the Nose... book sneak peak

 I had planned on working on my portrait book this summer. I managed to make 6 still-lifes, but I just couldn't work on my book.   I've learned how to draw with my kids around. I started drawing seriously 8 and a half years ago after my youngest daughter was born and I taught myself how to work with constant interruptions. You would think that as they get older, you would get less interruptions, but honestly I think its gotten worse, lol. The typical day this summer consisted of 4-5 meals a day, driving them places, having friends over, lemonade stands, hiking, biking,  applying many band aids, etc. Okay maybe they didn't have 5 meals a day but it certainly felt like it!

The reason I could work on drawings this summer but not my book is because it takes a completely different kind of attention to write. Writing, I think, is THE biggest brain teaser! What a difference a break makes though. I came back with fresh eyes last week and have whipped it into shape. I've reorganized things and have figured out the answer to some of the things I was stuck on. Maybe the kids nagging me was meant to be, lol.

So above is another sneak peak: my example of a straight on nose. :-)

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. 

New Portrait

I've been busy writing for my book, so I decided to take a break and make a work in progress, an example, for the book.

My coworker/friend was kind enough to let me borrow her sons for portraits, who I have in class as well so I do know their personalities. For this one I wanted to keep the nature theme of the Zen series, but have it say something about him. Well, he loves animals and has a put lizard of some sort.  So I won't give away what the things will be in it, but you can guess it is lizard related!

The size is 16" x 20" Polychromos on Fisher 400 paper.