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Sunday 30 March 2014

Messing about with hair and some clay for sculpting

A pause in my portrait drawing practice sessions was in order as I decided to go back to basics and try to rectify some things I wasn't too happy about. Chief among my shortcomings was the inability to draw hair well so that was what I focussed on, for starters. Having gotten some valuable advice from Michael Awdry (of the 28mm Victorian Warfare fame) on using willow charcoal as a foundation of sorts, I was intrigued by the few charcoal pencils I had and how it could be used to draw hair. Until I can get my hands on some willow charcoal sticks, I decided to try out my charcoal pencils instead. 

Hair drawing practice using both charcoal and graphite pencils

Less attention was paid to proportions while I concentrated on getting the texture of hair right (see pictures above and below). As I was experimenting without really knowing what I was doing - reason being I didn't find any good online material on drawing hair using a combination of graphite and charcoal pencils - the results were ambiguous at best. I am pretty sure I wasn't using the pencil combo correctly. Hopefully, I can get hold of some willow charcoal sticks soon and try out the method suggested by Michael, who was right in pointing out that charcoal pencils tend to scratch the paper.  

Pencil drawing (hair not messy enough) versus reference photo used for this practice session

I am very glad I decided to learn how to draw concept sketches for my future sculpting projects as it is helping me understand how the human figure is portrayed accurately through art, which can only help when I start sculpting. Speaking of which, my baby steps in the sculpting process continues with the purchase of some polymer clay namely SuperSculpey and SuperSculpey Living Doll. In addition, I bought some cheap house-brand aluminium foil to be used in the sculpting process later.

Some SuperSculpey clay as well as aluminium foil for the sculpting process

I don't have any proper clay sculpting tools on hand yet but I am hoping to sort that out before the end of next month. In the meantime, my drawing and painting will keep me plenty occupied. 

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9 comments:

  1. Fed Zeppelin31 March 2014 at 02:20

    wow! it's usually very hard to draw hair, but you, my friend, have definitely succeded in your task!

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    1. FourEyedMonster31 March 2014 at 10:19

      Thank you very much. ^_^ It still looks a bit too tidy as opposed to natural hair which is messy. Moreover, I think I am combining charcoal and graphite pencils in ways it shouldn't be so I should try out Michael's methods for better results.

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    2. Fed Zeppelin31 March 2014 at 22:49

      I am not such an expert of charcoal, but the results seems good to me, but of course the more you do experiments woth other methods, the more you have better results ;)

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    3. FourEyedMonster31 March 2014 at 23:21

      That is so true. Practice is the only way to improve. :)

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  2. Phil31 March 2014 at 02:49

    Excellent and so difficult...no?

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    1. FourEyedMonster31 March 2014 at 10:23

      Thank you very much Phil. Difficult for me at least. ^_^ I am still learning and believe hair should look more natural than what I am drawing at the moment. But using charcoal pencils gives me darker darks and I am sure willow charcoal sticks should give even better results. Now all I have to do is figure out how to use willow charcoal. Back to my YouTube reseach. =)

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    2. Phil2 April 2014 at 00:37

      Anyway, excellent so far!

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  3. Schedler Vincent 31 March 2014 at 22:10

    Excellent work very realistic, I find that you have lots of patience, very nice result !
    Greetings
    Vincent .

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    1. FourEyedMonster31 March 2014 at 23:19

      Thank you Vincent. I am usually very impatient but this hobby has actually made me a much more patient person. =)

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