hi there thank you for checking out this video my name is Siobhan
this is Art Skills Online. This is where i post videos
related to figure drawing and specifically how
to develop a natural and expressive style of drawing
so if that's something that interests you then stay tuned consider subscribing
because i post a video every week sharing my process
my thoughts about drawing the figure and also tips and techniques
so today's video features a portrait sketch or a study for a portrait
using gesture throughout and also focusing
on just drawing the shadow shapes
i wanted to share this video because so often when we're drawing the portrait we
tend to focus on a very rigid almost templated
approach especially with the features like the
eyes or the nose it can be useful to let go of that sometimes and just draw the
features of the face in a very natural and freeform way
Definitely for me when i do that it helps to turn
off that self-criticism or that judgment that can really
stop you from even finishing a drawing you know that voice in your head that
says "that's not really what a nose looks like!"... or "you're not drawing the eye
correctly there" ... here's the video i'll explain a little
bit more about what i mean and i'll check back in with you at the end
so the two processes that i want to explain in this video
are gesture or scribble drawing as opposed to
using a structural precise line work that delineates specific shapes
it's kind of like when you use scribble drawing you're building up form
throughout your drawing as though you're modeling clay so you can think about it
in in a sense that you're just slowly slowly
building up the shapes you're building up the portrait
over time with your pencil marks and the other process
is really about observing the shadow shapes throughout the face
the key really is to start light and to make big sweeping marks across your page
and to not be afraid to put down marks like this at the start
any kind of marks whatsoever even if they don't even relate
to the drawing yet that's so important in the early stage because if you get a
bit too precious or a bit too tight at the beginning and
you get too specific about your marks or where you put a line down
you actually will cut yourself off from being able to correct things
later on okay so this is a gesture line i'm really first of all i just
established the angle of the head like the midline down the center of the
face and the angle of the eye line and the outer shapes of the hair
the technique just requires that you keep your pencil in contact with the
page continuously so try to not pick up your pencil if you
can and work around the whole composition
with your pencil in contact with the page
then it's also really important to draw with curved lines
so i'm bringing in i'm starting to use gestural marks but really keeping them
rounded i'm trying to follow the round shape of
the face and the head you often really you know you hear a lot
of people talking about the planes of the face
but for me actually it's that roundness of
the head and all of the features actually it's not just the overall
outline really every part of the face the cheeks
the brow the jaw line everything on the face is round there
aren't any straight lines so i find that getting that into my
marks getting that into my drawing is really it makes the biggest
difference um to me anyway the jaw line
is so difficult to get right simply because we do think of it as a line
but if you think that it's round it's like it's
it rounds out very slowly sort of away from the ear to the chin
it's kind of coming forwards in space but it's also
rounding downwards towards from the cheek down towards
the neck equally the mouth is also a very sort of
rounded area and getting that into your drawing and
just using this loose gestural line to kind of
figure it out and map it out really helps
so as i say all of this is done with a kind of a scribble line
this scribble line or this gesture line helps keep that rounded quality
but it also allows you to search out the shapes
without feeling as though you're putting down a wrong line or a wrong mark
all of the marks that you make will eventually feed into this wonderful map
of the face and they'll tell their own story of how
you studied the subject like it'll show us where your eyes moved across the face
how you engaged with the model or your sister
you know how you engaged with what you're looking at this
kind of scribble line also covers up mistakes
and can make those mistakes part of the whole
so scribble drawing means that you do have to work continuously
you have to keep it light and you've got to work up the marks progressively
as you get more short or more definite about what you're drawing
then you can really start to lean in and make those marks
a little bit darker a little bit more specific
so now at this point i want to talk about drawing the eyes
and in fact by drawing the features in general
the internet is full of methods of how to draw notes or
how to draw eyes these videos are actually like the most popular drawing
videos so if you watch any of them you get like
a really clear step-by-step approach it's very structured
it's just really about breaking things down into simple shapes
and working from it that way but for me anyway this approach makes
you think that there is a right way to draw the nose or a
right way to draw these features that you should be making these modeled
perfect features every time and that's what really stops me in my
tracks when i'm drawing if i start to see that oh this nose doesn't
look anything like the the perfect modeled version then i kind
of give up on the drawing what you can do what i do sometimes is
just give yourself permission every once in a while to not
draw the shape with a structure or the
anatomy of a nose and just draw the shadows if you
identify the shadow shapes around certain features and you draw
them that really helps to make the drawing
come together so it helps you to see something be it
the nose or the eyes or whatever as though you're seeing it for the first
time and you don't sort of have any of these
preconceived notions about how it should be
when that happens you've got an opportunity to actually make a very
sort of honest or true observation and make some really honest true marks in
response to that
now i i get that this approach is a little bit undisciplined or it's
unanatomical and it's definitely very very unacademic
but you know that by now if you've watched
any of my other videos that i care a lot more about the process
of observing things for the first time and about
feeling into the drawing than i do about accuracy or photo
realism or likeness i think ultimately you can capture a
wonderful likeness with this kind of gestural approach
so i'd love to know what you think about this way of drawing let me know in the
comments do you prefer hyperrealism in your portraits or a more
expressive experience of the sitter what are your thoughts about this drop a
comment below i'd love to hear from
so thank you so much for sticking with me right to the end and watching this
video all the way through i hope you enjoyed it and i hope you got
some useful information out of it or some
inspiration for your own drawing and that you feel ready to tackle
drawing a portrait i'll encourage you to do so and let me know how you got on
thanks again for watching please subscribe if you haven't already and i
look forward to seeing you in the next video