Portrait in charcoal
White paper
Initial part of drawing took less than 30 mins at my life drawing group.
I found the experience of building up areas of light and tone with a combination of erasing, soft blending and vigorous directional lines and marks quite rewarding. By using thin charcoal sticks adding detail became quite easy.
Doing this drawing gave me yet another reminder of the ever so forgiving nature of charcoal and the ease with which a richness of tone and dramatic contrasts of light and shade can materialize in a relatively short length of time.
After I received the drawing back from the tutor the compulsion to make some alterations to the facial features was overwhelming. Although he seemed to like the drawing I felt these elements looked too severe – and I have to admit, I don’t recall the model’s expression giving me that kind of impression. I reduced the length of the nose and softened the nostrils. I also softened the eyes as I thought they appeared too hard looking and the line of the mouth, also moving it up slightly.
A frustratingly long time passed just fiddling about with these adjustments before I was reasonably happy that there was actually any improvement. It was exacerbated by not having the model in front of me this time, or even any reference photo/s so I used a couple of portrait images of other people, with similar angles to help as references.
The result is now certain aspects of both drawings that I prefer over others; the latter version seems to have certain more appealing qualities than the former and vise versa.Though I made no alterations to any parts of the latter drawing other than eyes, lips, nose and chin, my hope is now that I haven’t spoiled its whole atmosphere by making these adjustments. However, I do find it easier to look at than previously, especially around the nostril area. Perhaps adjusting only this area and leaving the rest alone would have been quite sufficient, but any changes to one area seemed to show up a perceived fault in another area and so on.
The result is now certain aspects of both drawings that I prefer over others; the latter version seems to have certain more appealing qualities than the former and vise versa.Though I made no alterations to any parts of the latter drawing other than eyes, lips, nose and chin, my hope is now that I haven’t spoiled its whole atmosphere by making these adjustments. However, I do find it easier to look at than previously, especially around the nostril area. Perhaps adjusting only this area and leaving the rest alone would have been quite sufficient, but any changes to one area seemed to show up a perceived fault in another area and so on.
When I compare the two versions I notice that the facial profile is now flatter and taken back below the nose. The chin is sharper than before, more so than I think it should be in reality. Then again I think the whole jaw area was too prominent beforehand. It was a mistake to alter the eyes. Strangely I think they were preferable before as they were more defined and varied. The gaze though very intense, was also perhaps more intriguing.
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| No. 1 - a bit scary! |
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| After alterations, but still looking giving daggers! |
