Facial expressions

A general guide to drawing expressions from Andrew Loomis´book:

Facial Expressions from Loomis´ "Fun with a pencil"

These cute gnomes in an ad caught my eye the other day:

Line drawings - Gnomes

Head Studies from Andrew Loomis Portrait Drawings

Head Studies from Andrew Loomis Portrait Drawings

Couple more drawings

Head study – short demo

Head study from Andrew Loomis portrait drawings

Hi everyone,

I had done this portrait drawing yesterday, from Loomis´ book and thought I would post this here, along with a few along-the-way photos. Hope this is useful for anyone learning to do the same.

I have established the tone here by holding the pencil differently, as taught by Mr. Glenn Vilppu; its terribly useful, you have more freedom of movement and the strokes look much more freer and its easier to cover large areas quickly. It takes a while to get used to and I have resisted learning this way of holding the pencil for a long time (!!) because at first you don´t get the same kind of accuracy/control that you get while doing it your normal way (which is holding it in the same position that you do as while writing!)  But I love it now. So, this is the way you do it: first make a long tapering point on the pencil with a pen-knife; you can´t do it as easily with the short point that comes when you sharpen with a pencil sharpener. Then hold the pencil so that it aligns almost horizontally with the plane of the paper so that you can drag the length of the point along the surface of the paper to create tone. Holding it at slightly different angles gives different widths for your tone.

Holding the pencil:

Here, in this first step, I am basically concerned with the tilt of the head and the proportions. Her head is tilted slightly towards the (our) left. Draw a vertical line for the length of the head  (top of head to bottom of chin) tilted slightly towards the left. The eye line lies horizontally on the mid point of this line, naturally also tilted so that it is at right angles to the vertical line. Draw the eye brow line a little higher.

The bottom of the nose lies on the mid line between the eye brow line and the bottom of the chin.

The bottom of the lower lip  lies on the mid line between the bottom of the nose to the bottom of the chin.

The distance from the bottom of the nose to the pit of the neck is the same length as the length from the top of the head to the bottom of the nose.

Hair line to Brow line = Brow line to Bottom of nose =  Bottom of nose to Bottom of Chin

These are pretty standard proportions which vary only slightly between individuals. Draw an oval for the face and bring out the cheekbones and the jaw line. Sketch in the features and mark the hair line:

Head study - step 1

I have started establishing a light tone here, following the form of the face:

Head study - step 2

Some darks for the eyes and the right cheekbone:

Head study - step 2

I noticed the hair line is a little too high, so I have brought it down. Darks on the sides of the forehead, lips, nose and cheekbones, starting on the chin to give it roundness:

Head study - step 2

Light tone on the neck. Leave highlights in the hair and start with a light tone over the rest of the hair area with broad strokes made by dragging the belly of the pencil:

Head study - step 5

Throw in a cast shadow on the neck. Pump up the darks but at the same time, leave a little bit of reflected light to make it appear luminous and not too dark. You can notice this bit of reflected light on the right jaw area:

Head study from Andrew Loomis portrait drawings

Figure Studies

 

Figure Studies (Glenn Vilppu)

Pages from my sketchbook

 

Figure Studies (Glenn Vilppu)

Figure Studies (Glenn Vilppu)

Arm studies (Glenn Vilppu)

Box forms (Glenn Vilppu)

Drapery and folds

Folds (Glenn Vilppu)

 

 

Drapery (Glenn Vilppu)

 

Drapery (Glenn Vilppu)

Feet Studies

Feet Studies (Glenn Vilppu)

Wish you all a very Happy New Year!!

 

I´ve been doing these studies from Glenn Vilppu´s videos from a couple of weeks now; he teaches quite fantastically. His method is a little bit different from the classical approach in that he contains/draws the volumes first, instead of drawing the contours/outlines. By drawing the volumes, one begins to visualize the 3-d form that one is attempting to draw, easily, and the contours of these volumes automatically become the outlines of the form. This approach has a major advantage in that difficult foreshortened views of figures and limbs become quite simple to draw. He also explains the muscles and muscle groups  so beautifully from all possible viewpoints. Learning anatomy has become fun and too too exciting for me!!

Leg Muscles

Leg Muscles

Hands

Arm Muscles

Leg Muscles

 

Leg Muscles (Glenn Vilppu)

Lower Leg Muscles

 

Lower Leg Muscles (Glenn Vilppu)

A few pages from my sketchbook

 

Mouths, J.G. Chapman

 

Mouths, J.G. Chapman

Loomis; Eyes, Chapman

Various sketches

Forms, Glenn Vilppu

Loomis; Head, Glenn Vilppu

Shoulder, Glenn Vilppu

Head, Glenn Vilppu

Head, Glenn Vilppu

Torso, Glenn Vilppu

Pelvis, Glenn Vilppu

Gesture, Glenn Vilppu

Today`s page from my sketchbook

Upper Leg Muscles (Glenn Vilppu)

More free hand designs in colored pencil

 

These were fun to do, without planning and completely stress-free!:

Grape vine motif

Berries and flowers motif

Grape vine motif

Berries and flowers motif

Free hand Designs

             Have I mentioned this great book which is in the public domain: The American drawing book by J.G. Chapman? Well, I was doing a few exercises  from it, like so -

      ….and you can understand that a whole day of this can get somewhat constrictive…… and I wanted to swing my pen a little …. so towards the end of the day, dinner done and the dishes done, sitting in front of the TV watching ‘Shanghai noon’, I ended up with these freehand designs. Usually when I am doodling, I do the same favorite curves again and again (mostly like the first one in this post, the one with the hearts) and this time I am glad I wound up doing different and unusual ones.

         The same principles apply here for decorative designs that you would use in fine art, I´ve written an article on this over here, you can have a look at The Elements and Principles of Art.

1. A focal interest brings the eye towards the area, and other elements can shoot outwards from this. (symmetrically or asymmetrically)

2. Designs can be symmetrical or asymmetrical.

3. There should be a rhythm that can be sensed through out the design.

4. They should feel harmonious and united.

           One way to make a design look united is to use the same elements over and over again through out it. These elements can naturally be varied to provide interest. For example, in my first design, I have used the heart symbol repeatedly; the second one has a chaff of wheat motive (my son´s kindergarten chart was lying beside me on which he had stuck these pieces of nature on); the fourth one has variations of crescent moons in it. If you need inspiration, you don´t have to look far, nature offers endless varieties of motifs….

Colored pencil Portrait Demo

Colored pencil portrait

The first step is the line drawing and I wanted this to be pretty accurate as I was going to paint it, so I felt my way on the drawing with a sort of grid, not with lines but with dots to indicate half way and quarter way points. I then transferred this drawing to watercolor HP paper. Before I start diving into the colors, I want to remind you that to build any form, be it a rock or a face, what is important is to understand that form can only be built up through light and shadow and so to get the values right, the colors are of secondary importance. The highlights here are coming from the other side of the forehead, the nose, the top of the lower lip, the cheek bone. The area where the forehead turns is in shadow, as is the area beneath the nose, inside of the mouth, the chin and the neck.

The colors I have used are Caran d’ Ache (a Swiss make) and Faber Castell (a German make) colored pencils. The Caran d’ Ache are slightly softer than the Faber Castell. Using small circular strokes and a sharply pointed pencil, I covered the areas of the neck and jaw with CA Reddish orange. This I went over with FC Cinnamon and FC Indian red and CA Burnt Sienna for shadow areas, burnishing (applying heavy pressure) as I went along to get a smooth appearance. The area of the nose is cooler (pinkish violet), here I went over with FC light flesh, FC medium flesh, CA pink, CA Bluish pale and CA Light grey. The highlights on the forehead and cheekbone have CA pale yellow as well. The more saturated area of the cheek has FC Light cadmium red.The lips have FC Deep scarlet red, FC Pink Carmine, FC red violet and FC magenta. Other colors I have used include CA Umber, CA Black, CA Grey, FC ivory, FC cream, FC Van dyck brown. Coming to the background, its not a great idea to use new/different colors here, for there´s the danger of the background looking to be a part of one painting and the face a part of another! The colors I have used for the rocks and weeds are  CA pale yellow, CA pink, CA Bluish pale, CA Grey, CA Light grey, CA black and FC umber.

Portrait Line Drawing – stage

Portrait Line Drawing

Colored pencil portrait drawing – stage 1

Colored pencil portrait drawing – stage 2

Colored pencil portrait drawing – stage 3

Colored pencil portrait drawing – stage 4

Colored pencil portrait drawing – stage 5

Colored pencil portrait drawing – stage 6

Colored pencil portrait drawing – stage 7

Ek ladki ko dekha tho…

Colored pencil portrait (Manisha Koirala)

This song is form the bollywood movie ’1942 , a love story’ released way back in 1993, I love this song….(I mean, which Indian does n`t?); Manisha Koirala looks so pretty, pretty, pretty in the movie and the song written by the much loved lyricist of India, Mr Javed Akhtar goes something like this…… (I hope the translation is true to the spirit of the song)

Once I chanced to see a girl, and it felt to me

like a rose blossoming, like poet´s vision, like a shimmering ray of light, a deer in the forest, a moonlit night, a soft-spoken word, like a burning lamp in the temple ……..

Once I chanced to see a girl, and it felt to me

like the beauty of a morn, like sunshine on a wintery day, a strum of the lute, spirit of all hues, a twirling vine, frolic of the waves, like a cool breeze carrying of sweet scent……….

Once I chanced to see a girl, and it felt to me

like a dancing peacock, like a silken thread, a tune of the fairies, fire of sandalwood, like an adornment, a refreshing spray of mist, a steadily intensifying intoxication……….

I just had to do this one…….. I will put together a small demo on this portrait for you soon…..

Note: See tutorial for this portrait