Hockey Ref - WIP

[Nancy Anthony]

Here's the Reference photo for the commission I just started.

It's client's son taken while he was working.

The uniform is like a "prop" in this piece...very important to the overall portrait. The helmet has a half piece of glass (probably unbreakable plastic actually), which causes a slight distortion on the upper part of the face.....this'll be a challenge.
The white and black areas, which aomprise a lot of the picture will also be quite challenging as I find them to be the most difficult collors to convincingly render in charcoal.

[Nancy Anthony]

This piece will be 18" x 24" on an off-white piece of Stonehenge paper (my first), obviously to include the whole figure (as shown in the reference photo), would have made individual areas (like the head) too small for me to render any detailed areas effectively, so I decided to crop it. The slightly off centered composition was necessary to get the flag patch in the portrait, but also added a nice "casually working" feel to it.

[Nancy Anthony]

Ok...Here's the very beginning of this portrait....normally I would have done a complete underpainting - using my Q-tips - but there is to be so much black in this finished piece (and I found that my method of blending leaves a lot of little dust particals that aren't as eaily removed on the stonehenge...simple blowing just doesn't cut it here) so I decided to just underpaint the part of the face that sits under the "glass" (and part of the nose) and then start on the deep black helmet.

[jawarriner]

Looks like you have it well undercontrol and well underway. Looking forward to your updates and seeing how you handle the challenge of the face shield.
-Jen

[Nancy Anthony]

I continued to lay down some of the darkest darks that appear above, or to the left of the subjects face. Since I am right-handed this method of progression helps to minimize the frequent dusting of the surface.

My progression isn't always this "structured," but for the reasons stated in previous posts, I felt it was necessary to conitinue with this approach at this stage.

[gillyvu]

Looking great, I am sure your clients will love it when it's done. I also can't wait to see more progress, and the final piece. Good luck!

[R_McLean]

Hey Nancy!

Glad to see another wip from you. This will be an interesting piece, I see what you mean with all that black, I'll be watching your progress. Looks good to me so far.....good luck with the slight distortion of his forehead, it's a lot like the distortion you get when people wear thick lenses in their glasses. Wish I could work with charcoal the way you do!

[Nancy Anthony]

Jen ~ Thank you...I can't wait to see how I handle the face shield either I think I'll just have to try to fairly accurately render what I see...and not what I think I see.

gillyvu ~ I hope they like it...the client is not an easy woman!

Becca ~ Yes black is tough....I went out to get more pencils
There isn't a lot of noticable distortion....in fact it's hard to see that the shield is actually there at first....I'll follow what I see and hope it's convincing!

Here's an Update:

[Nancy Anthony]

Ok for the sake of those who gets "spooked" out by mouthless pictures (and you know who you are )...I blocked in enough of the mouth to calm you down.

This session was spent using pure pencil sparingly and then just blending it out and pushing it in to start building form and establishing some mid-tones. Again...I'm still not happy with blending on the Stonehenge paper...and that's adding extra considerations to the techniques I normally use.

Here's the update:

[Nancy Anthony]

Ok...I've spent most of this time laborously laying down light washes on the left side of the face...and several deeper washes, and details, on the helmet...I've also blocked in one of the shirts stripes, and the fold that it contains.

[Nancy Anthony]

Ok...here's an update:

Alot of laborous layers over layers...with many more to do!

It's a lengthy process but usually worth it in the end.

[R_McLean]

Looking good so far Nancy, just one question - is there any particular reason you chose to use Stonehenge for this one? Does it have a certain texture you're looking for?

[Nancy Anthony]

Becca ~

Ok...don't tell anyone, but the reason I used Stonehenge for this one is because I mistakenly ordered the wrong size Canson Mi-Tientes paper and received these "tiny" sheets of paper! I had also ordered a few samples of the Stonehenge since I've heard so many of the graphite and colored pencil artists say they use it. I don't think I like it for charcoal...but who knows? I might discover some neat little thing it lets me do that the other papers don't....then I'll be able to pull it out for special projects!

I'm hoping to have an update this afternoon, but it's at such a tedious point (and so is Colin Farrell), that I've also started a little (9" x 12") white on black portrait of one of our brand new kittens. Mike will be thrilled...it's been so long since my last animal piece!

Thanks for looking!

[Nancy Anthony]

Here's a quick update before I go to work.....still so far to go!

[mustan]

GOOD WORK Nancy.........

When're you going to finish this...can't wait