Sunday, April 17, 2011

Rendering the Shirt


Today's sneak peek is the shirt. I started with just finding the lightest and darkest big shapes, then brought them closer together with a wash of a medium gray, then started adding details and hard edges. I'll leave it at this level until I get the other arm in and know exactly how it reads. Of course in the book I will give you more information than this - I don't want to spoil it! 

This portrait will be in the back of the book where I show how I put together a full portrait and what order I do things in. The previous chapters are: Supplies, Making A Reference Photograph/Drawing the Cartoon, Learning the 2 Step CP Technique, Proportions of the head, The Eyes in Detail, Other Features in Detail, Hands and Fabric. After these chapters will be full portrait WIP, some cropped in on the face and some further out like this one with all the supporting elements. 

All the titles of the chapters have not been made yet so these are just descriptions of what will be in those chapters. So far I have 3 chapters in good shape and I am starting the 4th! At the moment it is 60 pages at 6" x 9" - a good format for an book. 

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Every time you post a sneak peak I get more excited for the book! I'm also really impressed at how quickly you work. I work so slowly. I think the reason for that is that I have a "perfectionist procrastination" problem.

I start working on a piece and just kind of go at it. Then when it starts looking good, I get really worried about ruining it. I want it to be perfect, so I slow waaaay down and can only seem to do a little bit at a time. Do you have any advice about this? Or is it just something that improves when you become more confident at drawing?

Unknown said...

Thanks Sarah!

I think you just need to get a few catastrophes under your belt! I've wrecked more than a few portraits and its not that big of a deal. Usually when you restart it you make a better portrait because you've learned a thing or two while doing the first.

With that said, every portrait makes me stressed at different points and make me worry I'll mess it up. Every time I do hands for instance ;-). Actually I think stress is a big part of making portraits! After you're finished you always forget how hard certain parts were to get through.

Paula Pertile said...

OK, now I understand what you meant when you said you were doing a book of Rembrandt portraits - I thought it was just going to be like a coffee table book with samples of your work! (and I was wondering why you wanted to do an ebook!) Now I see its about 'how to' and your process. Cool!

Unknown said...

Oh good! I'm sorry it was confusing! Yep how to book. :-)