal work. As I have previously stated, I wanted this work to be dark … as I thought it would work for this image. I have also overstated the wrinkles and creases of the face.
It is important to note that these stages are often interdependent on one another and it is very rare that I develop a drawing sticking to this rigid sequence; rather I go from one technique to the other as the drawing evolves.
In closing, I would like to thank Silversalt Photography for providing the images of these demonstration steps.
