JustJimAZ

20 Hour Experiment Day 14

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Faces!
I knew going in this was going to be rough, but I figure i'm almost halfway through this experiments and I'd better start trying to do faces, since that's a big part of what I want to be able to draw. Not only is a face in my target picture, but I'd like to be able to draw character concepts.

I followed a couple of tutorials on drawing faces. Both focus on getting the proportions right rather than details.
Both followed the familiar "draw a circle and then some lines" format, though each was a bit different in the details of that approach:
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Here's my first one:
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I was not sure if this was a man or woman going in, and in the end, it doesn't exactly look like Prince, but I think it's kind of a police artist's rendering of Prince. If the police artist had about 9 hours of practice time. :-)

The other one got me here:
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Kind of a Schwarzenegger / Leno hybrid...

I'm not sure which method I like more. Both are obviously very crude at the moment, and I'm sure with practice either could get me results. I guess the point is to internalize the proportions until the "construction lines" are no longer required.

It has always bothered me that when I watch artists draw, they NEVER do the basic shape then the lines and fill in details.

When I see natural artists, they don't really do outlines at all. They start with some random squiggle and build out. Soon the squiggle turns out to be part of the eye, or lip, or ear. They seem to build pictures by starting with one detail and then relating other details around it.

However, I figure that "learned" skill will serve me as well as inborn talent. These methods must exist for a reason. Probably the reason is that many who do not have the natural instinct can still get good results.

Richard Feynman learned to draw quite late, and while he is more remembered for his physics than his art, I would be happy to reach his level of skill.



He said expressly that his type of drawing required no talent and was completely learned.

So, I press on. Getting in that first "20 hours" to break through all the feelings of inadequacy that come from knowing so many people so good at drawing and then looking at my own. Oh, I know enough artists and ABOUT artists to know the feelings of inadequacy will never go away, but perhaps I can push them into the background and acquire some serviceable skills.

What did you do today?

Happy Haunting!
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