Drawing Progress-Sweet Little Girls - #3

Today I am posting #3 in the drawing progress I'm doing on the three sweet little sisters. I'm nearly done with the first sister and now the second. I have drawn in the shadows of her face to bring out it's shape and put detail into her clothes.

I will be tweaking her eyes to make them a little softer and softening the shadows in her face. she is drawn a little darker to bring her forward in the portrait. Doesn't it give the illusion of her sitting in front of her siblings?(Giving the portrait depth).

I will be finishing this portrait by the weekend. Hope you come back to see the final result!

(btw...please excuse the photography, I am having a little trouble with my camera...thanks!)

Drawing Progress-Sweet Little Girls - #2

Okay, so far I have nearly completed Sister #1. She is a beautiful little girl and bringing her face to life using my Derwent Colour Soft (Brown Earth) pencil was a blast. I cannot wait to finish drawing her and completing the other two. As you may be able to see in the above picture I have drawn in the shadows and details that make a subject become more realistic. She pops out of the portrait!

I have a little tip, (for anyone who doesn't already know it)...when you are drawing, one of the best ways to see if there are any areas that need improvement in your drawing is to take a picture of it and look at it on your computer screen. I have no idea why it's so easy to see little areas to tweak, but it is. So looking at this picture of Sister #1 is driving me nuts! I didn't see those things before, but now I see what needs to be tweaked!

I have also started on Sister #2's hair. Hair can be very difficult and takes a lot of patience...especially if it is dark hair. (Layering color is the key). I still have plenty to do on her hair and then it is to the shadows of her face (my favorite).

Stay tuned!

Drawing Progress-Sweet Little Girls

Well, it's been a few weeks since I posted to this blog. I've been in an art show and sale (I'll blog about that later), and gotten several commissions. This blog is to update and show a progress of a drawing I'm doing for a client. She's having me draw a portrait of her boyfriend's girls.

Shhhh...it's a birthday surprise!

Here's a picture of the girls, all at the age of about 12 months old...at different times. I will call them baby one, two and three (from left to right).

Cute, huh? Well, I had a couple of things to work through. The client wants to have the girls on one portrait as if they had actually posed together. (I've done that many times for clients...so I didn't sweat it...) The girls all have the same beautiful smile, so that is working for me!

The sisters #1 and #2 are facing the same direction, though cropped differently. #3 sister is facing a different direction and holding a bear that covers her chin.

THE DRAWING SO FAR: (16x20 on Caslon /Artigan paper)

So  here is the drawing so far and how I have dealt with any of the above listed dilemmas. (The warped appearance is because of my camera...The portrait is straight and not bowed. And there is light reflecting on their eyes slightly which may look strange)... I have drawn them in a triangle lay out.

I sized the portraits of each of the girls to be as similar as possible. (With the middle girl slightly larger to simulate her "sitting" closer to the viewer). I flipped the sister #3 so that they are all looking in the same direction. And I have not added the bear that #3 is holding, I think it will look much cleaner and less distracting with the bear not there.

The only detail I've done so far is the sister #1's dress and bow (bottom left corner). And I've drawn in each of their eyes. The eyes are the most important to a portrait to capture the subject's personality and looks. I've just begun and have a lot of tweaking to do. This is actually the ugliest part of a portrait and I cannot wait to get further!

Watch for more progress drawings in the next few days!

A Little Portrait Progression - No. 2

Here is the next progression of the little baby portrait. As you see I have added some shading to his face, (still working from the left), and added more sketching to his clothes. I have filled in his eyes and I am happy with his right eye (the one on the left of the portrait). But I am still tweeking and working on his other eye.

When I finish that I will continue to work to the right and down...so his nose and left cheek will be next and then his mouth and shading on his chin. When I'm completely happy with his face I will start working on Elmo and then the baby's clothes.

I hope you are enjoying watching this cute little portrait come to life! Check back soon for more!!!