Welcome to our first project! I’m really excited to get started on this week’s portrait. I hope to see your work soon! Here you can find the PDF with the supply list, reference photo and drawing guides. I have a short video introduction for you to say hello before we get started on our portrait. …
In this last part of our project, I’d like to invest some time into thinking about composition and making the over-all image come together. introduction We’ve focussed a lot on the face, but now I’d like to work a little more on the areas surrounding the face, including the shoulders and background. This will ‘frame’ …
We worked hard on our tonal range and features; now it’s time to make some artistic choices. Let’s think about what we want to express in our portrait. introduction On the “About charcoal” page, I mentioned a number of erasers you can use in your charcoal projects. I’ll demonstrate a few here, starting with a …
In the previous part, we established the proper shapes of the shadows that define the facial features. In this part we’re going to refine them. Some areas may require a darker value. introduction I wanted to clarify something here: when I say “details” I don’t necessarily mean every crease, pore or eyelash. Detail means getting …
With the basic shapes of our portrait blocked in, we can focus on what makes our flat artwork look three dimensional; values. introduction After our initial block in, it’s time to flesh out the actual shapes of the shadows. Especially in a high contrast photo, these shadows determine the shape of any facial feature. Everything …
There are many ways to start a portrait, and in this part I will show you one of them; blocking in big shapes that we can refine later on. It’s not the easiest way to get started, but fortunately charcoal is a forgiving medium and easy to correct! introduction When you work this way, it’s …
Our background allows us to explore some of the applications we discussed in the earlier video. It’s a gentle, low-key way of getting started on any project. So let’s get started! introduction I begin by masking part of my paper with masking tape. There’s no real logic behind this, I really just wanted to give …
