The original portrait photo did not show the complete hair so I decided to fade the edge of the composition instead of trying to fill in what wasn't in the photo. I think it works quite well in the final portrait drawing. To get the very fair skin tones I use graphite powder brushed on with a soft cotton wool pad. Some artist prefer to use a dry brush but I tend to prefer the cotton wool method. The details are drawn with a variety of soft pencils, and a malleable art eraser is used to finally pick out reflections and lines in the hair.
http://www.portraits-online.com/art-blog/portrait-of-a-child-graphite-pencil-drawing Looking for a perfect hotel or wedding venue in Spain? Hotel Cortijo Bravo in Velez-Malaga was the wedding venue I drew recently. It was presented as a wedding gift for a couple who married there from one of the wedding guests. The hotel lies on Malaga´s Axarquia coast and apparently has amazing views of the surrounding landscape set within the Avacado plantations stretching out to the Mediterranean Sea. It was interesting building to draw because I don't often get the chance often to draw or paint Mediterranean style buildings. At first I thought it might prove a challenge because of the relatively simple building form and white-washed walls, but including the strong Spanish shadows and unique building details helped to add enough depth to make the drawing work. Typical Spanish roof tiles and balcony railings added nice detail too. And the tropical planting by the elegant entrance helped add variety to the simple lines of the building drawing. I drew the tiles along the ramp with the hard pencil relief method I often use for brickwork on typical British houses. This involves drawing the lighter mortar joints first, with a hard 2H pencil with just enough pressure to leave a slight indentation in the drawing paper. I then use much softer ( and darker) 6B to 8B pencil to draw over the top of these mortar joint lines which only leaves a pencil mark on the higher relief areas of the paper and not in the mortar joint lines that were drawn with the 2H pencil. Looking for a picture of your wedding venue, or an anniversary gift?
A drawing or painting of the wedding venue makes a nice idea for a wedding gift to remember the special day. A sketch of the wedding venue, or an interesting building detail could also make for a unique finishing touch to thank you cards for the wedding guests for example. If you are looking to have something special drawn or painted for your wedding day then why not get in touch to discuss your ideas. I recent client reminded me too that the 1st wedding anniversary is symbolized by 'paper', and a drawing of your wedding venue on paper makes a nice traditional 1st anniversary gift idea too! http://www.portraits-online.com/art-blog/hotel-cortijo-bravo-velez-malaga-spain A recent pencil drawing I drew of an English tudor revival house (or mock tudor style). I particularly like drawing houses with lots of brickwork like here because it gives me the chance to use the hard / soft pencil relief method. This involves drawing the mortar joints first, which are often lighter in colour, with a hard 2H pencil with just enough pressure to leave a slight indentation in the drawing paper. Because a 2H pencil is hard, it leaves a depression but with a lighter mark on the paper than with softer pencils. I then use much softer ( and darker) 6B to 8B pencil to draw over the top of these brickwork lines which only leaves a pencil mark on the higher relief areas of the paper and not in the mortar joint lines that were drawn with the 2H pencil. I hope that makes sense?... The problem is that sometimes the mortar joints appear darker than the brick, either because they were built that way or due to weathering or light conditions. This was the case with this house and it requires a second phase of sketching back through the mortar lines with a soft 6B pencil to make them darker where necessary. If you used a dark pencil at the beginning to make the indentation in the paper the results would be too overpowering and 'flat'. You can see in the image above that this technique has been used in the mullioned windows too, but this time they are lighter than the strong shadows of the glass panes and only a 2H pencil was used for the mullion. If you would like to see more examples of my house portrait drawings and paintings visit my portfolio page. http://www.portraits-online.com/art-blog/english-tudor-revival-house-pencil-drawing The original photo was great quality to start with which is always a big help to achieve accurate detail in the portrait. The hair detail was drawn using a malleable art eraser to remove fine lines of graphite.
http://www.portraits-online.com/art-blog/pencil-portrait-drawing-of-a-women Graphite pencil works well even when the fur is mostly black, especially when it has lots of variation. Including the collar often helps to add more detail to a dog portrait and of course makes it more personal to their character.
http://www.portraits-online.com/art-blog/jack-russell-pencil-portrait-drawing |
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