Portrait Practice #15 on Rey (Star Wars Force Awakens)

A year is a long time without drawing; for me it is anyway. Drawing is akin to riding a bike i.e. a skill you aren't likely to forget just because you haven't been doing it regularly. That being said, realistic portrait drawing is something you get good at only with regular practice. My drawing skills are rusty and it shows. Natural born artists are geniuses and as rare as they come. For the rest of us mere mortals, regular practice is the only thing that can result in better art. And practice I must.  

First graphite portrait in a year ... just glad to be drawing again

But strangely enough, for a piece that's one year too late I'm actually still quite happy with it. Despite over 365 days of neither acquiring any new skills nor honing any existing ones, I didn't wholly lose what I had previously learned. Some mistakes were repeated, some avoided. Inconsistencies abound but thankfully any skill regression was kept to a minimum. That's not saying much since I wasn't starting from a high base but a relief nonetheless for someone looking to progressively improve.  

Portrait Practice #15 on Star Wars The Force Awakens Rey as played by Daisy Ridley

Drawing an accurate and recognisable portrait is said to be one of the hardest things to do. Any little thing can make a portrait drawing look nothing like the subject matter in question. Even knowing that, I had for some unfathomable reason decided to shift the position of Rey's irises to show her gazing directly ahead instead of off into the distance like in the original reference image.  

Adjustments to the portrait meant Rey's eyes now stared directly ahead versus off into the distance 

This was a genuinely idiotic thing to do as it heaped more pressure on me to get the graphite blending/shading of the lights and shadows accurate enough to depict a face/neck that is tilted upwards and off to the side. Specifically to the image in question, the new location of the irises implies that Rey's facial plane was directly parallel to the drawing paper which isn't the case at all. These are some of the little things that make you go ... D'oh! ... Homer Simpson style. 

Portrait was completed with both traditional as well as mechanical pencils

In a way, I'm starting to feel constrained by the student grade papers I draw on. That could mean two things. The good - I'm improving. The bad - it's not the paper its me. A lot of top artists use smooth Bristol paper to draw realistic graphite portraits. Unfortunately, it's still too expensive for me to buy such drawing papers online due to prohibitive shipping costs. Instead, what I could do was source a possible equivalent - the Daler Rowney Smooth Cartridge Pad - locally. Going forward I will use both the existing Daler Rowney Graduate Pad as well as the new drawing pad to draw the portraits.   

Reference image/photo of Rey that was used for this practice session

In addition to my graphite drawing and miniature painting hobbies, I've also been bitten by the colored pencil bug. You heard right ... colored pencils. But not your low pigment school variety. It's the highly pigmented Sanford Prismacolor Premier (wax based), Faber Castell Polychromos (oil based) as well as Derwent Coloursoft (wax based) fine art pencils I'm talking about. There will be the usual bedding in period with a new art medium but it's going be a fun journey to complement what I already enjoy doing now. Life's all about the journey and I can't wait to get started on this one, with continuing progress on my other two hobbies of course. Hopefully, you'll join me for the ride!

Portrait Practice #14 on Babydoll (Sucker Punch)

Making time to draw more regularly can be a big ask especially when there is so much to do in the limited amount of hobby time available to me in any given week. In the one and three quarter years since I started drawing seriously again, I have only completed a measly 14 portrait practice pieces. Constant practice is essential not only to improve but also to retain/remember any aha moments learned along the way. So an immediate challenge for me will be figuring out how to be more productive - ideally one portrait per month. Achieving that will up my productivity by nearly 100%.

Portrait Practice #14 on Sucker Punch's Babydoll as played by Emily Browning

On my 14th try at portrait drawing, I made a conscious attempt to prevent any stark lines from showing up by blending out smoother tonal transitions. In addition, I tried to accurately mimic the textures on Babydoll's face namely her lower eyelids (or eye bags), light blonde hair and lips. Each practice piece has thankfully brought a better understanding on how graphite behaves on paper. 

I can't say it enough ... use of an inclined drawing table has improved the proportions in my portraits

To see whether I had actually made any progress, I compared my two attempts at drawing Babydoll's portrait - both about twelve practice pieces apart. The difference in quality is painfully obvious but more of an eye opener is the fact I was pretty pleased with my first try ... then. This is what makes self teaching highly ineffective at times; an inability to gauge ones own work objectively. What looks perfectly fine today will look terrible later as one's understanding of a particular art from develops.

Twelve practice pieces later and there are (thankfully) clear signs of improvement in my drawing skills

Also for this practice session, I took some photographs of the portrait at various stages of completion. Without the benefit of a scanner, there exists some discrepancies between the photos due to the angle of the shots. However, the series of shots below still manage to convey a sense of evolution of Babydoll's portrait drawing all the way from initial rough outlines to the final completed piece.

Various stages of the Babydoll portrait drawing

Being able to see tangible signs of improvement in my drawing skills, no matter how small, is always a huge confidence booster. It gives me hope I'm moving in the right direction. Steve Jobs once said the only way to do great work is to love what you do. At least I'm already halfway there.

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.

Portrait Practice #13 on Park Joo-Mi

On my thirteenth try at portrait drawing I imposed two arbitrary conditions on my subject matter i.e. she must be oriental and be born on the same year as me. With a portrait of the missus still a long way off until my skills are up to par, that meant looking at some Chinese, Korean and Japanese celebrities for inspiration. In the end I settled on 43-year old South Korean actress Park Joo-Mi.    

Portrait Practice #13 on Park Joo-Mi

Yet another self imposed albeit non-arbitrary condition I attach to every practice piece is to, whenever possible, incorporate new techniques or approaches to portrait drawing. In this case, the number of things I did differently from before were threefold:
(a) Using an inclined drawing table - for better facial proportions when drawing;
(b) Using sharpened pencils when shading skin - for better control of tonal transitions; and
(c) Using a combination of camel hair brush, paper stump and soft tissue - for smoother blending.  

Reference photo of Park Joo-Mi

Trying these new approaches has brought me closer to realising my goal of drawing realistic portraits. A small step granted but a step forward nonetheless. Using the inclined drafting table has definitely improved my sense of facial proportions. However, I haven't quite got a handle on getting an accurate likeness. For instance, the margin for error seems awfully small to me. Even slight differences in tonal value - sometimes deviations of just a few millimetres of graphite shading - can cause the portrait to look noticeably distinct from the subject matter that I want to portray through graphite.       

Blending graphite using soft tissue, paper stumps and camel hair

Using an inclined drafting table to obtain better proportions when drawing

Among the things I am happy with are successfully replicating the shirt's chequered texture as well as achieving much smoother skin tone transitions. For the former, I'm glad I didn't chicken out and draw a plain white shirt which was what I initially planned to do. Completing the chequered shirt was a real confidence booster because before the attempt I honestly believed there was no way I could do it. For the latter, I'm slowly approaching a level of smoothness in skin tone that I believe will be the best I can achieve using a 160 g/m² student grade paper. Ideally, I would love to work with Bristol paper. From what I understand, certain Bristol papers are good for achieving smooth blends with graphite. 

Portrait Practice #13 (Park Joo Mi) - comparison between reference photo and graphite drawing

Each new drawing I finish always results in cringe-worthy reactions to my previous drawings. But this is a good thing as it means I'm able to spot my previous mistakes; some of them anyway. Hopefully a day will come when I can look at my drawings and be genuinely satisfied with what I put on paper. Chasing the rainbow for the proverbial pot of gold ... who knows, I might just find it. 

A drawing table, early attempt at gesture drawings and the force finally awakens

Working under a tight budget necessitates hunting for deals in places where you wouldn't think to look. Initially, my search took me to obvious locations such as the local malls as well as various Home/Decor/Furniture exhibitions. Results were disheartening as most drafting/drawing tables ranged from a high price of RM1,500 to an even higher RM3,550 (about USD400 to USD950). Then, the missus chanced upon an old stationery shop located almost right smack in the middle of Kuala Lumpur's Golden Triangle. With its heydays sadly long behind it, this shop stocked old-fashioned draughthing instruments that predated the digital revolution. And on the window display was an inclined table on sale for RM500 (roughly USD135). Just like that, my long search was over.  

A drawing table at last ... and a value budget buy to boot

Putting the table to use for the first time ... hopefully this will help me solve proportion issues when drawing portraits

One problem I persistently face is a skewed perspective which results from having to draw on a flat table. Using an inclined table should theoretically negate this issue. Having the paper positioned nearly perpendicular to my line of vision means I get to see and draw things as they are. But this also means I can no longer blame the table if any of my portrait drawings are wrongly proportioned. Oh well, I guess I could always point the finger at global warming. (That's tongue in cheek ... as a huge fan of Sir David Attenborough's work I despair at the ignorance abound on this topic.)

A selection of figure drawing books collected over the years

Early attempts at gesture drawing
In addition, I have started to self teach myself how to draw dynamic figures. Luckily, I have accumulated quite a stack of 'How-To' books on this topic over the years. Some of which include:
(a) Figure Drawing for All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis (e-book)
(b) Figure Drawing - Design and Invention by Michael Hampton (e-book)
(c) Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm
(d) The Complete Guide: How to Draw and Paint Anatomy by Imagine FX
(e) Incredible Comic Book Women by Tom Nguyen
(f) Drawing Beautiful Women - The Frank Cho Method by Frank Cho
(g) Drawing People - How to Portray the Clothed Figure by Barbara Bradley
(h) Drawing Manga - People and Poses by Ryo Hirata
(i) Colossal Collection of Action Poses by Buddy Scalera

For now, a lot of time is being spent on simple gesture drawings with inspiration drawn mainly from books (b) through (g). My approach is basically to learn the different techniques used to draw figures and assimilate them before breaking out from the existing rules to find my own style or voice.

Currently I find gesture drawing easier if I combine the Industrial Design Method with Michael Hampton's technique

Keeping in mind those S-curves which are essential for a dynamic figure

Trying to capture dynamic gestures of a figure in repose

And the force finally awakens
Meanwhile, after 12 years of trying (although I am guessing that flying toy Tie-fighters over a baby crib and going pew pew pew doesn't really count) I have finally gotten my son to watch the original Star Wars trilogy. And I think he finally gets it. Really gets it ... the Star Wars universe that is. Now he is itching to see the seventh installment of the movie franchise i.e. Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son

My son's exposure to Star Wars is helped by sarcastic force gestures (accompanied by the humming of a Star Wars theme synonymous with Luke Skywalker) from his mom and I whenever he asks us to get him objects that he could very well reach himself. Character building the Tatooine way. With a shared interest in console gaming, my son and I are also excited over the upcoming EA online multiplayer release on the PS4. Thankfully, we have five months to save up for this console game.

Upcoming release of Dice's Star Wars Battlefront has gotten my son and I excited

An onset of the flu has seen my hobby activities seriously curtailed these past week. I can't wait to shake this illness off and resume painting and drawing. Being prevented from doing what you love makes you appreciate it that little bit more. And I will be glad to start doing what I love once again.

Portrait Practice #12 on Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia

Drawn to the accompaniment of John Williams' superb film score - my favourites being Binary Sunset and Princess Leia's Theme from A New Hope, and The Imperial March from Empire Strikes Back (songs of the son, daughter and father) - this latest portrait practice piece took roughly five days of intermittent work to complete. Similar to miniature painting, the more time you spent slowly building up layers the better your end result will be. So in this regard I'm still a ways off from putting in the requisite hours in order to get smooth graphite blends (or tonal gradations) on paper.

Portrait Practice #12 on Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa

For my 12th attempt at drawing a portrait with graphite pencils, I was most pleased with how the mouth and hair turned out. In addition, I managed to get closer to the correct facial proportions of my subject matter than I've ever managed before in past drawings. These positives I gladly take as any improvement, however small, that I achieve serves as a huge inspiration to continue drawing.  

Portrait drawing of Princess Leia using graphite pencils

Reference photo used for my 12th attempt at portrait drawing

Nonetheless, I had some misgivings about how her eyebrows and skin tone turned out. The former's shape was slightly off and also could have been a bit thicker while the latter turned out somewhat blotchy. Contrary to her hair in which I carefully build up volume by slowly and patiently applying increasingly darker tapered strokes, I had instead sped up work on her skin tone by blending with tissue before a sufficiently gradual gradient in tonal values was put down. Inconsistencies in time spent on different areas of the portrait remains a weakness which is easier to diagnose than cure.   

Side by side comparison between Princess Leia's reference photo and drawing

If an appropriate photo reference can be sourced, next up will be a portrait of a South Korean actress that was born in the same year as me. It will nice to draw someone my age for a change although she looks better in her 40s than I did in my 20s. Meanwhile, the number of ready-to-paint miniatures in my project pipeline is rapidly dwindling; more so with the recent completion of The Hulk (Knight Models), Zombie Hunter (Ax Faction) and Hexcast Sorceress (Super Dungeon Explore). That means a lot of miniature prep work is in store for me. Hopefully I can still get some drawing done on the side.

Portrait Practice #11 on Shailene Woodley (as Tris)

Getting an accurate likeness takes a lot of work, more so for someone trying to self-teach himself portrait drawing. On that count, I guess I failed miserably. After a long lay off from drawing, I forgot lessons learned and ignored proportion issues early in this practice session as I got caught up in the excitement of putting graphite on paper again. In my hunger to get badly needed practice under my belt, I was also too obsessed with finishing the piece quickly and paid the price. All in all, it took me roughly three days to complete the portrait while a slower approach would have served me better.   

Portrait Practice #11 - Shailene Woodley (as Tris Prior)

One of the key reasons my portrait drawing's proportions tend to be a bit off-kilter is the fact that I'm drawing with my eyes at an angle of roughly 45 degrees to the paper. It would be ideal to have the paper perpendicular to my line of sight, and this is achievable via the use of a mobile drawing board or a table that has multiple viewing angles. Unfortunately, neither are affordable options. But this is an old grip of mine and I probably sound like a broken record. Currently, the only option available to me is to get better at optical indexing (a fancy schmancy way of saying measuring proportions).

A camera shot of my portrait drawing of Tris Prior

On the bright side, any practice is good for a beginner like me. I'll gladly take any improvements I make regardless how inconsistent they may be. Sometimes I seem to take one step forward and two steps back (e.g. draw the hair well but fumble on the nose and mouth) while on good days I make progress without any regression. What keeps me going is the believe it will all come good eventually. I adhere to the school of taught that says if you are passionate and persistent enough about something then you will get better at it. In other words, artists are taught NOT born, well most of 'em anyway.

Proportion issues meant an accurate likeness was not achieved in this practice piece

Divergent Book Trilogy Review
My interest in drawing the portrait of Miss Woodley came about after reading the Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth. In the first two movie adaptations of the series - Divergent and Insurgent, she portrays the role of Beatrice (Tris) Prior who is the story's main protagonist. As I understand it, the use of First Person Present Tense as the narrative voice in Young Adult novels seems to be all the rage at the moment. But for someone who is used to reading in the traditional (and more widespread) Third Person Past Tense narrative voice, the books took a bit of getting used to. Overall, I felt the book had an interesting dystopian take on an old science fiction theme of [spoiler alert] human genetic engineering. And for what it's worth, I didn't expect the ending in the final book Allegiant.   

Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth

That being said, I felt that the trilogy started stronger than it ended. I also didn't really buy into the whole romance between the two main characters. Then again, with me being neither a spring chicken nor the intended target demographic, I shouldn't be surprised to feel this way. I would give the trilogy a three-and-a-half out of five stars on account of fairly strong character development as well as a reasonably unique view on a subject matter that has been tackled before by Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction writers. While not a classic, this series is still worth a read. So go read it!  

Graphite-free for way too long & WIP Shailene Woodley portrait drawing practice with pencils

My, how time flies. I was caught unawares by how long it has been since I last picked up a pencil and drew - more than nine months to be exact. For someone trying to improve his meager drawing skills, three-quarters of a year is just too long a period to be without any form of practice with graphite on paper. This oversight needs to be rectified if I'm to have any hope of being half decent at drawing.   

Work-in-Progress (WIP) for Portrait Practice #11 - Shailene Woodley

Because it has been a while since my last portrait drawing, I guess it will take sometime for me to get up to speed ... at least to the skill level that I was last at. Hopefully, I can then build some momentum in my attempt to learn figure drawing which is a whole different kettle of fish altogether. For now, both portrait and figure drawing with pencils (and eventually pen) is in my drawing hobby to-do-list.

All my portrait drawings start with basic line art to block in major shapes of the face

To get back into the groove of drawing, I started with some practice

Feeling comfortable with a pencil again, I proceeded to draw the portrait itself 

 
At this stage of the drawing, the shading on her face as well as around the eyes are still in a state of flux. Moreover, I have yet to pencil in her mouth and nose hence the 'peekaboo' WIP photo. And knowing myself, I will most likely go back to her hair to try and improve it in anyway that I can.

Peekaboo ... a closeup of my WIP drawing from a more 'head-on' angle

It feels good to be drawing again. And there is definitely no shortage of interesting personalities to draw. My current portrait drawing is of Shailene Woodley who plays Tris in the movies Divergent and Insurgent. You may also recognise her from her lead role as Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars. I seem to be drawn to (pun unintended) strong-willed female characters so it comes as no surprise that I also plan to draw Contance Wu who plays super-mom Jessica Huang in the new TV series Fresh Off the Boat. Until my next post, here are some words from Mama Huang which I can relate to ... You know what gives me nightmares. Our bank account. Stephen King should publish my chequebook.

Portrait Practice #10 on Emma Stone

Finishing my tenth portrait drawing felt great as it gave me a chance to improve my skills with a pencil. For this practice session, I think I made some progress on getting the hair to look more realistic as well as achieved better facial proportions that make a portrait look more like the subject matter I was trying to draw in the first place. I was also pleased with the eyes. While the rest of the portrait drawing could've been better, I'm still happy with the slight improvements from No.9. 

Portrait Practice #10 - Emma Stone

Why Emma Stone for this latest portrait practice? Well, I initially wanted to draw Gwen Stacy, a comic book character as portrayed by Emma Stone in both Amazing Spider Man 1 and 2. But because I didn't quite fancy drawing blonde hair after nearly three months of drawing inactivity, I went with the hair colour the actress is more famous for ... red. She is reportedly a natural blonde.   

Photograph of Emma Stone used as reference for my portrait practice

One key difference I made in my drawing versus the photo reference I used, was in her eyes. In the original photograph, Emma Stones had fairly constricted pupils due presumably to the bright studio lights. However, seeing that larger pupils is frequently associated with attractiveness I decided to draw larger pupils. For the science or psychology behind this phenomena, click here. 

Quick black and white comparison between the drawing and photo

So this concludes my latest attempt at drawing portraits. I am enjoying these graphite diversions and it's an added bonus that it also recharges my batteries for when I paint again. Looks like the weekend is upon us again ... have a good one, and may your pencils and brushes be sharp and pointy! 

Back to drawing again after a short hiatus

As the song goes ... I can't stop this feeling, deep inside of me ... I just had to pick up my pencils and draw again. Used previously on the Quentin Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs, an old TV hit Ally McBeal and soon on an upcoming Marvel movie, Hooked on a Feeling is love song but it nonetheless aptly describes my interest in drawing since young. That I wasn't very good at it wasn't the point, what mattered was that drawing made me happy. Sadly, young children nowadays are more likely to have an iPad or tablet in between their hands rather than the old fashioned pencil and paper.          

Back to drawing again and it feels alright ...

As I am still in my portrait drawing phase, I sought out a photo reference that would ease me back to drawing as my skills were fairly rusty. The printout of Emma Stone you see above had well defined hair and reasonably straightforward facial features, so it became the subject matter of my tenth portrait practice piece. Surprisingly, despite nearly three months without drawing, I had somehow gotten much better at drawing proportions of facial features i.e. eyes, nose, mouth, cheek, etc. I guess the break from all pencil-related activity did me some good after all and broke me out of a rut.

Getting the proportions right - faint guide lines for Portrait Practice #10: Emma Stone

Main work on this particular piece started with the patient addition of tonal values, one strand at a time to the hair. At this point in time my drawing of Emma Stone's hair is much lighter than the one in the photo reference. I plan to leave it this way for now until I've had the chance to shade her face.

Working on realistic hair from left to ...

... right using a combination of Derwent and Staedtler graphite pencils

While it would be tempting to say that I have finished with the hair, that couldn't be further from the truth. Further tweaking awaits once I finish shading Emma's face because I would then have to make value adjustments to her hair (most likely darker) to make the whole drawing 'look right'. 

Portrait Practice #10 - Work-in-progress on Emma Stone's hair

So as it stands now,  the hair is about 80% complete with the rest to follow once the face is done. To my Malaysian readers who are celebrating the festive period, I would like to wish you Selamat Hari Raya. Otherwise, just enjoy the weekend off from the drudgeries of corporate backstabbing.