Bob Dylan Portrait drawing, The Never Ending Tour

Portrait drawing

November 15, 2011 by admin

Another cool drawing of his Bobness ( Bob Dylan portrait drawing and the never ending tour ) to add to my collection. Like most things I do, there has to be a reason.

Why Bob Dylan?

Let me tell you a story about a man who started work at 14 years of age, he was employed to work on the building of the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool, the United Kingdom. This building was officially started in 1904 and ended in1978 after this man retired. This man worked his whole life in the same job, in the same place, for 51 years at least.

His Bobness has been doing this also, he was about 20 years old when he hit the music scene in 1961 and now 70, a grand total of 50+ years. If you take into account he was forming bands when he was in school, at a time when you left at 14 or 15 years of age, then it might be 55 or more years.

His Bobness is still at this time, (2011) performing a stage performance on a regular basis and has been entertaining for the past 50+ years. Is that a good enough reason, to do a portrait of Bob Dylan?

Regardless of any cash they did or didn’t make doing their life’s work, it must be seen as an achievement of the highest order, 50+ years doing the same job and being successful at it, is an outstanding achievement.

Bob Dylan has been on a never ending tour all his life, having taken a little time off, now and then with sickness, as happens to us all. He tells us that he is just a song and dance man, nothing more, nothing less, one who just sings songs and is not prepared to wear anybody else’s crown. An entertainer, just like Arthur Lee or Julian Beever, artists all of them, so I did this portrait drawing, titled, The Never Ending Tour. Surely it was a worthy cause and good enough reason to do it?

The Never Ending Tour.

The first thought when doing this drawing or perhaps even before I did the drawing, was I did not want to just copy a picture of Bob because that would just be a copy of someone else’s portrait and would not say very much about the man or his life. I spent a while doing some quick sketches of Bob trying to find some ideas and get a feel for the features of his face, this is something I often do when drawing portraits. I also looked at hundreds of pictures of the man on line, in magazines and books, luckily many of my friends are fans so there there is an abundance of material around me. These people are also like encyclopedias on the man, so I could find out lots of information about him, which would help me build up and hone in on this knowledge base to inform my thinking.

This also gave me plenty of opportunity to discus these ideas and get some feed back from real human beings, as well as what was going on inside me own head. If you don’t put anything into the box then you are not going to get anything out of it, I always think.

Bob Dylan like many Americans during the 60s had idolized, Woody Guthrie, an American singer, songwriter and folk musician. Woody it seems was a man with a wonder lust, a traveling man, who jumped trains and lived as best he could, at times singing for a nickel or a dime. Bob Dylan perhaps because of the influence of his idol was much the same and spent some of his time with Woody, after seeking him out in New York during that last years of his life.

During this time trains where a big and important part of a traveling man’s life, so for both men there would have been a great deal of time spent around trains and stations. The rail road had to be a strong feature and influence in Dylan’s early life as well as well as woody’s. The never ending tour and the railways went hand in hand so had to be a feature in any Bob Dylan portrait drawing and also having a great significance towards it being a journey.

The pencil portrait of Bob Dylan below was my first attempt at drawing him, I used graphite pencil, mostly a 2b and 4b. This was only a quick drawing but I do think I captured something of the man as he is nowadays much older than the young man moving to New York in 1961.

The more you draw a persons face, the more you learn about it, so it is important to do this when trying to create something original from photographic information. Doing this also helps to find ideas for new concepts and ways of stating something in your drawing, as often they suggest ideas.

All of this together is more than good reason to do some preliminary drawing and also having a wish of creating something original it is necessary for feeding your imagination I think.

I found an image on line of Bob not looking like Bob at all, wearing a woolly hat and a jogging suit out for a jog. It was not your usual image so I had to have a go at drawing it just because of this reason and I was looking for something original. The drawing you will find below is another quick drawing with a black Sharpie marker pen.

Notice how I have put the suggestion of other images into the drawing as well, trying out ideas and trying to generate something new from the other drawing by looking for a way of combining them.

The image below was mostly drawn with maker pens, using different grey scale tones, I did the out line sketch with graphite pencil. I tried combining another image of a railway line into the drawing because I was trying ways of portraying something different to make the drawing original. The railway line idea became a good idea when I thought about it after because it would be a significant part of the never ending tour.

Now I had something to work with I created a photographic type image by combining different images together using a free photo editing software called GIMP Shop, this is the image below.

When I am working on idea I like to put them together in one place so I can see them all together and then keep looking at them looking for further ideas.

From looking at all these ideas together I came up with the idea that I could use the blacked out side of the face to bring something else into the image and after looking at it for a while I thought that I could make an image of somebody sitting down on a stool playing the guitar. This then instigated me doing a quick sketch of what it might look like and can be seen in the drawing below.

I now had the idea I was looking for, a story of the never ending tour, a younger Bob Dylan and older version, with a railway line between both so I then made the portrait drawing you can see below by taking bits from different photographs, combining them into something completely new.

Bob Dylan portrait drawing, The never ending tour, 2011.

BobDylanNeverEndingTour50yearsplus Bob Dylan Portrait drawing, The Never Ending Tour

A graphite pencil portrait drawing of Bob Dylan, the never ending tour, size A3, 16" x 11-6/5".

3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

how to draw graffiti style.

October 10, 2011 by admin

The secrets of anamorphic 3d drawing and the amazing 3d drawings of street artists are no longer a secret any more, follow the information contained on this page to reveal how it can be understood using a reference grid.

The image below shows a clipper lighter standing upright, nothing unusual or out standing but the problem for many people, is to understand how it can be drawn to look like it is standing upright on flat 2d piece of paper. The secret of 3d drawings used by street artists that you need to know, is how to create the anamorphic illusion, if you know how to do this then it is not a problem. This is for those who do not know and would like a better understanding of this illusion.

ClipperLighterExample 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

A Clipper lighter standing upright to be used as an example.

Most street artists when creating these anamorphic 3d drawings use a camera to aid the process and describe their technique as drawing by eye, which means they are drawing by looking and using the camera as a guide for doing so.

In the image below a grid for reference has been drawn over the top and it has been cropped using the free GIMP shop photo editing software, many artists use reference grids for getting their construction drawing accurately draw. This can be easily done using a pencil and straight edged ruler, if you don’t have access to photo editing software you can do it by using a print out of the image.

ClipperLighterWithGrid 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

Clipper lighter with reference grid placed over the top for aiding our 3d drawings.

Using a camera viewing window, the grid was drawn onto a piece of A1 cartridge paper to replicate the grid in the image above but as can be seen in the actual drawing, the grid drawing is far different from what can be seen through the camera lens. Notice that the grid drawing gets wider and wider, the further away it is from the camera, this is because of distance, indicting that the further away the object is, the bigger it needs to be, in order to compensate for that distance.

The secret to these 3d drawings is realising that this is what makes the technique work, being able to compensate for distance.

ViewOfTheCamaraInPosition 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

View revealing the position in relation to the camera of the drawing area and 3d drawing grid

Below is an image of the camera showing both the drawing of the grid and the image, as seen through the camera lens, showing the difference between both. In the camera viewing window the grid looks like it is made up of squares, where as the actual drawing isn’t made up of squares, at all. This enables us to see how the camera lens at this viewing plane is distorting the drawing, making it seem like it is made up of squares, when it is not. It is actually the same as a drawing grid, that would be drawn to depict an object as if being looked at from the top, with the bottom tapering off into the distance as will be shown the the next image below this.

ViewOfTheGridThroughCamaraLens 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

This image shows a view of the reference grid drawing and what it looks like when looking through the camera lens

The secret of 3d drawings using a camera technique like the preferred choice of street artists.

In the image below you can see what the reference grid actually looks like when viewed from the front as you would normally. Take notice of how the grid is wider at the top than the bottom also notice how the squares have become elongated and the horizontal lines are further apart as they get closer to the top of the paper. This image below shows what a perspective drawing grid might look like if it was being used to draw an object, such as a building being viewed from above.

AnamorphicPerspectiveGrid 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

Anamorphic perspective grid for doing 3d drawings viewed directly from the front.

In the next image below I have drawn the Clipper lighter using the perspective drawing grid as a guide to accurately draw the lighter at this distorted perspective but also notice how it can be seen in the camera viewing window. Notice how when looking at it through the camera viewing window it can be seen as a Clipper lighter standing up right and also how the drawing grid also seems to be made up of squares.

AnamorphicPerspectiveThroughCamaraLensShowingLighterAndGridShowingVisualPlane 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

3d drawing of the lighter through the camera lens, this is showing the lighter and reference grid at the correct viewing plane for comparison .

The image below is a photograph of the 3d drawing, showing further how it looks just like any other drawing of a lighter standing upright and gives a visual demonstration of the, optical illusion created by the anamorphic 3d drawings perspective and the focal plane of the camera.

AnamorphicPerspectiveGrid LighterDrawing 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

Anamorphic perspective drawing at the correct photographic angle and position as photographed with the camera.

The next image has been photographed slightly out of position and not at the correct focal plane, so as to be more able to see what it looks like, revealing that it is distorted in the way that, it is much bigger at its furthest point from the viewing position.

AnamorphicPerspectiveGridDrawingNot Sighted withCamaraCorectly 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

Anamorphic Perspective drawing lying on drawing table to showing its two dimensional attributes because the camera is not correctly sighted

Below you will find two more images to show what this drawing really looks like, when viewed as you would normally, the first one is the right way round and the second is being viewed, the wrong way round. Taking a look at these gives a better understanding of what the secret really looks like and helped me to visualise the distortion created by this unusual illusionary 3d drawing technique.

This image below is being shown the correct way up and is viewed from the front as you would any other drawing or image, directly from the front it clearly shows how the drawing is distorted with the top being much wider than the bottom.

AnamorphicPerspectivelighterDrawingFromAbove 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

The 3d drawing of the lighter as viewed directly from the front showing it as it would be viewed when not looking at the correct angle.

The image below has been turned up side down and reveals that looking at it this way round presents an image that resembles a perspective grid for depicting something that is tapering off into the distance because that is what it is and would be doing. If something is close it will be big and as it gets further away it will get smaller and smaller, the further into the distance it gets.

AnamorphicPerspectivelighterDrawingUpSideDownFromAbove 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

The same 3d Anamorphic drawing from the front but turned upside down it gives the impression of any normal perspective drawing, creating the illusion of distance.

These 3d drawings can be created on a computer using GIMP Shop photo editing software or any other photo editing software if you can distort images with a perspective tool. I found that if I took an image and placed a reference grid over the top of it on a separate layer in GIMP shop. Then anchoring both layers together, I distorted it with the bottom being half as wide as the top, it was a good example of the drawing grid and picture needed to produce this image, that could be viewed with a camera, like shown in the image below.

Cadillac3dSidewalkArtThroghtCameraLensShowingVisualPlane 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

Cadillac distorted 3d drawing, viewed through the camera lens at the correct visual plane.

It can easily be traced from an A4 sheet of printing paper.

Cadillac3dSidewalkArtForDrawing 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

This image could be used for tracing as the outline for drawing a 3d anamorphic perspective

This image below is the actual photograph of the distorted image taken with the camera it is the result of this photo manipulation technique to create 3d drawing on the computer for close up viewing with a camera.

Cadillac3dSidewalkArt 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

Cadillac Image taken with a camera of the distorted image above, to show as an example

Then there are some images below this, with shots taken at a distance of about 10 feet, 3meters, of a box placed on a sheet of A1 cartridge paper, this is more closer to the working distance experienced by street artists doing, 3d drawings on the street.

PavementArtBoxComparion 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

3d drawing of box in comparison to the original photograph of the box in the correct position.

3dDrawingOfBox 3d drawings, anamorphic 3d drawing secrets revealed.

The actual 3d drawing of the box when viewed from the front and showing the reference grid lines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphosis

How to draw from memory

How to draw

September 1, 2011 by admin

If you want to learn how to draw from memory, you will first need to be very familiar with the subject you are drawing, for example if you draw the letter (A) then it will be a memory drawing the way you have always drawn the letter (A). So every time you draw one it will look very smiler to the last one you drew. This is because you have done this an unknown number of times throughout your life and it is fixed inside your head, it will not change unless you purposely make an intended change, as you are very familiar with the letter (A) . The letter (A) is a very simple shape and does not present very much to remember, but if , lets say you draw a car, then that is very different shape, that is far more complex than the letter, making it far more difficult to remember, it is more like the whole alphabet upper and lower case plus numbers together.

Now I know that it is highly likely you can draw the alphabet and numbers from memory, quite easy, so it also proves that you know how to draw from memory because you can do it with the alphabet. The question is how many times have you done this, the answer to that question is unknown but it must be thousands if not millions of times depending how old you are but how many cars have you drawn?

10,20 or even a 100, it bares no comparison to the amount of times you have drawn all the letters and numbers of the alphabet, and so it is highly unlikely you will be able to remember what the car looks like, without having it in front of you to look at. There is a lot to remember if you want to know how to draw from memory. A point to note (when I am talking about how to draw from memory I do not mean any old car, I mean a specific car like a Mustang or a Corvette). Most people can draw a box shape and put a couple of wheels on it that would make it a representation of a car but in most cases not a very good one, so that is not what I mean.

To be able to know how to draw from memory you need to train yourself to do so by braking it down into component parts, like wheels, windows, lights, tires, side view mirrors, door handles, the list goes on and on, that’s why it is difficult. Each one of these is a shape in it’s own right, so is a lot to remember, but it is possible, because by breaking it down, you learn how a car is actually made up or constructed, you learn the anatomy of a car and all cars look very similar overall.

All cars have the items mentioned above and all of these items can be found in very smiler places on all cars. If you know that a car has wheels and these wheels are usually a defined distance apart from each other, which can be measured by the number of wheels it takes to get to the next wheel, then you can easily make a template in your mind for placing these wheels the right distance apart. You can easily check this distance by measuring the number of wheels from your first wheel to your second wheel and you will get it right every time.

If you know that the wind shield usually starts about half the width of a wheel behind the front wheel then you know where it goes on most cars but also remember that every one is slightly different as well. If you learn where everything goes in this way by teaching yourself this from doing it on purpose, then you learn how to construct cars without having one to look at because you know where everything goes. Also if you use an item like a wheel as a measuring tool then everything about your car will be in proportion to everything else just like they are on real cars.

In the image of the car above you can see 3 red double sided arrows these are all the same size which show you how much smaller the rear of the car is because of its distance from the front. It also shows how far the windscreen is from the front wheel which is about half the width of the wheel. You can also take note that the door line actually almost measures up with the windscreen.

If this image was directly side on you would be able to measure the distance between the wheels and everything else about this car by using the wheels as the basic measurement which would give you a greater understanding of the anatomy of this vehicle.

If you do this then just doing it will make you more familiar with the subject of cars but also anything that you might like drawing for example, faces or people because they are not very much different from each other either. If you understand the anatomy of the subjects you draw as well as having a familiarity with them combined you will be more able and know how to draw from memory. If you do this a lot then you will also be prompted by the parts you are drawing as to what the next part to draw might be and this also helps as you are following a process of actions that becomes a natural pattern of behaviour.

A good way to practice memory drawing is to draw cars or other subjects like faces as described above and to then when you have finished the drawing, using these techniques to draw the same drawing all over again, while it is still fresh in your mind, without looking at it. Doing this will reinforce your learning, making it stronger as a memory and build up your ability to remember by exercising your visual memory, making it stronger and more capable.

Below you will find a video of a drawing I did using this method but changing the viewing position, so I was drawing it from a different angle, also making it even more difficult. When wanting to be able to draw well, you really need to push yourself hard to make, what seems like very little ground at the time but that is what will make you progressively just that little bit better.

Let me explain this in another way, cartoon films once consisted of thousands of hand drawn, hand painted images, where every single one had to be the same as the last one but in a different position or pose from a different angle. For one person to do this on there own it would take years so the cartoon makers would hire many people and break everything down into smaller components, bite sized chunks so any body could soon learn to do that one small part. Then they would have a team of say 20 people doing only small parts making it easy and also enabling them to complete them very quickly. If you had spent the last 10 years doing this for a studio that made cartoons do you think that you would probably be able to almost do this with you eyes closed?

The way to learn how to draw from memory is learned by drilling yourself to do so through continuous repetition, drawing the same thing over and over until you learn where everything goes, and purposely drawing your attention to understanding where it goes also.

Easy drawings of cartoons are very easy.

Draw cartoons

August 18, 2011 by admin

First off, if you want to do easy drawings of cartoons, any cartoons, then just trace them off your computer screen.

A piece of cheap A4 printer paper is thin enough to see what is on the computer screen right through the paper, so you can trace it, no problem.

Drawing cartoons is easy because unless you are copying other peoples cartoons in which case you might as well trace them off the computer screen, then they don’t have to look like anything.

This makes it easy because cartoons are just simple line drawings, usually done quickly.

How many times have you sat down drawing silly faces, with big noses or mouths or ears, that’s all that cartoon drawings are.

They do not have to be accurate and they do not have to look exactly like anything because they are only suggestions, learning to draw cartoons is easy.

Usually cartoons are just about fun.

The video below also named “easy drawings of cartoons” is an example of drawing some of the more familiar cartoons images on this page and shows them being drawn with the intention of encouraging you to draw without getting hung up on detail. The most important method of learning how to draw cartoons easy is not accomplished by thinking about ideas as much as actually drawing them your learning is greatly increased through doing.

They are about drawing jokes so the worse they look the better most of the time.

This means they can be very easy to draw and anybody can draw their own cartoons, if they can hold a pencil, even my 6 year old son could do it, so I am sure you can.

If you want to get serious about drawing cartoons then it could get considerably harder because you need to be able to use devices to express mood, through facial expressions, body language and environmental props.

Easy drawing cartoon is only easy if you don’t get serious about it too quickly.

Free style cartoons that you just make up can be very amusing and good fun to draw they also provide good experience for drawing the more familiar cartoon characters I have been drawing as examples so far on this page!

SonicBartPeterGriffin Easy drawings of cartoons are very easy.

Some familiar cartoon caricatures you might recognise.

I have thoroughly enjoyed drawing the sketches on this web-page and videos.

It is such a fun free expression when doodling with cartoons and although I’m not the greatest there is, I enjoyed my completed drawings.

I enjoyed myself when I was drawing these images for this web-page and they are good simple practice for artists to draw – experienced or inexperienced.

Many cartoons employ people as the subject matter, so I did a couple of quick, funny drawings of people for you to look at.

Ed Wale Dan Spam Easy drawings of cartoons are very easy.

Internet Gnus, Ed Wale and Dan Spam cartoon caricature's of real people.

When you draw Cartoons you do not need to draw objects or people the way they exist or look in reality.

They apply a lesser amount of technicality and detailed work, using over exaggerated forms and features.

Ed Dale Dan Raine Easy drawings of cartoons are very easy.

The real people who the caricature's where based on, the names have been left out to protect the innocent.

Simple devices are used for expressing a persons mood or the mood of an event they are things like dark clouds hanging over the head of a character indicating a sad mood or gloominess.

These devices change normal drawings into simple cartoon drawings!

And, of course, expressions play a big role in showing emotions when you draw cartoons!

As a child I used to love drawing cartoons from comics and these drawings became more complex as I got older so my drawings did also and I learned to draw more accurately moving away from drawing cartoons.

I used to copy the characters and I thought I was good at getting a likeness to the originals, drawing cartoons was my lead into becoming good at drawing as it is with many people who learn to draw.

I’m sure those comic books taught me a lot about drawing and helped me learn to read as well by giving me a fun way to practice.

I still look at cartoons in the newspapers and read them for a laugh, I also watch them on TV because they are funny but not serious, bringing light relief.

Giving cartoon drawing a chance will help your drawing as well and I’m sure it will help you to produce some very cool cartoon drawings.

Start looking around you for some ideas and use your imagination to see what you can include when you draw cartoons.

Keep it in mind to overemphasize facial appearances, include some loose scribbled shapes here or there, and soon you will realize you are doing easy drawings of cartoons, that are very easy .

Pencil portrait drawing.

Portrait drawing

July 7, 2011 by admin

Pencil portrait drawing of Kurt Cobain, drawn in June 2011.

The pencil portrait drawing was an experiment for trying out some ideas, I made some quick sketches with different tools that where all dismal failures and I should have realised that there was something difficult about this image making it troublesome.

I chose Kurt Cobain, front man for Nirvana, the Grunge band, mainly because I have had a relationship with him that was one sided as a fan during his and my life, through the television, newspapers, and radio, all with their own brand of creative news.

One starts and they all jump on the gravy train, creating portraits and I am no different except mine is only a pencil portrait drawing.

Here I am doing the same thing as them drawing a pencil portrait drawing of a common old rock star because he is familiar and recognisable.

PencilPortraitDrawingKurtCobain Pencil portrait drawing.

Pencil portrait drawing of Kurt Cobain before getting to the final detail.

I enjoyed Nirvana probably because nothing good happened for me during the late 80’s early 90’s with guitar based bands and I had drifted off into little fluffy clouds, 808 State, rave music. Kraft Work had become popular again and I had been into them much earlier as well, just like, good night Vienna, Ultravox, guitar music was dead and then came Nirvana, and it was Nirvana. No more Mini Moogs and Oberhimer’s, it was Fender guitars and amplifiers, it was aggression, raw complaints and vague lyrics, “I’m so ugly, that’s ok cos so are you”.

All this and the media portrayal of a troubled soul, leading to his suicide, probably adhered me to Kurt Cobain giving me a good reason for drawing a common old dead rock star, dead but not forgotten.

I chose this image of Kurt Cobain from an Unplugged episode for a number of reasons, one of which was because he was not quite looking at the camera, which I think makes a more interesting portrait of somebody, caught unawares. The image actually looks like he has been caught day dreaming and he is not actually focused or aware of his real surroundings, I think the image portrays this, whether it’s true or not.

The pencil portrait drawing.

KurtCobainPencilPortraitDrawingFinishedWeb Pencil portrait drawing.

Kurt Cobain pencil portrait drawing, after picking out the detail, perhaps the finished V1

I did not realise how difficult this was going to be until I tried to capture it and the eyes caused me problems. I chose these eyes because they where wet, glassy, reflecting stage lighting but only prominently in Kurt’s left eye on your right hand side, those other glints that are there but dimmed out, where difficult to get to the right tone. The light reflecting in the iris of the left eye was also difficult for the same reasons.

I chose these elements because they are strong along with the stubble and the hair, as my intentions where to only suggest Kurt Cobain, I failed to satisfy these intentions in this drawing I think, yet learned so much more that I will use.

All of these aspects are what makes the drawing good but much more difficult with a need for deadly accuracy to capture the qualities of the subject but I made it difficult because I did not want it to be photographic, either. I had intentionally chosen an image with lots of marks in it, so as to be more able to use hatch marks as well as tonal modelling. This meant there was a lot more work involved in reproducing those marks which was a very time consuming task. I thought that I could just make hap hazard hatch marks to suggest some of the facial areas and I was wrong because it didn’t work out that way making me feel that I needed to do them almost exactly as they were.

I have drawn many portraits in the past and know that photographers usually over expose faces in an attempt at making the subject look better by masking the details with light. This usually produces images that are flatter than in real life showing less shape and form also showing less detail making them less work for someone doing a pencil portrait drawing.

The initial drawing took me about 30 minutes and you can see it being drawn in the video below.

I first toned the paper with graphite dust making it a light grey colour or tone. This was done because of the hair being blond and very light but also I did not want to create a drawing that looked like a photograph, I wanted it to look like a drawing with many marks just being suggested rather than definite. Past experience told me that I could do this successfully by using an eraser to draw with as well as a pencil, thus leaving the paper white by removing the graphite with an electric eraser.

I do have a process for doing my drawing which is probably similar to most other peoples but just in case it is not I think it needs to be stated. On most occasions I will draw some quick sketches of what it is I am going to draw, even if I have a photograph, as it helps me to focus my attention by getting things wrong, which in most instances I often do. This process also teaches me about the anatomy of the face and I learn how the elements are connected to each other, giving me practice runs at getting it right, all building up my visual memory of the face which I think helps me see it in greater detail. The whole process is about focusing down on the detail by starting out with a simple drawing, a quick out line sketch then refining it by adding more detail.

After this quick initial drawing I then set to work on finalising the detail and correcting any discrepancies between the drawing and the photographic subject, by this I mean that I make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. I do this by working through each component of the face; for example, I would take the subjects left eye on the right hand side of the paper and draw every detail as I could see it in the photograph. I always try to work from right to left because I am left handed but anyone who is right handed would be best working from the left, this enables you to more easily see what you have already drawn. It also helps because your drawing hand is not rubbing on the drawing you have been doing thus changing it by smudging the marks you have already made.

I then draw this left eye on the right hand side of the paper as I can see it, trying put every piece of the detail into place as I move around this smaller area, comparing each component in it with each other till I am satisfied that it looks good and close to the original.

Then I move to the other eye to do the same thing but then also comparing it with the eye I have just drawn to make sure it also is in the right place at the right angle being the right size and shape. At this point I begin to see discrepancies in the eye I have already drawn and although I was satisfied with it at the start I soon find faults with it when comparing with each other and the photographic subject.

When I am satisfied that the eyes are right I will move to the nose and mouth working them together along with comparisons being made with the eyes as well, at this point I start to make comparisons with the outlines of the face also. This whole process is slow, laborious and I find it enlightening because it seems to me that as you build you’re drawing, the parts you draw, the marks you make, reveal other marks that are missing in other areas that you have just finished. Areas or marks that you where sure where correct when you made them seem to change after doing some more work in another area and looking again you find they are not as good as you thought they were, so the process of elimination grows more complex and more detailed.

I do not do this process in one go but over a few days by going back to it and doing a little often with the biggest part of the work being visual study and comparison. The largest part of the work has no physical presence as most of it is just looking but it is essential to the end result.

The tools I used in the initial drawing where a HB 0.5 mechanical pencil some graphite dust scraped from a 3B graphite stick, a charcoal pencil and a Jakar battery operated eraser on A3 300gsm water colour paper using the smooth side of the paper. The graphite dust was blended in using soft tissue paper by lightly rubbing it in circular motions so as not to leave streaks as I did not want them in this drawing but sometimes I do use them for further interest.

In the seconded stage I decided to use some black chalk pastel instead of the charcoal pencil because it adhered to the paper and other pencil marks better and was better at minimising the reflected light that comes from the darkest areas of graphite pencil. Rubbing in some pastel over the top of these graphite pencil marks dulls them making them blacker and much less reflective I only used this in the darkest areas because if it is over done you end up with a very different tonal quality. If over done you end up with a pastel drawing and not a pencil drawing but used sparingly it can be very effective, notice the neck and under the chin area, around the ear, as well as the pupils, and top lip. In the second stage of the drawing where I was doing the detail I changed pencil I was using for a Derwent 4B sketching pencil which is a very soft black and layers very well over the top of previously drawn pencil. I also used the battery operated eraser and a paper stump for blending the pastel into the graphite pencil and also blending the graphite pencil it into the white of the paper.

I also experimented with a Derwent 8B dark wash pencil which is a pencil that you can wash out with some water on a brush I tried this over some of the not so dark areas in an attempt to kill the reflected light that comes from graphite pencil marks. This did work to some extent, not as well as the black pastel chalk did but I could not use the black as these areas are not meant to be black and making them black would change the whole tonal quality of the drawing completely.

PencilPortraitDrawingEquipmentWeb Pencil portrait drawing.

HB 0.5 mechanical pencil, 3B graphite dust, a charcoal pencil, jakar battery eraser, A3 300gsm water colour paper, chalk pastel,Derwent 4B sketching pencil,paper stump, Derwent 8B dark wash pencil.

I succeeded in capturing the essence of Kurt Cobain and also managed to only suggest many strong features like the hair, creating a graphite pencil portrait drawing with photo realistic elements and also bold suggestive pencil marks. I am happy with the outcome as it now peresnts a better understanding of the 3 dimensional shape of the face giving me the possibility of further exploration and experimentation.

But…

My next victim will be, His Bobness.

Bob Dylan deserves to be immortalised in a graphite pencil portrait drawing if only for the fact that he has been on a never ending tour for possibly the last 50 years of his life, intentional or not that is a feat of endurance and lasting commitment.