What did I do well? What did I struggle with? Was it successful?
Overall I believe that my work was quite successful and resulted in a good piece. Some things that I did well include my shading and details. When shading, I felt confident in what I was doing, I was able to create a large amount of contrast through the use of a very light 2H pencil and a much darker 4B pencil. When shading, I think something that I consistently did well throughout this portrait was layering my pencil to shade. I used this a lot when shading parts of the hair, beginning with a lighter pencil and then building my way up to darker pencils to make it seem more like my hair. Another thing I did well was the details. Some of the details that I think ended up looking quite nice were the texture in some parts of the hair. I made use of the electric eraser to create these thin highlights in my hair which turned out quite like the reference photo. The eyes turned out quite well with some of the finer details such as the eyelashes. Something that I struggled with overall was definitely the ear. Although I believe it ended up looking quite good, it was difficult to end up with an ear consisting of only shading rather than an ear with hard lines that don’t look very realistic.
What was the most useful technique I learned during Traditional Drawing?
The most useful or interesting technique that I’ve learnt during my time in Traditional Drawing is cross-hatching. I find this to be the case because cross-hatching is extremely useful in shading and is one of the more interesting ways of shading. Before being in the class I had not learnt of cross-hatching and found it to be far more interesting than simply blending the lead to be smooth.
Drawing Process
-I began the drawing process by taking many different photos. These photos consisted of different angles, facial expressions, lighting scenarios…etc. These photos were used for reference in practice drawings before our final piece.
-After doing some practice drawings, I learnt ways how to better shade and trace certain parts of the face. Once a decent amount of these practices were done, it was time to begin drawing the final piece. The final piece was made using the same reference photo as the one used in some practice drawings.
-After printing two A3 sheets of the reference and adjusting the settings to create more clarity and allow for more details to be seen, I transferred the reference to the board. This was done by scribbling on the back of one of the A3 sheets and tracing the features lightly to transfer some lead onto the board.
-Once the transfer was complete, I began to shade features such as the eyes and the right side of the face. I made this choice as it was one part that I had practised and felt relatively confident doing. I specifically worked on the large shadow on the right, incorporating a triangular-shaped highlight underneath the eye.
-Shading the skin was rather difficult as it was not easy to keep drawing lightly. I decided to incorporate the highlights on the left side of the nose and on the far end of the cheek.
-Doing the hair was relatively simple. I decided that layering the pencil from light to dark would be very helpful.
