Monthly Archives: June 2023

Curiously our ears are not as symmetrical as all that. The ears below are from the same person. There is a general pattern but they are different. If you have a friend who will sit for you or will allow you to photograph such a delicate part of their anatomy that would be great. Not only will you spot the differences but you will get used to drawing ears of both sides of the head.

Many people find it easier to draw faces in profile facing one way than facing in the opposite direction. It’s the same with ears!

Also because we don’t peer directly at our ears in the mirror we are not nearly as familiar with the strange contours we will discover this week!

This week the challenge is to draw a pair of ears and then to draw a portrait head in profile where the ear is totally exposed so earrings are in, but covering locks are not. If you have time do some quick sketches where the ear is only glimpsed or draw what you can see of them when the head is straight toward you or in three quarter view.

When drawing the ear you may like to think of it as two curves traveling in opposite directions.

I tend to draw the outer round shape lightly and then indicate the straighter line where the ear joins the head. The ear is usually at a slight angle and the lower part of the ear attaches the head just above the hinge of the lower jaw. You can feel this by placing your fingers just below the ear and lowering your jaw.

There are some ear references in the “Portrait Techniques” section of my “Portraits” Pinterest board at

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jhall1282/portraits/portrait-techniques/

Do look at some of the other portrait sections and note how artists have depicted ears when the head is in different positions.

Your Drawings:

This week we are looking at the eyes, their structure, how they lie shadowed in their sockets and how they appear when the head is seen from varying angles. Look back especially at the drawings of Watteau, Sometimes the eyes are just marks suggesting the eyes and at other times in more refined drawings much of the structure can be seen. Also look at other portrait heads and note the difference in appearance of eyes of children and older people.

From the front you are not so aware that the eye is ball shaped and lying in a socket. However the eyelid, especially when the eye is closed does look curved to fit the eye. This is seen even more clearly when the eye is seen in profile view as below, as can the spherical form of the eyeball.

Practical:

1.Firstly draw an eye and its surrounding socket when you are looking at the face almost straight on. Then try the same when the head is in profile view. Try both when the head is looking up and down.

2.Draw both eyes when the head is looking up, and down. Notice that there is approximately one eye width between the eyes when the face is viewed directly from the front. For your model, best would be to draw from life. If not work from photos of the same or different people. If you have time draw both eyes and how they track what they are looking at when the head is relatively still. How do the eyes appear when looking from side to side and up and down?

You may use any drawing medium and the aim will be to fill a sheet of A3 size with eye sketches.

3.After this warm up you may like to paint or draw a portrait, using your knowledge to place the eyes well, and give particular care to the fact that as the eyes are sunk into the eye sockets they are often shaded relative to the rest of the face. Some of your sketches may be quite detailed. This does not mean they need to be detailed in your portrait choose to work them in the same style as the rest of the drawing or painting.

Your Drawings:

Starting by drawing a portrait head or head and shoulders, over the next few weeks we’ll go on to look at different parts of the face and depicting hair, in more detail. Firstly, do remind yourself of the general proportions of the head and placement of the features. This week we’ll use the head to explore the three-crayon technique. Historically this has been used for preparatory drawings for oil portraits and also for finished works in their own right.  Some examples can be found on the following Pinterest board, link below:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jhall1282/coloured-grounds-drawing/three-crayon-technique/

Here you will find works by Antoine Watteau, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens and others you may not be so familiar with like Frederico Barocci and Jean-Baptiste Greuze.  Much later artists working in this medium are Elizabeth Sonrel (1874 to 1953) and the portrait drawings of the contemporary artist Weillie Wu especially his portraits of Tibetan women and girls.

Also well worth a look is the article below about Holbein’s drawings, link below. Holbein often combined different drawing media within the same work, ink, charcoal, red chalk, etc.

https://willkempartschool.com/hobeins-portrait-drawings-the-encounter/embed/#?secret=vBmq9yypVt#?secret=Q4neOMz06w

For these studies you will need just three “crayons” in black, terracotta or sanguine, and white. The “crayons” may be conté crayon, hard pastel, pastel pencil or pastel. The black may be charcoal.

You will also need a coloured ground with a tooth (pastel paper or board, or a board painted with a tinted gesso).   Traditionally this has usually been a warm grey or sometimes a pale green.  You can make surprisingly realistic skin tones using these three colours on a warm grey.  The black serves as the deepest tone but can also look quite blue when mixed with white and contrasts well with the redder chalk/pastel.

You may start with the red first or the black and hold back with the white till you are ready to add some pale areas. However there are no rules. I would advise making your initial marks with a light touch till you are happy with the main shapes. Then add stronger tones and lines.

Practical:

1. To get an idea of how the materials work together make some swatches of the colours alone and mixing by layering, hatching or blending.  Each method will give a slightly different result.  An important thing to notice is that the reddish chalk and white give very warm tints and the black with white gives very cool almost blue tints, so together with using the paper as a colour you have a limited but useful palette.

 2. Then try drawing an oval and use the chalks to make it look as three dimensional as an egg.  You could do worse than choose an egg as your first model as you can draw in the shadow as well.

3. Draw an imagined head using the three chalks.  Start with either the sanguine or black; I have a preference for using the red first and limiting the amount of black.  Look at the Pinterest board see how some artists work by blending the materials and others by making distinct marks with each colour and use line, hatching and overlaying. Also note how the paper is used as a tone/colour.

This is also a good exercise to recall the basic proportions of the head.

4. Choose a reference, perhaps a young woman and make your own three crayon study.  Note that in making these drawings you will be leaving some of the paper untouched. If you find it a bit difficult, try just making a black and white, or sanguine and white study this week, and using all three crayons together the following week.

Your Drawings: