Finally! day 30 of 30 - the last post of the last drawing.

This has long been my favorite image of Jesus. It's not my art - I came across it online somewhere years ago.

So many depictions of Jesus are deep, serious, heavy and sombre. This drawing is how I personally like to picture Jesus; upbeat, happy, healthy, thrilled to be in your company and thrilled that you want to have a relationship with him. He looks here like he's pulling for you, believes in you, sees you primarily for your positive traits and thinks you can do it (whatever it is).

This Jesus image is alive, fun and vibrant - someone that is a kick to be around.

I've always been impressed at how much emotion this artist conveys in this very simple collection of broad lines and white shapes. This is good art whittled down to just the critical 'working parts'.

As much as I like the simplicity of this I've sometimes wished for a more finished version of this same pose and expression, so here it is:

I started by blocking in the same flowing solid shapes but then, instead of filling them in solidly as in the reference photo I developed the depth and tone of a more realistic pose.

The '30 day/30 portraits' drawing adventure has been lots of fun! Devoting high quality time to just about anything on a regular basis is bound to pay dividends. It's certainly has been the case for my portrait drawing skills. I still believe, as stated in earlier posts that if you can capture a likeness accurately you can draw just about anything. It feels good to have made much progress towards that end.

Thank you for following along - I hope you enjoyed the adventure too!

Day 29 - Done in Ernest

One grizzly bearded face deserves another so after learning how to draw beards with Steve Jobs I was eager to continue working with beards on another.

This drawing of Hemingway the novelist came together well using mostly soft pencils and quite a bit of the paper blending tools. I am happy with how the eyes work together. This drawing went fast compared to many others - about an hour.

As the 30 day/30 portrait adventure comes to a close I'll say it's been fun and exciting. It's taken discipline to devote a couple of hours to it every day for a month but the payoff has been much improved drawing skills and confidence. Seeing ability and speed improve is exhilarating.

One last drawing tomorrow for day 30!  Who should it be?? ?

day 28 - a Jobs well done??

This one combined two  reference photos because the first reference photo was cropped at the base of the forehead. Since the photos of Steve Jobs were taken about 10 years apart it was tricky getting the two looks to merge together for one believable portrait. I also left the eyeglasses out at the beginning thinking it might be nice to render him without them but added them later because the glasses turned out to be a very strong identifier.

day 27 - She or he??

Sitting in a trailer up north with by the light of a battery LED lantern I didn't know what the subject would be.

So I just started drawing a made up face. As a few features fell into place I asked myself if this was a female or male face.  The answer wasn't clear but the path was set for the remainder of the drawing to be an exploration of what makes features be either male or female.

The eye on the left and the lips on the right are more masculine -the eye on the right and lips on the left more feminine. The hair is gender neutral.

Its easy to see the vast difference between the craggy male face of Willy Nelson and the smooth graceful lines of Duchess Kate, But when you go towards the middle from these two extremes the difference becomes very subtle. 

I ended up with this rendition where you can't really say if it's man or woman. In honor of the old Saturday Night Live skit, I'll name this drawing 'Pat', a name that works either way!

day 26 - more royalty

Here's another caracature of Kate with her new baby. This was fun and fast, drawn mostly with a soft dark Ebony pencil. Drawing a caricature right after doing a realistic drawing of the same subject is enjoyable because the features are all 'figured out' from the realistic drawing. It's easy to get them in the right place then exagerate them to create the silly look of a caricature.

I threw the sketch of Big Ben in the background just to help viewers place the subject a little easier.

day 25

A pretty good attempt at Kate Middleton - Duchess of Cambridge.

This one was a lot of work. I had the eyes out of place and they really didn't work with the rest of the facial features.  One of the best aspects about doing a portrait a day for 30 days is that you really get a feel for how all the elements of a human face come together. It gave me increased understanding of how fascinating all the muscles and bones truly are. All the facial elements need to be working together if the drawing is going to be convincing.

The eye on the left (her right) is in a pretty good place right now but you can see that the paper there is badly overworked, nearly worn out from excessive erasures and start overs. At a certain point the sheet is too frayed up to draw on any more.

This sketch pad contains pretty good paper but not the best. It's doing a good job absorbing the pencil strokes, blending, heavy shading and occasional abuse does have limitations.

Day 24 - Marilyn

Just a quick post for you tonight.

I did this one about 90% upside down, tweaking just a few things after turning it right side up.

Day 23 - one more look at Phil..

Here's another (and last) drawing of Phil Mickelson. Its the same pose as yesterday but a much better likeness. The main difference from yesterday's is the tilt of the head is properly established. 

Yesterday's attempt at this pose had the features aligned straight up and down and eyes almost directly side to side:

The reference photo shows quite a bit of tilt in Phil's head. Having this tilt incorrect at the start of yesterdays rendition got it going down the wrong track, causing me to struggle the whole way through. I established the tilt correctly in today's drawing (the marks are still visible) and the rest flowed smoothly. 

These little things are really the big things! If the artist gets the basic building blocks in place correctly at the start there's a great chance of getting a good likeness fairly quickly. Getting them wrong, starting too fast or not noticing  they are wrong leads to frustration, struggle and lots of extra time. 

... Sue will be pleased.

day 22 - another look at Phil

Since I was disappointed with the portrait aspect of yesterdays full torso drawing of Phil Mickelson, I made another effort today going back to the face only.

I thought this would be easy but I fought it almost the entire way. One of the fun aspects of this drawing adventure is that at the pace of a portrait drawing a day I don't have time to just bang out another if things aren't working quite right. Unless you 'quit' a sketch in about the first 15 minutes you are kind of committed to making the thing you started work out.

I'm not so sure tonight's 'worked out' all that well either. What is it with drawing Phil?? Is it the pressure of knowing that if I don't get it right, my wife (a lifelong fan - not just because of his golf) will be all over me??
I'm blaming that for now!

This is a pretty good drawing but falls just a little short from looking like Phil Mickelson. I actually looks a little more like him in this photo of the drawing than the drawing itself. It seems that sometimes the digital camera can be your friend and make your art look better and sometimes it accentuates the shortcomings.

 Looking at this the next morning with fresh eyes I believe I saw the problem. Nothing new in that! Often after drawing a couple of hours late at night the eye of the artist misses details that fresh eyes would have caught.  I'll share the observation of the problem here in tomorrow's post.

Day 21 - British Open golf champ

All right - not sure if this qualifies as a portrait or not. It's more of a sports art scene. Phil Mickelson inspired me with his dramatic come from behind win of the British Open.

In the reference photo I used you could certainly recognize Phil even though it showed his whole torso and head, but since the head was so small on the reference photo it was tough seeing the details fine enough to render them accurately.

Drawing all the rest of the torso, arms, hands etc. took a lot of time away from concentrating on the face too. it was a bit of a trap! Before I knew it, the evening grew late and I didn't have the time or energy to put the proper finish on that face.

I am glad I gave it a try though. The rest of the golf drawing looks fine.

day 20 - for those who prefer a more traditional 'Bond'

Hello again!!

Sorry about going dark a bit on these posts. The combination of drawing the daily portrait AND posting proved to be too much so I concentrated on just getting those drawings done each day. I'm happy to report that I DID keep up with the drawings, finishing the 30th portrait last night at 11:50PM on the last day of July. Finding the time each day (1.5 - 2 hours) was challenging but also very rewarding. I often found myself quite pleased to be headed down to our basement studio at 9 PM to start that day's creation. The repetitive time allotted did have quite an effect on the drawings and my ability to see. You may judge for yourself if my skills moved in the right direction.

Now I'll finish the '30 Day - 30 Portraits' adventure by posting a drawing each day, and have the time and energy to write a few insights instead of just throwing up the picture. I think it was a good trade off.

Day 19 was of Daniel Craig - the modern James Bond. The likeness was so so, not one of the best.

Tonight's drawing is for those who prefer their 007 a bit more traditional.