My major problem is this (and I wonder if other people find the same): if I have a tutor standing behind me (not literally, but in the room offering encouragement), the artistry flows and I produce some nice pieces. M'lud, the first exhibit:
This one took me about ten minutes, and I didn't try very hard, I was just trying to capture the essence of the shapes. Yet it's not bad.
Exhibit two:
This one I did even faster, as I was running out of time, and very keen to try out the technique of using bleach as a highlighter (it's a bit blobby but you can see how well it works along the nose). Again, not perfect (I didn't look back at the eyes so they don't match up very well in size!), but not bad. And each of these portraits I did in pen, so no rubbing out involved.
So - this afternoon I decided to have a go on my own. I pick a photograph as a reference, and spend about forty minutes producing a sketch. I hope you realise how selfless I am being in sharing this with you!
As you can see, the proportions are all wrong ... and somehow, there's no life in it. Although I enjoyed the process I am not at all happy with the end result, and despite lots of rubbing out and repositioning of just about everything, I still couldn't get it right. I haven't the confidence to draw without someone standing behind me saying "go on, you can do it!" - which would work out very expensive if I needed a cheerer every time I got the sketchbook out!
Never mind, we will get another session with the tutor soon and I will have another go at honing my skills. In the meantime, I shall carry on practicing (though I may not be brave enough to share the results!)
Jill, I might possibly be a wee bit biased, but then again I'm fairly well known for by brutal honesty. Those first two are quite simply fantastic, and I think better for not being over thought. You have clearly just seen and drawn. Excellent!
ReplyDeleteTodays effort, i disagree about no life, i think you have done decent job of work, but I would love to see what it was like after 10 minutes - I bet it was far better!
Keep at it girl, all you actually need my darling is a wee bit of self belief, get that and you will do fine.
I think these are lovely :) especially the first 2! The ink is beautiful. My only constructive criticism would be of the 3rd image and only that I would mark where the middle of each eye is as the corner of the mouth (if that makes sense?) so as to be more in proportion :) well done lovely! xx
ReplyDeleteThank you hapi-ness, good point about the proportions! I will keep practising.
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