Saturday, December 19, 2009

In Black and White

I started this sketch because I wanted to draw someone beautiful...but soon realized my mistake of not choosing the 'right' subject! ( She is Alicia Silverstone, but I did not work on the likeness factor very much, here-- so you may not recognise her!) The problem was that her face did not have any shades..no gradients to work upon - so it got a little boring and I decided to speed up things and get over with it! I hate leaving something unfinished, so I did complete this sketch, but honestly, not much time was spent on this one. About 2 hours.I think I need to find better paper...this cartridge paper shows through so much that dark tones are spoiled. I can't achieve the desired smoothness... Any suggestions?

6 comments:

  1. Hi Arti, I do think that this is a beautiful drawing. The softness of the drawing is wonderful. I work mostly in graphite and when applying my darkest dark I build them very slowly. Also, from time to time I use my electric eraser to move the graphite around on the paper which really makes it really smooth. But it only works when there is a very heavy coating of deep black already on the paper.

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  2. Hi Arti, thanks for visiting my blog. For the digital caricatures I am using the Intuos4 in Photoshop Elements 2, waiting for new software. Experiment with different brushes to find ones that you are comfortable with. I like the spring pen nip the best. For a color palette just scan in a color photo of a portrait and pick your colors off of that. I will try to post a tutorial soon.. As to graphite drawing, good paper makes a huge diference, I use Fabriano Uno and Stonehenge Print making paper, 140lbs. kid finish. visit my drawing blog, the drawings of hedwardbrooks, for tips and tutorials.

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  3. Arti. I think the drawing came out very nicely. If it really bothers you-I have done a few things where I thought the subject was too light and therefor I used a very dark background even blending the hair into it and made the lightened face really pop.

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  4. Well you did a beautiful job and to me it looks smooth.

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