In the middle of the 4th month of learning to draw, I’ve tended to focus on volume and quantity rather than quality. But there is no doubt that in terms of quality, I am taking small steps as well. Last week I finally came to the end of the main references photos from the 100 Faces except for those that I deemed too complicated. That complicated list is about 40 strong and I’ve done a couple from that list already on 10 to 12th of this month. I then did another one and because I did it over 3 sessions over 2 days, I actually remembered to take a couple of extra photos along the way.
Step One – Block-in and face
The first stage was to block-in and then focus on the facial features. This part took 55 mins.
Step Two – Beard
Taking about 50 mins, I spent it trying to get cord-like aspect of the beard and hair and then doing something with neck etc.
Step Three – the final bits
The final bit was only 10 mins, to do the crown of leaves and then using a 5B and 6B to get some darker shades. In hindsight what I should have done is also used the eraser in places to get better highlights. Oh well next time.
Easily the longest and best drawing done since I’ve begun this even though it doesn’t actually look that much like the reference image and there are some flaws in it. I also wish I did it bigger and filled the page more.
The next phase
This will not be the last head but I do now plan on mixing up the references images as have spent some time trying to pull them together. I just have to decide if I do a mix or stick to one and if I change medium to charcoal, or whether I learn a bit of cross-hatching. I’ll decide that over a period of time as I’ll see how I feel!