Saturday, December 1, 2012

Quick portrait sketch



A quick portrait sketch, done in pen with no pencil. I'm not sure why it is so important to me to learn to do these sorts of things in pen. But I like the idea that every mark is final, and being able to do it quite quickly. I´m getting better at not drawing every line and leaving some lines for the viewer's brain to fill in, which is quite important in pen portraits.Her grin was slightly cheesier in reality though. 

I've been having alot of trouble with sketching cheesy grins, as if you draw the teeth in completely, the person looks like a grinning tiger. Strangely enough, I have not seen a sketching book that really covers this, or has samples of sketches of people grinning. And I own alot of sketching books. Perhaps they all avoid this type of portrait too! So far, all I have been able to figure out is that it is better to draw in a hint of the shape of the teeth at the line of the top lip. If I do it from the bottom, it looks really wierd.

 Gratuitous photo of mountains near St Arnaud, South Island, New Zealand.

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