Eyes
Firstly I was told to start by drawing the outline of the eyes. I had to use the extended reach technique to measure the size of the eyes, after drawing the first eye I then had to measure the distance between the eyes to find the correct position for the second eye.
Nose
To draw the nose I had to use extended reach to measure the distance from the eyes to the bottom of the nose for the length, and the distance from the inner side of the eyes outwards to find the width of the nose. I only drew the bottom of the nose and the nostrils as the rest of the nose would be shown through shading.
Mouth
To draw the mouth I used my pencil to work out where the mouth was in proportion to the eyes. I then used extended reach to measure the size of the mouth.
Face
To draw the face I used extended reach to measure the distance from the outside corners of the eyes to each side of the face, then from the corners of the nose to the side of the face, from the corners of the mouth to the side of the face and then from the bottom of the mouth to the chin. I then measured from the top of the eyes to the top of the head including the hair. This seemed out of proportion to begin with, but once the hair line had been drawn in the portrait looked in proportion to all the other facial features.
Once I had drawn all the facial features I took a photo of the student to use for the shading.
I then used all the techniques I have been taught so far to shade in the portrait.
After taking th above photo of my portrait I noticed that I needed to do a lot more shading and toning on the face, and that the hair needed to be darker with more tones in it.
I think that the extra shading and tonal work I added has improved my portrait and I am happy with the result.
Before starting my course I drew a portrait of my daughter. Comparing the two portraits I can see a huge improvement in my drawing and shading skills and hope that I continue to improve on these skills thought the course.
