Sunday, August 31, 2008

Figure Drawing Techniques...6

Ok it's not a figure..it's a puppy...but the basic principle of figure drawing can be applied here as well. These four photos show the progress just from an hour of sketching - I have a ways to go - but I thought I'd show you how I got started.

This is a cute grey dog, whose breed I'll have to post later cuz I forgot. It is a custom portrait for a gift - I can't wait for the owner to see it!

I started on medium grey matt board. The first few minutes is just getting the gesture of the body correct. Making sure I have enough negative space around the dog to allow for framing. (the pictures are cropped...actual page is larger)

Then I slowly block in areas of shadow. This is done with vine charcoal which is very easy to manipulate and erase if necessary.
I follow that by further defining the major shadows and shapes, being sure to work on the whole dog as to keep proportions acurate.


I start to further define the toes, ears eyes and nose, using a hard charcoal pencil.


I slowly add the highlight, again thinking of the whole dog. I want to develop the whole portrait at once - not get caught up in just the eyes or the paws, which can be very easy to do.


So that is where I am now...I will keep you posted on my progress! And here's a shot of where I was working. At the kitchen table. Even though I have a studio in the basement. But it was hot down there! And there's AC up here! Cut me some slack!

3 comments:

Cherie said...

Oh my this is sooooo awesome! You are so talented! And the breed is Weimaraner ;)

Keira Gillett said...

Cute! Looks like a basset hound... also do you draw from photo as well as from life? I'm very graphic when I draw my style is meant to be flat cause I play with space and layers by overlap.

R Lyndel Littleton said...

I love seeing a work of art as it changes. We have a VAST flickr group where we would love for you to post pictures like that. http://www.flickr.com/groups/vast_concepts/