Completed over 10 hours
This was my first portrait drawing done in the studio at LARA and I really enjoyed having the luxury of a model shared between two other students. I wasn't able to share in all the sessions as my study at the school is only part time, but I took full advantage of the time I did have. You learn a lot from portraiture and have to make sure that all the rules and principles of setting up your drawing are not thrown away as you hurry to capture the likeness on the page. As with all rep drawing, the block in is really important and so are the truth points that you need to identify early on and keep referring back to. As ever, I seemed to lose sight of all of this at the beginning of the drawing and didn't capture the right gesture or proportions until some way into the drawing. I didn't really ever get it quite right but was happy that I was at least able to capture a degree of likeness. The importance of value relationships is what struck me most about doing this drawing. It seems to me that so much of the likeness comes from seeking out good values. The plane changes can be very subtle and the way the light falls on these planes is so key to describing the form. I loved chasing the angle breaks in the eyes to convey a better sense of personality and emotion. Looking forward to doing many more portraits and receiving advice as to how to improve.
