30 Faces 30 Days: 26-30

Vail. AZ 

11 Feb, 2022

Day 26

I did this one mostly in charcoal on a toned paper; I am getting so tired of graphite pencils!  They tend to be very shiny under my studio lighting, which makes it very hard to see.  This muse was kind of fun to draw with his funny expression.

Day 27

Finally - a mature woman!  For this challenge, fully half the models were young women; the other half men (young to old).  As an older woman (much older than this model), I feel somewhat under-represented!

Day 28

This young woman in costume was fun to sketch.  I did her bow in somewhat a stylized manner (so did the artist doing the demo) - mostly because in the reference, she was holding it out in this way.

Day 29

This use of watercolor washes with pen is a familiar technique for me, so I was pretty comfortable with this sketch.  I liked that the demo artist suggested cropping the image for a more dramatic composition.  Also, working from a toned paper let me get some nice, white charcoal highlights.

Day 30

Another whimsical model.  I needed to make the flowers much more vivid to balance his beard - maybe next time.

I'm glad that I did this challenge but I'm also glad it's over!  It took a big chunk of time over the last month.  Going back over the month, I see that I have some areas to focus on:

    - Backgrounds - I rarely put in a background unless prompted to my the artist doing the demo - so most of these portraits seem unfinished.

    - Composition - Only once did I alter the composition to make a more dramatic portrait.

    - I often got bored or lost focus towards the end of my sketch and didn't really finish off the portrait. I need to remember to come back and finish work (doesn't have to be finished in one go).

Overall, I learned a few things about media that I use often but not to their full range - always a good thing.