August 2007

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Sketching – a quickie is better than not doing it at all

August 21, 2007 in Creativity, Process | No comments

In the August 11-19, 2007 weekly drawing thread on Wetcanvas, they finally came back to a portrait (I wish they would do portraits more often). I jumped at the opportunity and here’s what I came up with:

angela081.jpg wetcanvas_aug13_wdt.jpg

I rotated her head to straight-on for my own purposes. If you click the image, you can see a close-up detailing a lot of my reference lines in this portrait. Keep in mind that this is simply about an hour’s worth – about 30 minutes laying out the reference lines and doing preliminary work, then about 30 minutes blurring my eyes and sketching in the portrait.

I also did this portrait entirely with a 3H pencil. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve used a pencil that hard but my 2 year old was drawing with it so I decided to give it a go to see how it came out. The darks were REALLY hard to get and nowhere near as dark as they should be. Now I better appreciate a range of pencils after this little experiment. Fun!

Not my best work, but that’s the point – keeping your skills up to speed requires some exercises. If you play an instrument, you probably warm up with scales just about every day. If you’re an IT geek, you probably read Anandtech.com, OSNews, HardOCP.com, et al, just about every day to stay current. Whatever your profession, you stay current with quickies to keep your “chops” up. And the same applies to drawing, especially portraits – practice the mundane every day and keep stretching your repertoire to keep it exciting and fresh.

Yes, just an hour for a quick sketch is better than an hour on the couch watching your TiVO’d episode of The 4400 (ooh, that reminds me, now that I’m done with my art for the day, I have an episode of The 4400 recorded!).

A Review on Derwent drawing pencils

August 21, 2007 in Materials, Reviews, Tools | No comments

Derwent drawing pencils are the soft, buttery pencils – not quite colored pencils, not quite pastel pencils, and definitely not graphite pencils. They come in a variety of colors nowadays, too. I’ve used my set of Derwent drawing pencils that came in my 24 Pencil Sketching Collection – and then I went out and bought a couple more colors of the drawing pencils.

Derwent pencil set

I was inspired to purchase these pencils from last year’s portrait drawing thread over on WetCanvas – done by moderator Al for his “portraits in three part harmony” class last year. It wasn’t much of a “class,” per se, but it was interesting to use a new medium for portraiture! Some people had a hard time finding the right pencils but I got mine from my local JoAnn Fabrics (your local Michael’s should also have singles – you can also get them at DickBlick.com).

To be fair, the set does contain other drawing/sketching materials but I’ve hardly used them. I tried the graphite that you can get wet (“graphitone”) and I found it less than satisfactory. I’ve always found that wetting my drawing surface ruins it for later drawing. Your mileage may vary. I don’t understand how the three “wash” pencils differ from the graphitone; however, like I said, no thank you when it comes to getting my drawing surface wet.

The “pastel pencils” are too chalky for my tastes. I think the white pastel pencil would work well in conjunction with the black charcoal pencils, though, and I plan to try a portrait using said combination. Tony Ryder seems to like white pastel with black charcoal, so it must be good (Tony’s book is FAB-U-LOUS).

A real gem that I’ve come to really enjoy are the 4 sticks of charcoal – sticks, no wood (though there are three charcoal pencils surrounded by wood). When I get going in charcoal, I really get going and I like to have the medium all over my hands. Call me crazy but that’s how I like my charcoal. The charcoal isn’t as good as the vine charcoal made from pure willow that I also have and doesn’t erase as neatly as vine charcoal, but there’s a lot there and it’s a lot sturdier than vine charcoal. Pick your charcoal according to your goals.

CONs:
-Graphitone is lame
-would be better with more Derwent drawing pencils

PROs:
-good variety for experimentation
-relatively inexpensive for the quality

Can’t draw? Call it “abstract”

August 16, 2007 in Editorials | No comments

I’ve been getting more and more into abstract art over the past few years. I don’t even know what the big draw is for me, I just like it. Abstract art, though, like realist art, has its share of really poorly done work.

I live in the Sacramento area and I go to what’s called “Sacramento Second Saturday” (ugh – their website is TERRIBLE – as an aside, I offered to redo their website about three years ago and they declined, saying an overhaul was imminent; it never materialized) every month (or at least I try to if I don’t have other obligations on a Saturday night). A year ago I discovered the W Gallery in the midtown area on one of the art walks. The primary artists in the gallery are the Watt sisters (thus the W in the name of the gallery), and I was specifically drawn to Lora Watts. Her abstract works just moved me in a way that I hadn’t enjoyed for a long while. She was there (most artists are there for Second Saturday) and I chatted with her for a minute or so – she used to be a realist painter but had recently moved to abstract.

And it showed.

Just last week I was on the Second Saturday art walk again and I discovered a new gallery (midtown Sacramento is a happening place!) – well, a new location for an older gallery, Phoenix framing and art. I’d never been to the old gallery because it was too far off the beaten path so I decided to check out their new location. The entire upstairs was dedicated to Ruth Truesdell, who had some fantastic pieces on display. Some were just okay and you could tell that she spent a lot of time experimenting, but a couple of her abstracts were amazing. I spent a couple minutes talking to her about one piece in particular and she said it had over a gallon of paint on it to get that fabulous glowing / movement feel to it. I’d found my fave of the night.

On the other hand, I’ve seen SO MANY poorly done abstracts that I just sigh and usually don’t offer a second glance when it comes to abstracts. A real test of an abstract artist is this: can you actually draw, too? Do you understand design principles, too? Abstract art is just that: an abstraction of something. A thought, an idea, a face, whatever. It’s taking an emotional aspect and portraying it. My theory that “the art is the idea” continues here: I don’t care if it’s abstract or hyper-realist – if it stinks, it stinks.

Picasso is much-maligned among non-artists. “A kid could draw that,” they say. Well, maybe (but probably not) they could but what you’re missing are two vitally important things:

  1. Picasso is a very good artist even if you don’t look at his abstract (cubist) works
  2. Picasso’s cubist works are culturally and artistically significant, especially Guernica

Jackson Pollock is similarly maligned because it looks like so many scribbles and drips on canvas. Oh, to the uneducated, maybe, but when you understand the times and what he was trying to do (and achieved), it’s genius. The INTENTION is the art – more specifically, achieving the intention is the art.

So next time you see some scribbles that some 2-bit huckster is intending to pass off as “abstract art,” go back to your early art training and remember the elements and principles of art: {space, shape, line, texture, value, and color} composed using {space, division, balance, unity, and emphasis}. A scribble or a blob won’t have most of these, or at least won’t have any discernible intelligence behind them. Quietly scoff to yourself and move along until you find yourself a Lora Watts or a Ruth Truesdell and are able to be happy in the presence of real abstract art again.

I’d pay $800 for that!

August 15, 2007 in Business | No comments

About a year ago I did a commissioned portrait for my wife’s friend’s 30th birthday. It’s a portrait of her two daughters: phillipskids3.jpg

It’s a good likeness and she was very moved when she saw it. In fact, I think it will hang in their living room for a long time to come. But I digress.

The point here is this: when I showed this to some people at work (I work at a major tech company in the Sacramento area), one of the ladies I work with said that the high-end portrait photography places are outrageously expensive but she knows lots of people that pay the exorbitant prices. I said that I would price this at about $800 if this were my full time job – it was about 28 hours of work – and she said, “I’d pay $800 for that.”

What?!

That’s right, the market is out there, you just need to TELL PEOPLE that you’re an artist – or at least impersonating one – AND how much your art costs. So now I tell everyone that I’m an artist and I have my URL in my email signature. I also have a business plan that’s about 30 pages long – and growing, because I’ve yet to add the 10 pages of handwritten stuff to my digital version on Google Docs. This blog is a big part of that business plan – and it’s really helped me to kick myself in the butt and get involved with my art again. Even if it never makes one red cent, I don’t care because I’m extremely happy that it’s done more to motivate me than anything in the last 15 years.

The portrait is very good, although I see my mistakes, the most notable one being that I should have both simplified and also pushed the darks – but I was working from a poor photographic reference (it was a surprise gift) with flash photography wiping out the details and flattening the features, and I was approaching my deadline (her birthday, a hard stop) so I left it as-is and she was very, very pleased with it, which made me very happy.

Is there an $800 portrait in your future? Or an $8000 portrait? I think there is in mine, I just have to start pushing for it again.

Facial proportions in 13/8 steps

August 9, 2007 in Editorials, Tutorials | No comments

…or make that “phi,” which I’ll go into in a moment. First, let’s discuss facial proportions.

Facial proportions
A lot has been written on facial proportions. In the probably 10 books I own on portraits + all the ones I’ve browsed through in the bookstore and/or library – PLUS all of the guides I’ve seen on the Internet, NOBODY MATCHES PERFECTLY. That is, no two facial proportion references match up to each other.

  • Is the hairline at 1/3 up from the brow? Or is it 1/2 up from the brow to the top of the head?
  • Is the eyeline at the middle of the head or the browline?
  • Is the ear at the mouth line or the nose line?
  • Do I believe John Howard Sanden or Burne Hogarth? Or neither?
  • etc., etc., etc.

Who’s right? None of the artists I’ve seen are right – and I can say this because almost all of them reference their own drawings when they point out proportions, not pictures of real faces. Duh! They all mean well buy they’re just giving you their personal rules of thumb. Let’s go beyond opinion and do some research on beauty – including some good resources for artists, plastic surgery information! After all, how do plastic surgeons know just how long to make a nose or just how much to tweak to make a face pretty again? They certainly don’t reference their favorite book on portraiture by Douglas Graves.

Phi
Okay, back to “phi” or the cryptic 13/8 reference in the title. Phi is a Greek name for what’s also known as “the golden mean” or the perfect ratio or even “Fibonacci.” If you’re into graphic design, you’ve GOT to check this out! It’s a sequence of numbers that, one added to the next makes the third. For example, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, … to infinity. If you divide the numbers, they get closer and closer to the golden mean, or 1.618:1. Keep that in mind: nearly 1/3 but not quite.

As an aside, my brother-in-law has a Mopar book and it concludes with the Chrysler 300M designers. When asked about the bold design, they noted that the car has Fibonacci written all over it. Indeed. In case you didn’t get it, I think the car is stunning and very masculine, a standout in the crowd by any measure (like it or not).

Portraits and the golden mean
Okay, so what do portraits have to do with some dead Italian guy and Chrysler 300Ms? The human face is literally sculpted out of the golden mean. Not thirds, not quarters, not halves… 1.618:1. Check out this reference image from PhiMatrix.com:

http://www.phimatrix.com/images/phi-woman.jpg

Phi proportions

If you take the tip of her nose to the back of her head and find the 1.618:1 mark, it’s right at her ear (the “ear hole,” if you will). Starting from that line, draw another 1.618:1 mark and it’s where her neck meets her chin. Draw another one and it’s the back of her eye. Again, and it’s the front of her eye and the back of her mouth. AGAIN and you’re at the bridge of her nose. Finally, one more time and you’re at the front of her teeth and the septum under her nose.

Can you say, “wow?” I knew you could. <pulls on sweater and changes shoes, goes to see King Friday>

And I didn’t even go over the horizontal lines! This picture could even be split into even more 1.618:1 sections ad infinitum and you could keep finding perfectly matched features (of course, the more attractive the person, the closer to perfect, which is why learning to see is so important!).

Let’s look again:

Holy cannoli, Batman, do you think we’re on to something? If I see one more reference that says that the iris is 1/3 the width of the eye or that the pupil is 1/3 the width of the pupil, I’m going to scream. I mean it, I’ll do it… I will! Watch me! AAAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!

Observations
Okay, I’m better now. But I think you get my point – and I think I have 2 key points that I would like you to take away from this article:

  1. The proportions of the human face are 1.618:1 all over the place
  2. You have to use that as a reference and really measure for yourself unless your only subjects are supermodels (keep dreaming)

Keep learning to see and keep on questioning authority. Even me. I’m wrong at least 38.2% of the time (yes, that’s that’s the other portion of the 1:1.618 ratio, or slightly more than 1/3, which is NOT a good number for facial proportions).

Learning to see (part 2): Modified Blind contours

August 8, 2007 in Process, Tutorials | No comments

In part 2 we’re going to take it to the next step in learning to see properly with modified blind contours.

If you haven’t already, please start with the blind contour. Shortcuts will only hurt yourself in the long run; please don’t cheat yourself.

The process
Step 1: sit comfortaby with your favorite drawing pencil/pen/charcoal/whatever and a pad of paper

Step 2: turn your head AWAY from your drawing surface and look at your object (your non-drawing hand should work just fine). Difficulty: hold something in your hand (your choice)

Step 3: only move your pencil as your eye moves on the surface/contours of the object and your hand. This time, you MAY look at your drawing; however, you may NOT move your pencil while looking at your paper, ONLY move your pencil while looking at the drawing

IMPORTANT: your drawing will most likely look funny. You will make mistakes in proportion, relation, size, etc. because you’re going all-out the first time, no erasing, no do-overs (that’s “no mulligans” for you golfer-types). This is okay – if your drawing is perfect, then you cheated. No cheating. I will know and you will not build the nerve connections required.

Example:
Modified_blind_contour

What’s in it for me?
You might be asking yourself, “Self, why am I drawing funny looking hands? Does this guy know what he’s talking about?” Yes, I do know, and you’re NOT drawing funny hands, you are training your eye to see. You are building nerve connections that didn’t exist before. You are honing an ability to move that pencil properly. These basic exercises CANNOT be overemphasized.

Observations
Your drawing should NOT have “sketchy” lines – that is, you should NOT be moving your pencil back and forth in short little motions. Lots of people new to drawing do this. Please don’t be one of them. You should hold your pencil relatively far back and mostly flat to the paper, not like you hold it for writing. Yes, there IS a right way and it’s there for a reason: control and intention. You’re here because you want to get better, right? Then at least try my way for a while before you curse my name, yeah?

Writing grip:

writing

Drawing grip:
drawing_grip1

Drawing grip (alternate):
drawing_grip2

Homework:
10-20 minutes of blind contours
10-20 minutes of modified blind contours

Part 3: Pure Contours
With that, I’ll leave you to your modified blind contours until we meet again for part 3: Pure Contours. Now the good stuff really starts and, if you’ve been honest and diligent, you’ll really start to see rapid progress.

Learning to see (part 1): Blind Contours

August 8, 2007 in Process, Tutorials | No comments

Previously, I told you that you had to learn to see in order to learn to draw. I maintain that position and today I’m here to show you how to get further down that path: blind contour drawing.

The concept
The concept is deceptively simple: draw something, moving your hand/pencil bit-for-bit, inch-for-inch with your eye. Remember how edges don’t exist? Okay, well, we’re going to press the make-believe button and draw contours here, which are simply the edges you think you see but aren’t really there.

The process
Step 1: situate yourself comfortably with your drawing hand holding your medium (pencil, pen, chalk, remnants of a Snickers(TM), etc.)

Step 2: turn your head AWAY from your drawing. This is a BLIND contour. NO LOOKING!

Step 3: spend about 30 seconds looking at the object you are going to draw – I suggest using your non-drawing hand.

Step 4: put your medium to paper and start drawing, being careful to draw ONLY while your eye is moving

IMPORTANT: do not lift your pencil/pen/etc. off the paper. This will keep you from skipping around like crazy

ALSO IMPORTANT: your drawing will probably not look like your object. If it does, you cheated and I’ve found you out. That’s three nights of detention for you! While you’re there, practice your blind contours. Your hand may not look like anything but a big scribble of lines. Congratulations!

Blind_contour

What’s in it for me?
The immediate benefit to blind contours is this: you’ll really start to develop your hand-eye coordination and start building the neural pathways so that your hand starts to really draw what your eye sees!

I know it like the back of my hand
Something an art teacher once told me: you never really know what something looks like until you’ve drawn it. And she was 100% correct: in my years of teaching my “learning to see” class, I ALWAYS have students that are amazed at their own hands. You think you know something like the back of your hand? I bet you don’t – at least not until you’ve done some contour drawings of the back of your hand and REALLY know what it looks like. Is it wrinkly? Is your hand weathered? Do you have bony fingers? You might not have known before but you know now.

What else have you been missing in your life? Take the time to do a blind contour. Part 2 is “modified blind contours,” and gets even more interesting (if not a little less frustrating).