Petite Portraits

This is an entirely new and different thing for me.  But it is part of my never-ending quest to
learn how to draw faces.

An online class that I took made such a difference in my entire approach.  Instead of drawing a head shape and then adding the features, you draw a vague eye shape first, then the second eye, then just the tip of the nose and the nostrils, the mouth, and THEN you draw the head shape around the features.

I was amazed how well this worked.  Maybe I was able to be brave enough to try this new approach because I have taken SO many classes on line about the subject.  Or maybe it just works better with my particular brain.  Anyway - the faces look so much better than any I had drawn before.

So here are the different stages of these particular little face drawings.....  the first one looks sort of spooky!

The first stage uses a water soluble Stabilo pencil.  Then a paintbrush with water to make the initial shadows that serve as a base.

Eyeballs are certainly important aren't they?  As evidenced by the lack of eyeballs......

Still no eyeballs at this stage - but shading with watercolor paint.  I learned a lot about the flexibility of watercolor paint when it is used on watercolor paper that has a layer of gel medium on it.  Did you know that you can use the paintbrush to sort of erase the paint?  Really fun.

By the way - these are all painted on 4" x 6" paper.

Whew!  Now they have eyeballs.  MUCH better.  They don't look like robot zombies any more.

Details have been added with a regular pencil.  Also shading to emphasize the shadows of the face.

But they still don't look real.  Well OK if you follow my work - my faces are rarely totally realistic looking.  Especially the green and blue ones.  But you know what I mean......



Now they look better.  The last step was to add collage paper for "hair" around the faces and for the clothing.  And it really adds personality.

Here is the sort of strange part of this project.  I basically drew the same basic face for each one of these little people - but they develop distinct personalities by the time they are finished.

I have 30 of these little drawings that I am putting up for sale at Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour next weekend.  I am VERY curious to see how people react and what they think.