class progression

This are some examples of the projects we might do in the first few classes in my private sessions at LAA.
1. Starting with copying from plates; in this case eyes from the Bargue Book. The goal is to accurately identify angles.



2. Blocking out the contour. The idea is to transfer the lesson above to sketching a cast from life, leaving out the inner shapes:



3. Then, developing more of the inner shapes, and blocking out the basic shadow shapes:

profile handout

This is a handout on drawing profiles. Profiles are one of the first things I learned to draw-and they are a bit easier than most angles, because if you draw the profile line accurately, than you are sure to have a good likeness:

class demos

These are a couple of demos from portrait drawing class. We were dealing mostly with the correct shape of the face, the "basic frame" or "envelope":

These next three are from basic drawing class, dealing with correct shapes, using plaster casts:

drawing on toned paper

Drawing on toned paper is a good idea in life-class because the middle tones are already taken care of. You can go darker with the charcoal and heighten with a white pencil. These are a couple of recent demos from LAA portrait class:




These next three are from a few years ago. The warm paper is Canson "bisque" color. I find that this offers a warm undertone to the cold black charcoal and cold white pencil. I find it is good to not isolate the charcoal from the white, but to let them mix and overlap: