Session 2: Conte-Crayon/Charcoal
In our second session, Tony introduced us to drawing with conte-crayon or charcoal, which surprised me in the sense that it is very different to use when drawing with than with the average pencil. When using charcoal, its entirely possible to use it like a pencil, but I found its best effect is when you hold it to one side line a ruler; and mark the paper to achieve this textured, smudged marking for mapping out where things can go, and where they all should be placed in tandem with each other.
|
|
Drawing with Charcoal/Conte-Crayon is best applied to paper when it's used with the intention of blocking out certain areas before building on top of it with more detail, as though you would using a pencil. As shown in the diagrams and videos above, you can achieve very moody, dark-atmospheres with pressured strokes and smudges.
|
|
|
|
|
Head Drawing Artists:
Stan Prokopenko
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prokopenko is an artist and illustrator from the Ukraine when the Chernobyl Disaster. His knowledge on art and illustration is varied and very wide spread across painting, digital, and of course drawing; particularly in drawing heads and what comes with the fundamentals of drawing. His style of capturing the human form; as well as the head specifically, is to refer to a 3-Dimensional reference via mirror, camera, etc. And swivel your head around to understand each and every point of view as you refer back to your drawing.
Through his site Proko.com, and his YouTube channel, he shows a detailed step by step basis on how to achieve this exact method accordingly. Prokopenko properly explains the importance of the face's length and width, with 4 lines breaking the profile. In certain perspective angles such as looking up or down, it is advised in his video to use cubes or cuboid shapes to assess how far up and down the head is looking, and how it informs the neck and shoulders.
Through his site Proko.com, and his YouTube channel, he shows a detailed step by step basis on how to achieve this exact method accordingly. Prokopenko properly explains the importance of the face's length and width, with 4 lines breaking the profile. In certain perspective angles such as looking up or down, it is advised in his video to use cubes or cuboid shapes to assess how far up and down the head is looking, and how it informs the neck and shoulders.
Andrew Loomis
|
|
|
|
Loomis was an well respected and revered american illustrator and is best known for his simplistic, yet highly intuitive tutorial on drawing the head, which is very common and recommended for beginner artists. Loomis' art style and direction for realism in his art is still influential today, as it continues to inspire and inform many of today's art scene such as the previously mentioned Prokopenko.
The way Loomis drawing the head, is to first begin with a circle, as construct a series of lines (mostly circular) around the head and follow their lead as you detail the eyes, ears, nose, and eventually the external features such as hair and skin tone if you wished to add them too.
The way Loomis drawing the head, is to first begin with a circle, as construct a series of lines (mostly circular) around the head and follow their lead as you detail the eyes, ears, nose, and eventually the external features such as hair and skin tone if you wished to add them too.
Frank Joseph Reilly
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reilly was also an illustrator from the far past (1906), and had taught in his own school of art until his death in 1967. His methods for teaching students the form and how to break down particular muscle groups. But he also had shown his own way of drawing the head, which is very similar to Loomis' approach, but with more circular construction lines to define where smaller, slightly more advanced areas on the face would be placed such as the facial muscles and eyelids, rather than jumping right into the eyes and mouth from the get-go.
This method is my personal favourite way to draw the face, as it is still simple to draw but with added steps to make the face look more detailed and fleshed out rather than slightly more 2-Dimensional and flat.
This method is my personal favourite way to draw the face, as it is still simple to draw but with added steps to make the face look more detailed and fleshed out rather than slightly more 2-Dimensional and flat.
John Asaro
|
|
The most advanced method so far, has to be the Asaro method. Asaro's way of drawing the head is much more polygonal and leans towards the 3rd Dimension the most out of these artists. In order to draw the Asaro head properly, it's important to focus on the lighting and shading tones when drawing around the cheeks, forehead, under the chin, and inside the eye lids.
The greatest point of focus on performing the Asaro method is mostly in adding detail within the folds, creases, and crevices of the human skin against the muscles underneath. Making hyper-realism integral to drawing the same way as Asaro had done.
The greatest point of focus on performing the Asaro method is mostly in adding detail within the folds, creases, and crevices of the human skin against the muscles underneath. Making hyper-realism integral to drawing the same way as Asaro had done.
|
|
|
Independent Drawing: The Drawing Heads.
|
|
|
|
|
|