This sketch is of a relative.
Portrait Sketch — using Reilly Method
Portraits
Drawing Heads – Reilly Method
I recently purchased Nathan Fowkes‘ How to Draw Portraits in Charcoal, and I also just signed up for his online course at Schoolism. It’s a 9-week course, and the idea in the first week is to get busy practicing drawing heads.
I had never heard of the Frank Reilly Method, but what I understand now is that it can assist you in thinking about the 3-dimensional form of the head, and how light and shadow can define the planes of the head.
An example is below — the light lands on the little girl’s face by her right eye in the photo, and in the Reilly drawing, the horizontal lines by the girl’s right eye indicate the planes of her face that would cause the light to land there, and not above or below.
Portrait in Charcoal of Young Indian Girl
This work is based off an image by Sonam Prajapati from Pixabay. It was done in graphite, willow charcoal, and white charcoal. I used white paper, and toned it first.
Portrait of a Toddler
This work was done in graphite and NuPastel. It’s based on a photo from PxHere.
Portrait of a Young Woman
This work was done in 2B graphite and willow charcoal, based off a photo by Grâce Goubo on Unsplash.
Portrait of a Child
This quick portrait was done in graphite and willow charcoal, based off a reference photo from one of my ArtTutor.com classes (unfortunately, I don’t remember which one).
Portrait in Charcoal & Graphite
This drawing is based on a photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash which was used in the ArtTutor.com “How to Draw Portraits (in Graphite) by Phil Davies.
I did this portrait using charcoal and graphite.
Drawing Ears – Graphite Studies
Ears are something I need to practice as well, mostly because I want to get the inner shapes right on a profile-view.
Drawing Hair…With Willow Charcoal
Today I watched a “Drawing Together” ArtistsNetwork video on YouTube about drawing hair, which is something I have trouble with — I typically draw “spaghetti hair” which, of course, is totally wrong. Now I’m learning to more accurately draw hair by drawing the shapes and masses, then just adding striations.
The reference photo is here.
This study was done on Strathmore drawing paper, using only medium willow charcoal (Winsor & Newton) and my trusty kneadable eraser. I used a paper towel and my finger for blending. Willow charcoal, it turns out, is awesome! So easy to erase or rub out and start again!
I was not focused on replicating the profile, but rather getting a sense of the hair mass.
BetterLateThanNeverArt 