Initial Sketch – I gave myself 30 minutes to sketch my face. I started with middle line created by the shadow, nose, glasses, eye-shape and lip shape. I then drew my face outline. Here is where i noticed how unlike me this sketch looked. With 4 minutes left I filled in the shadows and loosely drew my shoulder area.
Thoughts? Although I can tell is me, I’m not sure the viewer would see the likeness. I found it difficult to work from a mirror due to how I actually sit when drawing/painting. I had to keep resitting in the correct way and relax my face. I want to combat that by taking a series of photographs to work from alongside the mirror so I can reset my face to the reference.
Choosing my main pose.
Photographing myself in the same view as what I see in the mirror was difficult, I had to found a relaxed position for myself then take a photo that matched what I could see.
I have a grey sheet as the background and chose a white top with a dark rusty coloured jumper.
Sketch of main pose – I started with face outline I then sketched outlines for where my eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips (top & bottom) glasses are loosely drawn along with eye shape. I then began to draw the top lip nostrils and shade around the eyes.
I then began filling the tonal areas, keeping close eye to where the light create shadow. I then used a paper stump to blend everything preparing me for another layer of pencil while using blending tools, this helped me build up the tone. I created my neck, hair and fleece, keeping tonally correct.
When I look closely at my face, I see a different view due to getting closer and general moving. I have created my face wider and rounder than it actually is.
I want to use a few different photos to help during the painting.
Painting – To get the scale, I used watery buff titanium to fill the face area and then used a touch of burnt sienna to the mix to paint the details. I used a mix of warm grey an payne’s grey to fill the background grey.
Face colours – Buff titanium, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, ultramarine, titanium white. I created three mixes, a highlight , mid-tone and shadow colour ad used a slow-dry medium to blend and fill my face. I then used different brown tones to add shadow and features around the eyes including the shadow created by the glasses. I also lined where my eyebrows will be. For the shadow around the neck, I used burnt sienna and cadmium red to paint the glasses.
Lip detail is made out of the same colour on face as base and added some red and white, shadow colour dark brown, highlight white and buff titanium.
For the eye details, I noticed in the mirror close up look a hazel colour. I’m thinking due to the light on my face. I tried to fill the eyes so when you stood back they looked right. I used lots of tonal colours around yellow orche and burnt umber.
My next task was to fill in the main hair colour. A loose mix of mars black and burnt umber. I used the loose mix so it was visably a mix of brown and black. I used brown and a lighter brown to add the loose hair, shape, direction and tones. I used mars black to add shadow.
The fleece is a mixture of caduim red and burnt sienna with burnt umber added for shape and tone. I wanted to keep the jacket looking loose and rough for texture. I then blanked out the left eyebrow as the hairs are sparse and loose used a 0 brush to make individual hairs.
I painted the t-shirt using titanium white and a mix of titanium white and burnt umber for shadow. and used warm grey with a touch of white to add dimension and shadows to the background. I feel like the painting is finished, and if i was to a continue I would probably begin to hinder the resemblance.
B-log 