ESP - Portrait & Figure Fundamentals - Lesson 1 - Page 22

claydesigner2156 · #**316** 07-14-2009, 07:29 PM

Thank you so much. I knew it was off.

If you can take a moment I did a pastel of 2 little boys in the WDE this week...in pastel. The one boy came out pretty well. According to his mother it is "right on". However, the second boy drove me crazy and now I know it was the measuring. If you see it, perhaps you can comment. The lighting in the picture didn't give me much in shadows, which is one issue, but the features are still placed wrong. Unfortunately, that wasn't obvious until after posting.

A few experienced people made some good suggestions and I plan on re-working the boy in red, hoping to improve how he looks. A double portrait was quite an undertaking. Not sure I would do it again. Your lesson #1 really helped in doing this event. Thanks.
Yvonne

mbleily · #**317** 07-24-2009, 11:22 AM

I have been having trouble getting back to this but I did a drawing of this head and face and then used the wrong pastels on it. they are hard I guess and I didn't know it. It has been along time since I used them.

As I see the scan I can see a few things wrong with it also. The mouth isn't shaped right and the eye on the right is larger than it should be. There are probably more things wrong with it but I am not working on this one any more but will start over. Just wanted you to know I am still working at these lessons. I am just very slow. I appreciate the fact that I can still do them even as slow as I am. It is a permanent

thing with me........slowness, that is.

Please don't give up on me.

**DAK723** · #**318** 07-24-2009, 04:00 PM

Glad you are still working on the lesson! You might want to browse ahead to lesson 3 - on measuring - which will help address issues of proportion and locating the features. The first 2 lessons concentrate on the idea of working with value shapes. Working on the shapes of the values and piecing them together sort of like a puzzle is another approach to measuring and proportions. Just keep practicing!

Don

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbleily

I have been having trouble getting back to this but I did a drawing of this head and face and then used the wrong pastels on it. they are hard I guess and I didn't know it. It has been along time since I used them.

As I see the scan I can see a few things wrong with it also. The mouth isn't shaped right and the eye on the right is larger than it should be. There are probably more things wrong with it but I am not working on this one any more but will start over. Just wanted you to know I am still working at these lessons. I am just very slow. I appreciate the fact that I can still do them even as slow as I am. It is a permanent

thing with me........slowness, that is.

Please don't give up on me.

mbleily · #**319** 07-25-2009, 10:57 AM

I thought I had measured correctly but I have always had trouble with that. I have taken some drawing lessons locatly and she had us use a pencil to measure with. and taking one portion of the persons face like the eye and measure everything by that. Like the distantse between the eyes is one eye length. and the persons face is so many eye length wide or tall. I find that very hard to get things right.

mbleily · #**320** 07-25-2009, 07:24 PM

I have to say that this looked a lot better as a drawing. LOL
I have worked and reworked it and it still isn't right but I am through with it now. On to the next thing......

This is the first rework.

Second rework and I see finally what I am doing wrong. At least one of the things I have not got his face turned enough. I have him facing me more than he should be so now I have the final rework..........below

I just seem to be getting worse and worse. I liked my drawing and next time I will post the drawing also. I just don't seem be be able to get the same likeness with pastels.

mbleily · #**321** 07-26-2009, 01:19 PM

I see so many things wrong with this now but I know that I have gotten off track. I am sorry I seem to be obsessed .LOL I will try to stay on track from now on.
Thanks for putting up with me and my old brain.
Micki

**DAK723** · #**322** 07-26-2009, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbleily

I see so many things wrong with this now but I know that I have gotten off track. I am sorry I seem to be obsessed .LOL I will try to stay on track from now on.
Thanks for putting up with me and my old brain.
Micki

Hi Micki,

Your assessment in your earlier post was quite correct - the head is turned more than you had it shown- especially the nose. Nonetheless, you have some nice things happening! Your first version actually has the basic shape of the head quite good!

As you read through these lessons, you will notice that I am a real proponent of guidelines. Without guidelines, I would mis- locate the features every time! In this case the head is turned to the side a bit, so I would need a guideline for the center of the face (red). Even with this guideline correct, you need to remember that the nose sticks out from the face (blue line). I mention this because I see many portraits (not just from beginners either) where the tip of the nose isn't offset as I have shown here.

I have shown the guidelines for the slight downward tilt of the head as well (yellow).

And yes, pastels are difficult! I did most of my earliest portraits in pencil. I tried for many years to do them in pastels and then gave up!! I couldn't get the detail and control with the fairly thick (compared to a pencil) pastel. Ultimately, I just accepted that pastels were more difficult and I couldn't "fine-tune" the same way I would with a pencil. It takes practice!!

But you are doing very well! Just look at the big shapes and the guidelines before getting into the details!

Don

mbleily · #**323** 07-26-2009, 04:57 PM

Thanks for the encouragement. I just felt everything was so far off.....
I will keep trying to improve.

MarkJBrader · #**324** 09-06-2009, 07:43 PM

Hello Don,
After my workload made me poop out on completing Charlie's class, I have been husbanding my time to just paint when I can. I have been very frustrated in trying to do landscapes, nothing I have felt like posting yet, so last night, I decided to refresh myself by trying the exercise in this thread. I did better than I thought I would. I can see many small things incorrect, but I was surprised at how much I could do. Here is my effort

Obvious things I can see to correct: I think the left eye is placed a smidge too high and to the left. Both eyes are a little too 'open'.

I don't know about catching up with these lessons, but I will look at doing another one, or perhaps from the next lesson. Thanks for all the work you have done here. It's great that this is left here so folks like me can use the instruction when we can get to it.

Oh yes, this was on Canson, using only hard pastels, Nupes and Jack Richesons.

Mark

**DAK723** · #**325** 09-06-2009, 07:56 PM

Hi Mark and welcome!

This is very nice! I see well shaped forms - especially the eyes - due to the very good use of values! Little things sometimes don't need to be corrected if the big things are right! Hope you have a chance to do some more!

Don

Salute to our Partners