Babydoll Eyes and Hair [WIP on Portrait Practice #14, drawing blonde hair and eyes with heavy eyelashes]

Babydoll is the protagonist in Sucker Punch, a movie that I like very much despite it being almost universally panned by critics. While it may not have been the director's intention, the story theme that resonated with me most was the fact reality is to a certain extent determined by our own mind. Also Emily Browning played an unforgettably sad character that I have always wanted to portray in drawing. As an added bonus, this piece allowed me to try my hand at drawing light blonde hair.

Baby Doll Portrait Drawing, work-in-progress on blonde hair and eyes

An inclined table is helping me get better proportions when drawing

To source a suitable photo reference of Babydoll, I used the art book of Sucker Punch which had photos of scenes from the movie as well as some concept art. Babydoll's most iconic look is that of her in a sexified Japanese school girl costume. Hence I'm using that look for her portrait drawing.

Sucker Punch film art book

Reference photo of Baby Doll used in Portrait Practice #14

Proper makeup be it eyeliners or mascara coupled with a pair of heavy fake eyelashes (or eyelash extensions) is one way to make one's eyes look bigger. This is evident in Emily's makeup which transforms her into the Babydoll character. To draw heavy lashes and not make it look too fake, I also used other photos (not shown) to view how they interacted with her eyes from different angles e.g. three quarter view, side view, etc. It gave me a better idea how to blend the lashes into her eyelids.

Heavy eyelashes maketh the eyes ... at least in the case of Baby Doll

Emily Browning, before a pair of heavy fake eyelashes/eyelash extensions (left) and after (right)

Another new challenge in this latest Portrait Practice piece was drawing light blonde hair. It's much easier to draw dark as opposed to light hair. To achieve the texture of light blonde hair, I used a higher ratio of hard graphite pencils (2H, H, HB, 2B) as well as a combination of a do-it-yourself (DIY) template containing cutouts of hair-like strands and an electrical eraser to lift graphite out via the template. The latter process simulates strands of blonde hair as can be seen in the photo below.

Drawing the texture of blond hair using graphite pencils, a DIY template and erasers

Cutting out templates of hair strands on a blank transparency

Drawing always comes as a welcome relief in between painting projects. It helps me avoid burnout from painting. But drawing is something I love doing anyway so it's a fun hobby regardless. There are still a few things I need to tackle before Babydoll's portrait is complete. Chief among them is her trademark big pouting lips. Other items my to-do-list include shading of her skin, parts of her dress (the collars in particular) and the rest of her blonde hair. One mistake I constantly make is to increase the pace of my drawing as I near the end. Not anymore. This time I plan to finish at the same pace as I started. If it results in a better end product, progress will be made. That's good enough for me.

Beware an optical illusion's effect on your paintings and drawings

Your eyes are deceiving you! In 1995, an optical illusion published by Edward H. Adelson, a Professor of Vision Science at MIT, drew attention to the fact that our eyes perceive how light or dark an object is based on the lightness or darkness of its neighbouring objects. If you are seeing the illusion below for the first time, you would probably call me crazy if I told you that Square A and Square B have the exact same tonal properties. But they actually do as the subsequent picture shows.

The checker shadow illusion as published by Edward H. Adelson, Professor of Vision Science

When cut out and placed next to each other, the squares A and B are found to be of the same shade

This illusion has implications on our artwork be it paintings or drawings. In essence, the checker shadow illusion highlights our visual system's weakness at being a physical light meter. I believe the same principle is roughly at work when a colour that we paint on our miniatures can sometimes look noticeably different based on which other colours are surrounding it. To illustrate my point, I made a skin tone comparison between the Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon and Akelarre Enchantment figures. At first glance, one can arguably assume that the former has a slightly brighter skin tone.   

A light skin tone on the finished Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon

A seemingly duskier skin tone on the work-in-progress Akelarre Enchantment

However, upon closer inspection - and when the surrounding colours are removed as to negate their influence - it would seem that the latter i.e. work-in-progress Enchantment figure is the one with the much lighter skin tone. Her skin's seemingly dusky undertones are more apparent when viewed next to her light turquoise dress. Similarly, Le Petit's skin tone is made lighter by the darker contrasts of her red cloak and blue corset. As control, both figures were photographed under the same condition.

Putting both the Nocturna Models miniatures side-by-side for a skin tone comparison

Comparison between skin tones sans surrounding colours

Such optical illusions are more noticeable when drawing with graphite pencils because we are dealing with a gradation of only two colours namely black, white and the resulting grey hues in between. Looking closely at my drawing below, you might notice the highlights/reflected light on the ala (or wing) of Park Joo-Mi's nose looks as bright as the highlights on her left cheekbone. But as the following edited picture shows; this is not the case at all. The illusion is caused by the wing of the nose being located next to the dark shades of the nostril which makes the reflected light look much brighter than it really is. And this illusion caused an error on my part: Highlights on the bridge of her nose have the same tonal value as the wing of the nose when the former should have been brighter. Inconsistencies such as this are among the kinks that I need to iron out before I can improve further.

Finished portrait drawing of Park Joo-Mi

Optical illusion showing reflected light on the ala (or wing) of the nose is darker than it actually looks

My suspicion of this phenomena was first confirmed in a National Geographic Channel show called Brain Games and reaffirmed when I came across this brilliant YouTube video by JD Hilberry. I would strongly advise you watch both sources to better understand how this optical illusion can effect your paintings and drawings. Just being aware of the problem has been a real eye opener for me. Hopefully, this post can bring a similar awareness to those of you who do not yet know, or those that do but just can't quite put your finger on what you may already instinctively know. Either way, may this little bit of information help you as much as it has helped me in my quest to create better art.