F / Project 1

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