Friday 10 January 2014

Daily Drawing Challenge

As mentioned previously in my blog, I am on a mission to improve my drawing abilities. And based on some sound advice I have decided to go back to the beginning and learn the basics.

Each month I will assign myself a theme, and every week a different variations of that theme. This week...

1. Self Portrait - Sketch


 


The images you see from top to bottom show my current most likeable self sketch. Below, a comparison (please note: the reason for the noticeable differences in angle, hair, lighting etc, is because I used a mirror for observation, not a photograph). And finally a work in progress, depicting my early attempts to the final selected one.

Honestly, I was shocked by how much I struggled to capture myself. But with each new version I began to get a feel for it again and managed to produce an image of myself that I am fairly happy with.

Looking back on it however, I do see that there are some obvious issues. For example, my eyebrows aren't as curved as I've made out in my drawing. And my eyes could do with being a bit smaller. And my cheekbones are a tad too low. Others can probably point out more problems, but for my first self portrait in over 2 years, I'm pretty happy with the final result. I may end up doing a few more sketches to see if I can improve upon them, but my next plan of action is to create a self portrait using traditional painting techniques.