October 2014

The Drawing Ezine

The time-tested learning process of progressing from
drawing to painting involves several intermediate
steps.
Before embarking on working with paint, and the mani-
fold technical disciplines of oil paint, for example, the
traditional art academies would frst introduce the study-
ing artist to sanguine cont which can be pushed and
pulled much like paint.
Cont is a hard earth-red pigment shaped as a long
rectangular crayon. There are various brands available
that bill themselves as cont but they are closer to
pastel. You can use the side of a small piece of cont
to block in large areas; it can also be sharpened into a
chisel shape for drawing elegant serpentine lines; and
also sharpened to a point using a safety razor blade
and medium grade sandpaper.
For this drawing I started with a Koh-I-Noor light red
cont crayon on Fabriano Ingres drawing paper and
then to push the darks down I switched to Sanguine
Cont.
TheDrawing
EZine
Artacademy.com
The 7/8s Profle in Conte
Materials used in this lesson
Knitting needle for sighting
& checking your measures
Koh-I-Noor Conte
crayons #8580/25
Cont a Paris,
Sanguine #2451
Tortillon
Stump
Kneaded
eraser
Medium grade
sandpaper
[not shown]
Paper: Fabriano Ingres
choose a light colored
paper such as Ivory, Buff,
etc.
1998-2014. All rights reserved.
The 7/8s profle view is the pose where
the far eye can be seen. The common
diffculty with the far eye is if youre not
careful the eye will bulge out due to
over-exaggeration both in terms of size
and placement and also rendering it
with too much detail. Highly rendered
features will advance out of the picture
plane. For some features such as the
nose this is desirable, but with others
like the far eye in the 7/8s profle view
this is less so.
Using a sharpened Koh-I-Noor light red
crayon I quickly established the ara-
besque of the entire head. Of important
note is the facial angle: I have delib-
erately ignored the nose and muzzle
(mouth area) and simplifed it com-
pletely. If you try to incorporate the
features at this point it is practically
guaranteed that you will get it wrong.
The short and simple answer is SIM-
PLICITY. This goes for both the begin-
ner and the highly advanced artist.
The Koh-in-Nor crayon is very soft and
does not hold a sharpened point for
long. Its beneft though is that it is
easily manipulated in terms of erasures
and smudging.
Once the arabesque is established and
its height/width proportions and shape
verifed and corrected, as necessary, the primary elements of the head are placed. These are the
browline, the base of the nose, the hairline, hat, ear and Condyle (where the ear-lobe meets the jaw).
Having the browline and base of the nose placed I can now assess the negative shape that is formed
by the nose and the simplifed shape of the far eye. Using negative shapes in your drawing will help in
more accurately rendering the positive shapes. i.e., the nose is a positive shape; the < shape is the
negative shape.
Negative
shape
Condyle
1998-2014 All rights reserved.
The drawing is blocked-in and vigorously stumped down with my fngers. My intent is to produce a fat
even wash. It is nigh impossible to articulate small forms (details); the objective is to effect a ghost
image. I am interested in only the BIG shapes. You should always work from general to specifc.
The forms are then vaguely articulated by painting out with a kneaded eraser. This is a painterly pro-
cess that is akin to underpainting. Traditionally for underpainting in oil Raw Umber or Yellow Ochre is
loosely brushed or rubbed on and then the lights rubbed out with a rag or with a clean brush. This is a
subtractive approach (lifting out). You want to keep things loose yet still reasonably accurate.
Sharpening the Koh-I-Noor crayon to a point with sandpaper I sketch in the basic facial features and
the ear. The soft crayon is a bit tricky to sharpen, it crumbles easily so dont expect to get a razor sharp
point.
In the 7/8s profle view the inner canthus (corner) of the eye plumbs back of the nair of the nose. Using
a plumb line (a thin weighted string) held up to and aligned with the inner canthus will go a long way
towards illuminating the vertical placement of the eye, nose and node of the mouth.
The area of the eye is now worked up.. Until now I have been working the drawing generally and resist-
ing the temptation to delve into details. That has now changed. I am now switching gears and focusing
on specifcs. But I still want to hold back to about 75% full resolution. I do not want to fully commit
myself yet.
Plumb Line
Leaving the upper face underresolved I now lightly block in the lower facial arena. The darks here are
mostly thin and elongated, especially the underplane of the jaw. The nasolabial furrow (the smile line)
is best left well understated. It can, at times, be a signifcantly darker value but it is the devil to strike its
dark value without the expression taking on a snarling grimace. Again, less is not only more but also
a safe ground to scurry onto.
A big leap forward is taken here. First I stumped in then painted out the lights of the lower facial arena
with my kneaded eraser before delving into the ear and modeling its fve elements (the scapha, the
outer helix, fossa triangularis, concha and tragus).
The hair is more suggested than rendered with a few combed strokes of kneaded eraser. Be careful
to avoid parallel lines when combing the hair as parallel lines draw undue attention to themselves. The
hat is also worked up quickly and I felt it best that it retain a sketchy quality that would contrast with the
more resolved face.
1998-2014. All rights reserved.
Learn to convincingly draw BOTH the profile and the 3/4
views!
TWO workshops at a deep, deep discount that take you
into the underlying forms training you step-by-step to
render powerful three-dimensional portraits with a sculp-
tural sensibility.
Much more than watch-me-draw videos these two work-
shops offer more than what you would receive in a
semester long portrait drawing course!
MASTER THE PROFILE AND 3/4 VIEWS
IN YOUR PORTRAIT DRAWING!
Get both Mastering Portrait
Drawing: the 7/8s Profile
AND Drawing Children for
ONLY $22.97!
SIX HOURS of training for ONLY $22.97.
Separately these two workshops sell for
$84. Youre SAVING OVER $60!
Testimonial
I have been a practicing artist throughout my long life. I have gone
to various art schools (including The Art Student League), workshops
and seminars, have read innumerable art books and magazines and
have worked in all types of media. Through it all, I continued to
have the same frustrations in drawing portraits. Through practice I got
somewhat better, but never felt accomplished.
... your instruction is wonderful...you structure each segment, you
explain and show, you build on prior lessons, and you speak the
language of art. You are exactly what I need to grow and strengthen
my art skills.
Thank you, Daryl P., North Carolina
And again into the lower face and neck with the kneaded eraser. I feel that it is important to say
that although I am separating each subtle step of building up form and tone I am actually holding
all three implements cont, tortillon and eraser in my hand and am switching tools at a fast and
rhythmic pace. Unfortunately this is a big limitation when writing and illustrating the processing of build-
ing form and tone in print, however this is where DVD format shines; to fully appreciate and learn the
additive/subtractive process of building tone you may want to invest in my Practice of Tone Work-
shop.
Strive to pull up the drawing into a cohesive whole. This involves working up the ear and hair and, as
is wont with many a drawing and painting, making those minor corrections that until now escaped my
notice. Viewing your drawing in a mirror is a merciless method for picking up drawing errors.
Now that the drawing is on its fnal approach I turn my attention to the background and lift out the areas
that are juxtaposed to the darks of the head. Placing a lighter background area next to a dark area of
your subject is called counter-change.
The drawing has now come to an impasse: I could leave the drawing where it is and some may prefer
that I did as the Koh-I-Noor crayon produces a softer portrait. But I felt dissatisfed with the drawing: it
required more contrast between light and dark.
1998-2014. All rights reserved.
The Foundation in Drawing Suite
Instant Video Download
Recommended for Beginners
Get both Beginning to Draw and Mastering Portrait
Drawing: the frontal pose workshops, plus all of the
bonuses, for ONLY $77! for the Instant Video Down-
load and SAVE BIG!
There are few greater pleasures in life than learning
how to draw. You may believe that portrait drawing
is only for the gifted artist but this is far from true,?
anyone can learn to draw!
PLUS!
GET THESE 9 BONUS DRAWING
E-BOOKS!
Over 680 pages of drawing lessons that
regularly sell for over $118!
ONLY
$77!
Order Now!
Click here for more information!
I had taken the Koh-I-Noor crayon as far as it could go and, thus after some thought, I picked up my
Sanguine Conte (#2451), sharpened it with sandpaper to a fne point and went to work. I had to accept
that there would be a signifcant risk to losing the drawing, but that is part and parcel of growing as an
artist pushing, pushing, pushing. If you lose a drawing, well it is only a piece of paper. The lessons
taught, though, are invaluable.
It immediately became apparent that applying the Sanguine cont involved not only deepening the
darker values but it also introduced elements of fesh hues. The nair and alar of the nose and cheeks
are imbued with a reddish hue (in oil painting the color Indian Red would be a strong candidate) and,
hence, I color (a ghastly inference, I know) them as such.
I also use the kneaded eraser to paint and effect a texture that reads as fesh. Flesh has a subtle, and
also not so subtle, patina. It does not have a smooth, air-brushed quality that we so often see in fashion
advertisements that is an artifcial conceit.
A fnal decision is now required: should the hat also be worked. Rendering the hat further would sig-
nifcantly change the look and feel of the drawing. My decision, at least for now, is to leave the hat as it
is. There is no right or wrong answer and it is possible that I may decide that the hat needs to be further
developed. And again I might not.
1998-2014. All rights reserved.
The Portrait Drawing Mastery Studio
The Compleat Instant Download Portrait Drawing
Training Program
Get started right now! The Portrait Drawing Mastery Studio is
THE comprehensive portrait artists training and education!
The Portrait Drawing Mastery Studio contains everything
you need to become a fully rounded portrait artist. Suitable
for the hobbyist or professional at any level from beginner to
advanced who wants college-level instruction in all aspects
of portrait drawing.
Whether you want to paint, sculpt or draw portraitsDrawing
is the foundation of all art. This is a truth, which has been
taught for centuries by all the greatest masters and still holds
true today even if you only want to do expressionistic or
abstract art.
An enormous amount of thought and care has been put
into developing these instant download programs as a total
package for your highest learning advantage.
Another truism is painting mistakes are generally drawing
mistakes. As a fgurative painter, I can tell you this is an
infallible truth. Master your drawing now and save yourself
heartbreak later. It is quite disillusioning to spend weeks and
months on a painting and as it nears completion all of those
drawing errors begin to emerge and take center stage.
The central focus of the collection are our best-
selling Mastering Portrait Drawing 1, 2 & 3
workshops and Drawing Hands. These work-
shops will lay the solid foundation and be your
eternal reference material for improving your
portraits year after year. (You wont absorb it all
the frst time).
INCLUDED with the Portrait Drawing Mastery
Studio are these 5 Ebooks including my Atlas
of Facial Anatomy a combined $62.55 straight
up value.
A total value of over $264 for ONLY $97!!
Order Now and Start Drawing Today!
Get all the details here!