Learning to Sketch Portraits - Part II

Today I listened to the Artists Helping Artists interview with Carol and David Marine. In one portion of the interview Carol was speaking about branching out into painting silly faces and how important it is for her to keep experimenting and trying new things in order to keep fresh and enthused about her art.

It was inspiring to hear her thoughts. They felt like support being sent in my direction to encourage this section of my latest journey. If you haven't listened to the interview yet, I highly recommend it!

So in Part I of this post I spoke about my desire to sketch more of my life moments and, how in the past, I have been stopped by my discomfort in sketching people.

My solution for this discomfort was to jump from the frying pan into the fire. A simultaneously exciting and frightening jump!

After trying my hand at sketching from other artists' sketches - both more linear sketches and value based sketches - I decided the next logical step was to try a sketch from a photo. You could say I was being thorough, or you could say I was avoiding the scary prospect of sketching from life. I think both statements are true!

My intention was to create a linear sketch because I am wanting a quicker sketching style. I also tried not to be concerned with likeness - as the saying goes that was easier said than done.

I chose to work from a rather small image thinking that a smaller image would have less detail. Detail often entices me to get fiddly, which I was trying to avoid. In hindsight I think working from a larger reference would have been easier.

Below is my sketch from a photo of my hubby. Handsome guy isn't he?

practice sketch 6

graphite on newsprint

©2011 Stacy L. Rowan

Reviewing the sketch above I can see I was more hesitant in this sketch than the sketches I posted in Part I. I'm not sure if I was intimidated by the challenge of capturing his likeness, if I was hampered by the size of my reference or if I was reacting to having to edit the detail I saw in the reference. (In the sketches I copied, obviously the artist who did the initial sketch had already been through the editing process and the subjects of the sketches were strangers to me.)

I can also see the style sliding toward more precise line work instead of using expressive lines. I am very interested as I continue this experiment to see where my natural style falls on the continuum from detailed and precise to loose and expressive. I secretly hope I can move along the spectrum towards the expressive, loose end. Time will tell if that is actually possible.

All of the sketches posted in Part I and the sketch above were completed in one afternoon. Feeling encouraged by my results I decided to finally take the brave step to sketch from life.

Several days later I was visiting my kids at school. I always carry a pocket Moleskine and pencil in my purse. Making use of these tools I made several quick sketches of my girls during the times when they were reading or working quietly at their desk. I limited my sketching to the times they were doing desk work because I didn't want to draw the teacher's attention and get sent to the Principal's office. That wouldn't have set a very good example!

The main challenge I experienced during this "sketching from life" session was that my models were not at all still! Honestly they moved every two seconds and rarely returned to the same position. They even knew I was sketching them (I had asked their permission first) and they still weren't still. Below are the results of sketching these moving targets.

practice sketch 7

graphite in Moleskine cahier pocket sketchbook

© 2011 Stacy L. Rowan

practice sketch 8

graphite in Moleskine cahier pocket sketchbook

©2011 Stacy L. Rowan

practice sketch 9

graphite in Moleskine cahier pocket sketchbook

©2011 Stacy L. Rowan





Practice sketch 9 is my favorite because the lack of facial features made for stress-free sketching! I was pleased that in all three sketches I stuck with line and did not resort to value. I was also happy that I remembered to leave some breaks in the line work. I did not have as many "suggested" areas as in the copied sketches but, because of the constant movement, I wasn't able to get to finicky.

The middle sketch was the most challenging because of the angle and because of the size of the sketch with respect to the page. Apparently I wasn't quite up for the challenge because the sketch makes my daughter look much older than she actually is!

For those of you who know my kids, sketches 7 and 9 are of the same child and sketch 8 is the other one. I'll leave it up to you to determine who is who.

In summary, I learned a lot from these two sketching session. In some ways sketching from life was easier than sketching from a photo. The built in time constraint made it almost impossible to get hung up on details and forced me to make quick decisions and live with the lines I put down.

I need a lot more practice to build fluency of line and expressiveness. I think that will come as I get more comfortable. Practice will hopefully also make it easier to capture a likeness.

I am excited for my next practice session. I already have a few magazine photos set aside and several personal photos in mind. I am also trying to identify times or activities which require my family members to sit still so I can make use of those times as live sketching sessions. Wish me luck as I think I live in a house of Energizer bunnies!

Odds and Ends

I haven't been working on any large pieces for the past few weeks, so I thought instead I would share some odds and ends with you.

This weekend I drew out designs for two altar squares. Our church makes an altar cloth every year for First Communion. All of the kids who are receiving communion for the first time submit an altar square. A kind volunteer from the church then sews all of these squares together to make the altar cloth. Next year at the same time, the cloth will be dismantled and the squares will be returned to the kids as a keepsake to remember this special time in their lives.

So I drew up squares for two kids and transferred them to the fabric. I let the kids tell me what they wanted on their square (believe it or not they had very specific ideas!). Then I took their idea, drew it out and showed it to them for their approval. Once I transferred the images to the cloth, I traced over the pencil lines with a thin bead of Crayola Squeezables. The kids will then use fabric paint or markers to finish coloring in the design. The Squeezables should make it easy for them to stay in the lines. Here are the two images. The blank area at the top of both designs is where I erased out their names to protect their privacy.



The other image I have to share with you is some pen work from my class last week. (This week we started working on a drawing which I hope to post here later.) Last week we worked on drawing trees. You can see at the top and on the left where I was playing with some bark textures. At the bottom is a tree I started. I wanted to use straight lines to indicate the leaves because it seemed more challenging. Unfortunately, instead of following my reference which had very few leaves, I went for a fuller tree and it turned out a little "cotton ball-y". While it was fun to get caught up in experimenting, the results would have been more realistic if I had followed my reference. Of course I feel like I learned more by experimenting. So here is my cotton ball tree for all of you to enjoy!

A Quick Hello!

Wow! Life around here has been full of activity - unfortunatley not art related activity. I apologize for my lack of posting and my failure to respond to the wonderful comments some of you have been leaving. I expect to be able to post more regularly come May or June if you can hang in there with me that long! Today's post will be short, but image heavy.

The other day I was reading Illustrated Life, a blog by my Wet Canvas friend Jeanette. Jeanette posted some pictures of her workspace and it reminded me how much I enjoyed seeing other artist's studios. I love that little glimpse into their lives and find it helps me better imagine the creation process when I view their artwork. So I decided I would share some pictures of my "studio" with you.

Right now my studio shares space with our master bedroom. Luckily my husband has learned how to fall asleep with the lights blazing, since I often work on my art in the evening hours.

My studio space has expanded quite a bit over the last few years. I recently told my husband that the next expansion will require my studio having a room of its own. I wonder how he feels about sleeping in the family room??

Now if you really want to see a swanky work area, maybe my sister will post pictures of her craft room in her blog. My brother-in-law is very handy and built this room specially for her. I'd say she's spoiled, but that's just because I'm green with envy.

I also wanted to show you the results of my second pen and ink class. Last week Katherine commented on the challenge of cross hatching within a shape. Even though we are still working with very simple shapes, I know exactly what she meant. You can see that some of these shapes turned out a little wonky. (Yes, that is an official art term.) The wonkiness was caused by concentrating too much on the cross hatching and not enough on the shape boundaries. I think more practice is needed.

Unfortunately, I am going to miss class this week. I am leaving tomorrow for a week of vacation and during class time will hopefully be enjoying some sunshine and warm tropical breezes. Since I will not have Internet access, I also will not be able to post here until I get back home and settled in. In my absence you might want to check out some of the art blogs in my link list. These blogs are the ones I read daily.

What Art Isn't

I find that some people have strange ideas about art. Let me tell you a few things art isn't. Art isn't always pretty, it isn't always easy and creating it doesn't require some kind of magic that you must be born with or suffer without. Artists don't just pick up a pencil or brush and start creating masterpieces. Sure, most artists have at least a modicum of talent, and some have more than others, but every artist I know also puts a lot of time, determination and dedication into their art. Artists need to practice the same way musicians need to practice scales and second graders need to study their addition facts.

With this in mind I spent last night practicing for my pen & ink class. I suppose I could say I was doing my homework, but the word homework often has such negative connotations and this was more fun than torture. I was practicing hatching - drawing vertical lines. These lines are needed for drawing grass and are also the building block for cross-hatching which is used for shading. I bet you are wondering why I needed to practice drawing lines. Well, give it a try. It's not as easy as you might think. It takes practice to start all the lines at the same height, end all the lines at the same place, make them all the same length and create adjacent rows which are very close but don't overlap. You can see the results of my practice below. Not bad I think.

Sorry for the bad image. I need to relearn the tricks for scanning ink work.

So while I'm talking about class, I might as well catch you up. The first pen & ink class was Wednesday night. Turns out it is a small class, only 5 students, which is great! The small class size allows us all to work at the same table. Working at the same table, we can see the various steps of a drawing and how the individual marks are made. Watching how the marks are made was very helpful to me and much easier to understand than reading or listening to a description of how they are made.

The first thing we learned was a broken scribble technique. We use this technique to draw a bush. My husband thinks my bush resembles the little oval guy in Zoloft commercials. Despite his urging I resisted giving my drawing a face. It was tempting, but no. You can see my faceless bush below.

I'm really looking forward to my next class. The teacher, artist Dave Sullivan, had some amazing and inspiring drawings. I'm can't wait to try some bigger drawings myself!

Back from the Workshop

Well I'm back from the workshop. Prince Charles didn't show up, but the workshop was great! If you are interested in painting realism in watercolor I highly recommend studying with James Toogood. He is an excellent instructor and is very good at explaining watercolor techniques - not only how to use them, but also why they work. He also is sensitive to each student's artistic goals and targets his individual remarks accordingly.

Now normally I wouldn't show a workshop painting to anyone, except maybe my husband and parents. Taking a workshop is all about trying new things. It might mean trying new painting techniques, new subject matter, new paints or all of the above! All of that experimenting typically results in some pretty... let's just say... interesting paintings. And although they may be mighty interesting, they are not necessarily something I'd share freely.

During this workshop I painted a white porcelain teapot sitting on a box draped with dark fabric. My goals were to capture the dramatic darks in the fabric and the colors being reflected in the pot. And while this isn't my favorite painting ever, I like it enough to put it here to show you how I spent my weekend.

So here's my teapot. I hope you like it too.

Teapot

Approx 6.5" x 7"

Transparent watercolor

copyright Stacy L. Rowan

James Toogood Workshop

I won't be posting here this weekend because I will be too busy painting. Yay!!
My Dad and I are attending a watercolor workshop led by James Toogood. Dad has taken classes from him before, but this is my first time. I do have Mr. Toogood's book, Incredible Light & Texture in Watercolor, and have been reading it to prepare for the workshop. He appears to be very knowledgeable about paints and pigments - a topic I want to learn more about. So hopefully it will be an informative and fun weekend. And hopefully Dad and I won't get stuck in any traffic chaos caused by Prince Charles and Camilla. Turns out they are also going to be in Philadelphia, but not at the workshop. (At least I don't think so - if I'm wrong, I'll try to get an autograph.)













Lilacs - watercolor
Prints available
See "My Art Gallery" link on right
copyright Stacy L. Rowan

Pen and Ink Class

Today I signed up for a Pen & Ink class being offered by the local community college. Dave Sullivan is teaching the class and he is a P&I master. I met him online at Wet Canvas where he offers some great tutorials. A while ago I tried an inking technique called stippling and loved it. Since then I have wanted to try more pen work but haven’t managed to squeeze it in around my other projects. This 6 session evening class is the perfect motivation. And since it is offered through the community college the price is right. It should be fun! I’ll let you know.
Here is a stippling piece that I did. It is not quite finished, but close.

copyright Stacy L. Rowan

Art History

I thought I would provide you with some background information about me. I am a bit of a late bloomer. As a kid I never progressed past the standard kids drawings and art class in school. But I did enjoy watching my dad draw and looking through his large cabinet of art supplies.

When it came time to head off to college, I chose to major in chemical engineering. Yes, I know that may seem strange now, but ask anyone who knows me well and they will tell you I am very analytical. Although, they might not phrase it so nicely. :)

Once I was settled in my career, I decided to take up a hobby. I remembered my attraction to Dad's art cabinet and decided to sign up for a drawing class at the local community college. I didn't know if I would enjoy drawing or have any skill at it, but it was something I wanted to try. And I was pleasantly surprised.

After the community college class, I took several more classes at the local art school before taking a break to enjoy the birth of my daughters. My dad brought me back to art a couple of years later by convincing me to take a watercolor workshop with him. That was over 6 years ago and now I am completely hooked. Since the first workshop, I have taken several more, studied with local artists and participated in a fabulous online artist community.

So that's my art history. If anyone living near the Lehigh Valley is interested in seeing some of my work in person, I currently have two paintings in a group show at the Family YMCA of Easton. The YMCA is located at 1225 W. Lafayette Street in Easton, PA. The show runs through February 16th. My painting "Autumn Sunset" is in the show and is pictured below.

copyright Stacy L. Rowan