u/squigglyghosty

Hi all 😊

I’ve been focusing on my proportions and face planes lately, it’s tougher to come across well lit or high quality black subjects and I got really tired of copying/studying European subjects or subjects with Eurocentric features so I did some research and found this amazing bust by Augusta Savage. Here is the link to where I found the reference: https://www.clevelandart.org/print/art/2003.40

I do use Pinterest to find reference pics but if anyone could recommend a profile or board or different website for reference pics of black people that’d be great.

As a challenge I did a 3 hour study as I tend to take my time since I’m a beginner (been taking my art seriously for around a year now).

Any feedback is appreciated 😊

Apologies for the reupload im a bit of boomer and don’t know how reddit works.

Hi friends 😊

I’ve been focusing on my proportions and face planes lately, as a challenge I did a 3 hour study as I tend to take my time since I’m a beginner (been taking my art seriously for around a year now).

Materials - Willow charcoal, charcoal pencil and A3 120gsm paper.

Process - I began by drawing the proportions, in the first hour I checked the proportions using an overlay tool twice. After which I stopped using the overlay tool.

I struggled with the mouth and the eyes, I find it difficult to capture those areas where there are sharp turns and softer plane changes.

I did focus on the face, choosing not to draw in the hat and the rest of the bust was on purpose as I wanted to keep attention on the face.

Any feedback is appreciated although my main focus is on improving proportions, planes and values.

Hi friends 😊

I’ve been focusing on my proportions and face planes lately, as a challenge I did a 3 hour study as I tend to take my time since I’m a beginner (been taking my art seriously for around a year now).

Materials - Willow charcoal, charcoal pencil and A3 120gsm paper.

Process - I began by drawing the proportions, in the first hour I checked the proportions using an overlay tool twice. After which I stopped using the overlay tool.

I struggled with the mouth and the eyes, I find it difficult to capture those areas where there are sharp turns and softer plane changes.

I did focus on the face, choosing not to draw in the hat and the rest of the bust was on purpose as I wanted to keep attention on the face.

Any feedback is appreciated! But I’m specifically looking to improve my proportions, planes and values.

Hi friends 😊

I’ve been focusing on my proportions and face planes lately, as a challenge I did a 3 hour study as I tend to take my time since I’m a beginner (been taking my art seriously for around a year now).

Materials - Willow charcoal, charcoal pencil and A3 120gsm paper.

Process - I began by drawing the proportions, in the first hour I checked the proportions using an overlay tool twice. After which I stopped using the overlay tool.

I struggled with the mouth and the eyes, I find it difficult to capture those areas where there are sharp turns and softer plane changes.

I did focus on the face, choosing not to draw in the hat and the rest of the bust was on purpose as I wanted to keep attention on the face.

Any feedback is appreciated!

Thought it’d be fun to try and force myself to try and sketch faster and at a smaller scale, usually I take my time like taking over three or more hours on a sketch. But as a beginner I want to constantly challenge myself so as not to rely on crutches like taking a long time or relying too much on sight size to draw.

Forced myself to draw each sketch within 30 minutes. I struggled with the James McAvoy sketch the most but rather than stopping I decided to draw again.

My biggest struggle has been with the reference images without strong contrast. Does anyone have any recommendations like specific exercises that can help with drawing images without huge contrast?

Thoughts?

Thought it’d be fun to try and force myself to try and sketch faster and at a smaller scale, usually I take my time like taking over three or more hours on a sketch. But as a beginner I want to constantly challenge myself so as not to rely on crutches like taking a long time or relying too much on sight size to draw.

Forced myself to draw each sketch within 30 minutes. I struggled with the James McAvoy sketch the most but rather than stopping I decided to draw again.

My biggest struggle has been with the reference images without strong contrast. Does anyone have any recommendations like specific exercises that can help with drawing images without huge contrast?

Thoughts?

Thought it’d be fun to try and force myself to try and sketch faster and at a smaller scale, usually I take my time like taking over three or more hours on a sketch. But as a beginner I want to constantly challenge myself so as not to rely on crutches like taking a long time or relying too much on sight size to draw.

Forced myself to draw each sketch within 30 minutes.

My biggest struggle has been with the reference images without strong contrast. Does anyone have any recommendations like specific exercises that can help with drawing images without huge contrast?

Thoughts?

Challenged myself to draw a black and white reference photo I found on Pinterest, with a focus on improving my proportions, form (specifically the planes of the face) and value.

Took me around 10 hours or so, was not properly tracking my time, completed my drawing over three days taking regular breaks to touch grass or have a cup of tea to try and rest my eyes. Used graphite pencils (2H, H, F, HB and 4B) on around 120 gsm A3 paper. Not sure if I over did it with using different grades of pencils but this was my first time so if there’s a more efficient way to achieve a likeness of the values please let me know!

Really struggled with the gentle tone shift under the eyes, on cheekbones and around the mouth/chin.

Think I placed the ear wrong, her left eye looks to me to be a little too low when compared to her right eye and made the side of her face in shadow a tad too big.

I did use comparative measurements when initially laying down my sketch, used overlay of reference picture on my sketch using a mobile app about three times but stopped as I found myself using that as a crutch to correct placements.

Otherwise pretty chuffed with how things turned out, I’m a beginner and this is the first time I’ve done a value study like this.