Digital Cameras: Recording Progress on Drawing in One Day

[zoobyshoe]

Recently I acquired a digital camera. Digital cameras are fantastic: I can't recommend them enough.

On thing I decided to do is to record my progress on a drawing I was doing at the end of each day's work on it.
Here is the result of day one:

She looks quite alien here with her blank eyes and bald head. The hair is fairly easy and mindless compared to the facial features, so I was concentrating on the hard part, and ignored the easier hair mass at first.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Day 2

Here she is at the end of the second day:

More warm and human.

The proportional dividers on the desk in front of the drawing are how I scaled the image up from the photo.

 

[Evo]

That's great zoob! Are you using pencil? I love to use pencil when I do portraits.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Day 3

Finally: hair.

I've done a lot more modeling on the face and neck, too.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Day 4

Everything richer and more modeled:

 

[zoobyshoe]

More or less finished

This is where I've stopped. I will probably pick it up again at some later date ond work on the neck and some other things more.

 

[zoobyshoe]

That's great zoob! Are you using pencil? I love to use pencil when I do portraits.

Yeah, it's all pencils. Plain #2's mixed with some 3B, and I use an ebony pencil for the really dark parts.

 

[z-component]

Just one thing:

Zooby, that is amazing! Sometimes I wish I could draw. Keep it up!

 

[pattylou]

That is fabulous. Really great.

Are you in Laguna Beach? You should be.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Very nice. I tend to have difficulty drawing hair myself. The last thing I worked on was a sculpture and I had a hell of a time trying to figure out how to sculpt realistic looking hair. Maybe if I used a finer quality clay.
Do you work in any other mediums?

I feel ashamed. I haven't worked on anything myself in a very long time.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Just one thing:
Zooby, that is amazing! Sometimes I wish I could draw. Keep it up!

Thanks very much.

That is fabulous. Really great.
Are you in Laguna Beach? You should be.

Thanks. I'm in San Diego. I visited Laguna Beach once: lots of art galleries there.
------------------
The pictures look sort of "under watery" to me. There's some kind of spot distortions, on my screen anyway. Anyone have any idea what could have caused that? They look fine at photobucket, and this distortion doesn't show up until I put them here.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I tend to have difficulty drawing hair myself. The last thing I worked on was a sculpture and I had a hell of a time trying to figure out how to sculpt realistic looking hair. Maybe if I used a finer quality clay.
Do you work in any other mediums?

Colored pencil. I did a lot of sculpture in the past. I was good at hair. It's tedious, though. I had a couple special and interesting tricks for hair.

This girls hair was only easy because I left it more or less as a solid field, and didn't differentiate locks and swirls. That's just the nature of the photo I was working from.

 

[mattmns]

Wow! That is absolutely great!

 

[laminatedevildoll]

You are quite the artist!

 

[cronxeh]

This is where I've stopped. I will probably pick it up again at some later date ond work on the neck and some other things more.

That looks great

 

[zoobyshoe]

Wow! That is absolutely great!

You are quite the artist!

That looks great

Thank you guys very much. I appreciate it.

 

[Evo]

Zooby, do you find teeth troublesome? The last portait I did was life size (charcoal) and the picture had a lot of teeth showing, I hate teeth. I never was happy with the teeth.

That really is awesome zoob! You truly have talent.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Zooby, do you find teeth troublesome? The last portait I did was life size (charcoal) and the picture had a lot of teeth showing, I hate teeth. I never was happy with the teeth.

Yes, teeth are the very hardest thing for me to draw. If they're not perfect it shows up more than on any other feature of the face. Teeth are, in fact, exceptionally complicated shapes, I have found, and if you don't get them right it is immediately apparent. I avoid them whenever possible.

That really is awesome zoob! You truly have talent.

Thanks, Evo, I appreciate it.
By the way, do you have any idea why the pictures copied over with that sort of "under water" distortion? The originals are fine, and very sharp. I tried one on imageshack instead of photobucket, but it was just as bad.

 

[laminatedevildoll]

Did you draw as a child? How did you develop your skills?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Did you draw as a child? How did you develop your skills?

Yeah, I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil. I don't do it constantly, though. It seems to go in binges: I pick it up again a few months each year, but months go by when I don't do any.
If anyone's interested in trying portrait drawing from photos, there is a woman named Lee Hamond who has written some of the easiest, most practical books on the subject. I have picked a lot of things up from books, and also from talking to artists.
It's not an impossible thing to pick up, even if you've never drawn before. As some may know, Feynman started to learn to draw in his 40's after a life with no thoughts of art, and he got pretty good at it.

 

[hypatia]

The pictures in progress are wonderful. You have done a great job of catching the asymmetry of her face. Not a easy task. I also like the solid hair, it let's the beauty of her face shine through.

 

[Danger]

Very nice, Zoob.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Thanks Hypatia and Danger.
I didn't really have the option of doing detail in the hair since none showed up in the photo I was working from. There are a lot of whisps on her right side I can put in later when I pick it up again.
Heres a picture of the same girl I drew back in '92 from a different photo. This one has hair detail:

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Very good job with the hair. The way you do the hair looks quite a bit like the way I draw it except it flows better and looks more natural then when I do it.
Do you have any more to share?

 

[El Hombre Invisible]

That's incredible, Zooby. You are so ace!

Now who's the girl? (How comes no-one's asked this?)

 

[zoobyshoe]

Very good job with the hair. The way you do the hair looks quite a bit like the way I draw it except it flows better and looks more natural then when I do it.
Do you have any more to share?

Here's one of a weird old guy:

I didn't put too much into his hair, though. It could be worked a lot more.

 

[dduardo]

Wow, those to really good. Have you every thought about selling prints?

 

[zoobyshoe]

That's incredible, Zooby. You are so ace!

Thanks, Hombre! I'm glad people like them.

Now who's the girl? (How comes no-one's asked this?)

That sweetie is a girl who worked the counter at a donut shop I used to go to everyday after work. We used to chat a lot, and one day I asked her if she'd let me try drawing her. Next day, I brought my camera and took three shots. I did drawings of two of them back then, and didn't get to the third pic till this year. She hasn't seen the recent one. I have no idea where she is anymore.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Wow, those to really good. Have you every thought about selling prints?

It's funny you should mention that.
I once answered an add from a professional photographer who wanted to exchange his services for art. That is: he would take high quality pics of your art, give you the negatives, and you'd give him some agreed upon artwork in exchange.
He took some pics of a large sculpture I did of an Indian. Somehow we never got around to deciding what he wanted in return. Originally, he was going to give me a photo to make a drawing of, but he couldn't make up his mind.
Apparently, though, he kept some negatives of the sculpture photo, and sold them to a poster making service, because, a couple years later, a guy who saw the sculpture swore to me he had seen posters of it for sale in Arizona at some Native American store.

 

[hypatia]

You should leave Alberts hair as is...cause to me he always looked un-kept. Thats a great sketch of him ..your just have'en all kinds of fun with your new camera! Keep it up, we are enjoying seeing you talents.