Works in Progress

I've been following my studies of portraiture lately, trying to develop the techniques I was working with in my last posting.  Since I commonly work on more than one project at a time, right now I have three drawings in various stages of completion.

This one is from a photograph by Edward S. Curtis of an Apache Indian named Eskadia.  Whatever his faults as an ethnographer, Curtis was a gifted photographer and many of his images lend themselves to the study of light falling across the face.  The scan was substantially darkened so it would be visible at all -- I did this with a 2H pencil.  You can see here how I'm working.  The line art comes first, followed by a light tonal wash as I lay in the primary shadow areas.

This is a drawing of the Kiowa chief Satanta, who fought against the United States on the southern plains.  This drawing is a little further along.  The shadow areas are more defined, and it's nearly ready for more delicate hatching that will better define the planes and texture of the face.  Once more, this image is a lot darker than the original.

This image, on the other hand, is about as dark as the original pencil drawing.  The hatched lines over the softer tones really help to define the image, and cautious blending (with the best blending tool ever devised, the paper towel) has kept the paper from becoming stained where I need to place the highlights.  I'm looking forward to finishing this drawing soon.

The subject of this last drawing is the great Lakota (Sioux) chief and medicine man, Sitting Bull.  I've always been impressed by his great courage and fierce dedication to preserving his people, but there's something else about him in the biographies that doesn't get as much attention.  I suspect that Sitting Bull was nearly as compassionate as he was brave.  Perhaps because he was so brave.  That's a long story for another time, however.

Thanks for stopping by!

JH

More Portrait Studies -- Abraham Lincoln

I've continued my studies from Holbein, but this isn't one of them.  I was watching an instructional DVD by David Jon Kassan, and it inspired me to try my hand at a different rendering technique.  Essentially, Kassan lays in a tonal wash and then cross hatches over it (then rinse and repeat).  As Kassan points out, this is how Prud'hon created his fantastic figure studies.

I had a pencil and a sheet of bristol in my hand, and this is what happened. 

I think the forehead's a bit high, personally, but I still feel that I learned a lot doing this one.

I have a book of portraits by John Singer Sargent here that I may start studying from in the near future.  Much of the Sargent work is in good, honest charcoal and I think it will help me further develop my use of strong values.

Thanks, as always, for dropping by!

JH