Profile #2

This image seems to exemplify wholesomeness.  Technical it was a little bit harder than last week because of the downward gaze.  It was a real treat to draw her particular mouth.

Just In

William Haines

William Haines was an actor from the silent movie era.  He has a classic, handsome if slightly uncomplicated look but the portrait has an interesting feature with the narrow strip of light along the edge of the forehead, nose, and chin.  It makes his face stand out from the background.  Doing profiles challenges us to use our developing drawing skills because simple measurement doesn't help completely in doing things like the profile of the nose.

Sylvia Sidney & King Tut

Sylvia Sidney

Sylvia Sidney was an actress in the 1920's and 1930's.  She worked with Alfred Hitchcock and often played the penniless orphan girl.  This portrait was the first time we had to deal a lot with hair.  It was also the first real workout with shading.

Upside Down Stravinski

This is the first exercise in the class.  It's intended as an initial introduction to the right brain drawing experience.  What usually happens is that people tend to draw harder things more easily when they are working upside down.  It's a very interesting question why that is.

Double click on any of the images to see a larger version.

Self Portrait

This last assignment, for me, is by far the most important in the entire course. I call it the Post Test and for this assignment the students do a self portrait from real life by using a mirror. It's the culmination of all the activities and skills we have practiced. All along the way we have all worked on the same subject in a guided and structured way using photo reference material. Now for this last activity each student is on their own to capture a likeness from real life. To dramatically show how each student has improved I have them compare this last exercise with the very first assignment we did 12 weeks ago. That assignment was to do a portrait from memory, from a picture or from looking at someone. This drawing was done before any instruction and without any help. Now we can compare that drawing which I call the Pre Test with this last drawing and then each student has a very real indication of exactly how much they have improved. So the following posts present each student's work.

Rex Beanland

The Classes

These pictures are of some of the students from the Wednesday morning class and the Tuesday evening class. I was so appreciative of the enthusiasm, skill and positive contributions of everyone. It was pleasure to be involved in these classes for the last 12 weeks. I wish everyone all the best in their future artistic endeavours.

Rex Beanland

Jamie

Collin

Tim

Kim