Head study - 8/12/10

This head study was done with charcoal pencils (General's; hard, medium, soft, and extra soft), and white chalk (General's white charcoal pencil, as well as CarbOthello 1400/700, which is a very light grey pastel pencil), on toned paper. I forgot to write a note on the paper, but I'm pretty sure it's Canson Mi-tientes; color is moonstone. Blending was done with paper stumps, soft dry paint brushes, and a paper towel. No fingers. I had to resist the impulse several times. But the tools work well, and don't leave oil on the drawing.

I shot sequence photos during the process, for those who are interested in such things. (Isn't everybody?)

It's a pretty nifty way to work, especially with portraits.

Block-in. This is the first stage, which I posted several days ago. An "eyeball" lay-in.

Measured and corrected. I used a measuring stick for comparative measurements, and adjusted the angle of tilt on her brow line, and correspondingly on the mouth.

Outline finished.

Shown here with reference photo. This is a photocopy of a photo from an old magazine. I blew it up to see it better. For this exercise, a large reference photo was more important than image quality. The subtle tones are lost, but enough of the image remains to work from. This is almost sight size, but not quite. I blocked it in without measuring, so it's close to the same size as the photo, but not exactly. I plan to do some sight size head studies, too. They are a good way to train your eye to see not only proportions, but also the big effect.

If you're not familiar with sight size drawing, a Google search will lead you to some good information. There's even a website about it --- sightsize.com.

Darks blocked in (and a few halftones).

Three fourths finished.

The finished drawing. This is a blurry photo. A clear photo is at the top of this post.