Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Portrait and Figure Studio, March 15, 2012


Here is the model for the session at Troy-Hayner Cultural Center. And below is my interpretation...




The striped object on her lap is a purse. I worked two half hour sessions on this and decided to stop because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. During the second half hour, I had begun working on getting more definition but I know I want to do even more definition.

Since I haven't come to the studio session for some time, I painted on Fredrix Watercolor Canvas which makes adjustments very easy. The strokes I wasn't happy with I could wipe out with water. However, when I go back and repaint, the underlying layer lifts if there is too much water on my brush. Adjustments become an issue of "erasing" and then repainting.

Back home, I checked proportions. The legs from knee to ankle are a bit too short. The hand compared to the size of the face was close to "right". The foot could have been a bit larger. I wasn't particularly pleased with the face. The proportions aren't too bad but the expression isn't close enough to that of the model.

People come in all sizes and shapes as you know. The rule of thumb is that people are 7 1/2 heads high (or sometimes 8 heads high for adult males).   Common errors in drawing people are drawing the head too large and drawing the hands and feet too small.  People vary a lot in actual proportions so the 7 1/2 heads or 8 heads is only an approximation, a starting point.  Also, proportions from birth to adulthood vary with age as well as with the individual.  Every person  is unique.




A good book for learning proportions is Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm. Even though the original copyright date is 1963, it is still available from Amazon.com. And, it is inexpensive.

No comments:

Post a Comment