Page 146 - sarah-simblet_sketch-book-for-the-artist

PORTRAITURE146 Drawing Portraits

USING A SHARP 3 B PENCIL, I drew this head quickly from smaller parts, with details brought in last of all. Phrased tonal
imagination, evolving its character and expression from the marks modeling this girls skin and hair follow the technique
scheme of four parts: cranium, face, neck, and throat (see demonstrated by Goya in his self-portrait on p. 130. Turn to
p. 142). Here, five steps show you how to practice doing the Goya's drawing and study how, in a circle beginning across his
same. This approach can be used to draw from imagination hat, moving down his hair, and around his coat, he flows lines
or from life. Keep your wrist loose and hold your pencil away over surfaces to describe their contour. As you build from
from its point (see pp.22-23). Build the layers of your drawing steps 1 to 5, bring phrased groups of lines across the surfaces
from pale to dark, and from general balance and form to of your form, using their directions to capture the expression
specific detail. Remember that successful drawings are built on of the head and neck. If unsure, copy my steps until you gain
foundations of "seeing the whole," then dividing the whole into the confidence to make your own decisions.

BALANCED POSE

This drawing is the final stage
of the four steps opposite.
Here, I have enlarged the eye,
and moved it back into the
head by trimming the length
of the upper lid and adding a
more pronounced lower lid.
It is important to set eyes
far enough back from the
relatively prominent nose; too
close to it and the face flattens.
Hair swept back and extended
behind the cranium balances
the regal pose. Lines shaping
the hair echo those marking
the cranium in step 1. Here, the
lower part of step 1 comes
through as wisps of hair across
her face and ear

Portrait of a Young Girl