In this commentary we will discuss the blocking-in of big masses of tone.
Tone is commonly thought of as shadow. Beginners commonly first draw an outline of the shadow and then fill in the shadows little by little. They usually begin with an eye and then grow out the shadows. Inevitably, the outcome is a chaos of disconnected darks and lights.
There are two distinct ways of viewing tone: in Western culture we see tone as shadow; in Eastern culture tone is seen as color.
Applying, or more correctly, constructing tone should be done with a sculptural sensibility. That is, think of your drawing as a piece of clay that is to be carved. Once roughly carved, you then model the surface forms with varying intensities of tone while manipulating their edges.
A portrait sketching from life or (photograph) begins with the striking of the arabesque. Two things must be correctly sketched: 1. the shape of the complete head; and 2. the proportions.
Once the construct skull is then broken down into two parts: a big light and a big dark. No more than that. At this time, do not concern yourself with whether or not one area is darker than another. Only the large light/dark pattern counts.
Observe that squinting is a good way to more clearly see the tone patterns because you are not sidetracked by details.
A good rule of thumb is to divide an area in two. For example, if an observed dark area is not entirely even in value divide it in two and block-in the two slightly differing values. Before long a complex yet unified matrix of values will appear.
From the blocking-in of the primary darks you can then readily draw the features. Over time you should try to memorize the entire anatomy and “sense” the shape 3-dimensionally.
You must know your anatomy to succeed in sketching portraits even at the most basic level. Learn the anatomy in bite-size portions as you draw along. It really is the best way to learn.
A good way to draw is to toggle back and forth between line drawing and tonal drawing or hatching. Another way is to first do a entire line drawing of the subject. That is, to draw a “map” of the skull that encompasses all planes and marks the boundaries of the various tonal areas. As a second phase you can then hatch-in the correct tones.
While you hatch be constantly aware of the planes of the skull and the bearing of the light source.
Another skill to be acquired is the skill to cross-hatch areas in a flat and even manner. There is nothing more distracting than rough looking cross-hatching.
Lastly, take note of a curious optical illusion called “simultaneous disparity”. It takes place when light and dark values lie next to each other. In general, white is extroverted while black is contractive. The consequence is that the white area looks bigger than it is while the black patch will look smaller.
In closing, keep the blocking-in procedure uncomplicated. Look for big masses first and then for the smaller ones. It is always better to draw from the general to the specific. And, this stage, ignore the details.
Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: pencil portrait course.
Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert sketching teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits.
A pencil portrait drawing from life starts with the “drawing” of the arabesque. Striking the arabesque means sketching the outer contour of the skull with the accurate proportions, shape, and theproper symmetry.
Once you have drawn a reasonably accurate arabesque it is time to locate the main landmarks of the skull. That means that we will accurately position the most important spots of the skull. These places will then be used as references for mapping out the rest of the skull features.
Here is something that may help you with this task: work with your eyes to some extent out-of-focus. This is called seeing with a “soft eye”. Somehow this makes it easier to correctly resolve forms and proportions. It also aids you with suppressing the predetermined notions we all have of certain objects.
Let us suppose that we are working from a three-quarter head profile.
* The Brow Ridge – is the first significant landmark. To place the brow ridge you must first take your best guess at where you think it is and only then test it by sighting.
Note that to coach your eyes it is better to first estimate lengths, angles, etc. and check them second. There is nothing to gain from pre- measuring.
Sighting denotes to use your pencil with locked arm and checking lengths along the pencil with your thumb and index finger and an eye closed.
So then, first sight from the bottom of the chin to a spot on the brow ridge (just select an arbitrary spot on the ridge. But once chosen you should stick with it.
Now lift your pencil so that your thumb is on your spot on the brow ridge and note where your pencil tip is. It should be a small distance above the top of the skull. Mark on your drawing where you can best place that spot above the skull. This point is called the “check-point”.
Remember that whenever there is a choice, you should always measure the shortest distance because doing so tends to be more correct.
Your spot on the brow ridge should, if it was placed correctly, be precisely halfway between the bottom of the chin and your check-point. If it is not – then correct the placement of your brow ridge.
* Jaw Hinge – Now you can fix the width of the face. In the three-quarter view the hinge of the jaw is a significant landmark. Again, take your best guess then check by sighting horizontally from the hinge of the jaw to the far edge of the cheek bone and vertically relating that measure from the bottom of the chin.
* Top Nasal Bone – Since we have already located the brow ridge we now only have to guess a small distance to fix the top of the nose bone. If you established the hinge of the jaw correctly, it should equal the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nasal bone. If you are off a little, then correct the placement of the hinge of the jaw. Again, presuppose that the shortest distance estimated is the accurate one.
Now that these key landmarks are located you can continue drawing the arabesque. I find it best to further resolve only the back, less, part of the head at this early time.
* Facial Angle – Lastly, you need to place the facial angle which is the center line of the face. Draw a slightly bending line from the middle of the mental tubercle up to the center of the brow ridge.
The positioning of the facial angle is very significant. You have to feel your way through this as there is no way to rightly measure it.
Once the facial angle is located continue resolving the arabesque carefully observing the form of the mouth region, the forehead, and all other features that are articulated in the shape of the arabesque.
With this, we have located all the fundamental landmarks that will help us with the mapping of the rest of the features such as the nose and ears.
Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: portrait drawing tutorial.
Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert drawing teacher. See his work at pencil portraits by Remi.
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Many people like the way tattoos look on others and want one for themselves, but have no idea what they want. It’s a very big decision; chances are, this is something you’ll have to live with for the rest of your living days.
So how do you get “the one”?
Quite often these days, more and more people are referring to the internet to find their tattoo ideas.
In recent years, this has led to more choice, making tattoos more unique to an individual.
Another place people can find tattoo ideas are the tattoo artists’ design books, usually found lying around their studio or hanging on the studio walls. Unfortunately, a lot of tattoo artists don’t update their collections often, which leads to the same design getting tattooed on many people over and over again.
So how do you ensure that you have a one-of-a-kind tattoo no one else has?
One way to go about this is to get a tattoo pack. These packs come stuffed with dozens of completely original tattoo designs, but you do have to pay for them (though it is usually nominal). The best thing about tattoo packs is that they are guaranteed to be completely original and unique. Chances are, you won’t find many of the designs within the pack anywhere else, making your tattoo truly special. It’s also easy to pick out a tattoo pack, as they are organized with themes that appeal to different people.
For those who are truly imaginative, you can make an effort to sit down and design your own tattoo, try to come up with things that mean something to you;something that you feel like you’ll never regret.
One great idea is to explore your family’s past and incorporate themes from your heritage into your design. If you are of Germanic heritage, for instance, you could try some Teutonic symbols or the like.
For people of Celtic heritage, Celtic designs are very popular for people of any descent these days, and are therefore easy to find. It’s also brilliant if you design your own tattoo; tattoo artists are more than happy to look at the design you created sitting at your desk and transfer it to your skin.
At the end of the day, the best way to come up with a tattoo idea is to search inside yourself. Don’t choose things that could change suddenly (boy/girlfriends, cars, jobs, etc), find something that is a part of your very being and try to come up with something related to this.
A design related to your heritage is great, for example, because your heritage can never change; it is a part of every cell in your body.
If you can come up with something along these lines, you should have no trouble coming up with tattoo designs that you will be happy with for the rest of your life.
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Who will return?
When the insanely thrilling Lost finale aired in May, I was surprised that there weren’t an abundance of major deaths on the island. Keamy got what was coming to him, Michael sacrificed himself, and Locke ended up in the coffin, but everyone else who wasn’t a red shirt still had a shot at survival. I’m definitely not complaining about the lack of casualties, but it was unexpected considering the myriad of dangers on the island.
However, not every character who made it through the finale will be returning for season 5 of the series. Though new Lost episodes are still many months away, Kristin at E! Online already has some spoilers regarding who will and won’t be returning next year. Read on if you want to know more about the fates of two of Lost’s most important characters.
SPOILER WARNING!!! GO NO FURTHER IF YOU HATE SPOILERS!!!
I’ll start with the good news. According to Kristin, Daniel Dae Kim will definitely be back for season 5. She doesn’t have any details about how Jin survived the big freighter explosion, but I think we all had a sneaking suspicion that he moved out of harm’s way. My guess is that he’ll be picked up by Daniel (Jeremy Davies) in the raft, but it’s impossible to know where they’ll be located. Did Daniel, Jin and the red shirts disappear with the island, or will they be stuck floating in the ocean until Charles Widmore sends another boat?
While fans can rejoice knowing that they’ll see Jin again in the near future, the same can’t be said for Claire. Kristin also revealed that Emilie de Ravin will be on a holding contract with Lost for season five and not returning until season six. I guess we shouldn’t expect the mystery of Claire’s disappearance to be solved anytime soon. If de Ravin won’t be appearing in the fifth season, does this mean that no one will be taking a trip to Jacob’s cabin in the near future? Or will we simply not be seeing as much of life on the island as we used to? We’ll have to wait and see.
The news of Jin’s return makes me even more excited to see Lost’s fifth season, but I’m slightly worried that the mystery surrounding Claire is going to be dragged out for too long. Do we really need to wait until season 6 to discover if she’s dead or alive? If there’s one thing I’ve learned after four seasons of Lost, it’s that sometimes it pays to be patient.
In this commentary we imagine that you draw directly from life or from a appropriate paper picture. In other words, we presuppose that you do not use the so-called grid method. This method relies on a grid drawn both on the paper picture of your model as well as your drawing paper.
If this is the case, the first thing you will do is to create a line-drawing. And the very first part of your line-drawing will consist of drawing the so-called arabesque.
In pencil portrait drawing, the arabesque is defined as the complete positive shape of your model’s skull. In other words the arabesque is the outer contour of the skull.
The arabesque includes the proportions, the shape, and the symmetry of the skull. This means that the arabesque communicates pretty much an overall likeness of your model and often lots of expressive content.
In trying to realize the arabesque we confront our first test as an artist. That is, the challenge of “seeing the reality”. Indeed, when we observe an object a complex mental process is started which in part falls short of the degree of accuracy necessary to create an adequate portrait.
The mind, for good reasons (one is to sustain our sanity), instantly replace the very complex subject with the an icon it has stored since childhood. For example, we all know how a child sketches a house. It really is more like an icon of a house. But this is what the mind tends to bring up and often even grown-ups draw a house like they did as a child.
Plainly, it is these iconic preconceptions (a left brain occurrence) that are the enemy of the draftsperson. You must coach yourself to ignore those icons and really see what the reality of, for example, a house is.
In general, learning to draw involves the reprogramming of the mind’s eye. To this end, there is a skill-set that has been developed over the ages since the Renaissance.
Applying this new found skill to the arabesque is particularly essential. “Drawing” the arabesque is maybe the most important element in the production of a superior likeness. Once you have this skill down path all the rest will follow reasonably easily.
The first step in drawing a accurate arabesque is to force your eyes a bit out-of-focus. This condition is called seeing with a “soft eye”. With a soft eye proportions and shape are more easily seen. It also helps you to avoid the invocation of the iconic preconceptions we talked about.
To coach your eye to better your powers of seeing you must always sketch first and check second. There is not much to gain from pre-measuring. The habit of pre-measuring of the size of your subject’s head will hold you back later.
When striking the initial arabesque always use short straight, i.e., architectonic lines. This will impart a sense of the skull’s structure and the form of the underlying tissues and bones. Note that round or curving lines are iconic preconceptions.
Also keep in mind the symmetry of the skull. The term “symmetry” in the context of drawing and painting does not so much refer to the similarity of two parts but more to the beauty that results from correct proportioning and rhythm.
After drawing the arabesque (without doing any measurements) you can correct the proportions. Take a measure of the largest width (i.e., the width of the arabesque along the brow line) and set it off vertically starting at the bottom of the chin. The end point of the width typically ends up somewhere close to the middle of the hair.
The idea is to establish exactly where that end point is situated. Best is to judge the smallest of the following two distances: (1) the vertical distance from the brow line up to the end point of the measure; (2) the vertical length from the end point of the measure up to the arabesque. The smallest length is likely to be the most accurate. Do not forget, the arabesque includes the entirety of the skull including the hair.
With practice your eyes will develop this critical technique. Then, once the proportion and form of the arabesque have been found you are set to proceed with placing the so-called landmarks.
Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: portrait drawing course.
Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and skilled sketching teacher. See his work at pencil portraits.
Guidelines for Pencil Portrait Sketching – The Six Steps of Portrait Sketching
Sketching in always entails four separate steps: line, tone, texture, and shape. In the special case of pencil portrait drawing we can refine the list of steps to six: shape, proportion, anatomy, texture, tone, and planes.
Sketching in always entails 4 distinct elements: line, tone, texture, and shape. In the special case of pencil portrait drawing we can refine the list of steps to six: form, proportion, anatomy, texture, tone, and planes.
In this commentary we will give a detailed description of each of those pencil portrait drawing elements.
(1) Form Shape or Shape – The illusion of three-dimensionality in sketching and art in general has been fundamental to Western art for centuries. The carving out of form using line, structure, and tone was vital to almost all Renaissance art.
In contrast, oriental and lots of contemporary art emphasize flatness of form although this era in contemporary art is drawing to an end.
All shape in drawing can be reduced to 4 fundamental 3-dimensional solids: cones, cylinders, spheres, and bricks. The proper use of these shapes together with perspective and value leads to the illusion of 3-dimensionality even though the sketch is, in reality, located on a two-dimensional sheet of drawing paper.
In portrait sketching, the arabesque of the head, the square structure of the skull, and all components within the skull (nose, eyes, etc.) are all 2- and 3-dimensional shapes that add to the overall illusion of 3-dimensionality
(2) Proportion – encompasses all sizing and placements of shape. Proportion refers to the concept of relative length and angle size.
Proportion gives answers to these 2 questions:
1. Given a defined unit of length, how many units is a given length?
2. How large is this given angle?
Answering these two questions consistently correctly will give a sketch with the right proportions and placements of all shapes.
(3) Anatomy – refers in effect to the underlying parts of bone and muscle of the head.
It is essential to learn as much as you can about anatomy. There are many studies available on anatomy for artists. For a portrait artist it is particularly important to study the anatomy of the skull, neck, and shoulders.
Anatomy texts unfortunately include a lot of Latin terms which makes it somewhat complicated to grasp. The idea is to study slowly and a little bit at a time because it can be very exasperating.
(4) Texture – in portrait drawing expresses the range of roughness or smoothness of the shapes. The texture of a rhino skin, for example, is quite different from that of a cloud.
There are quite a few techniques and tricks to assist you with the creation of the proper textures. Creating textures gives you the chance to be very creative and to use each possible type of mark you can make with a pencil. In portrait drawing textures appear in places such as hair, clothing, and skin.
(5) Tone – refers to the variations in light or dark of the pencil marks and hatchings. Powerful portrait sketches use the full range of contrasting lights and darks. Beginning artists many times fail to reach this full “stretch” of tone, resulting in retiring, washed-out drawings.
(6) Planes – create the sculptural sensibility of a portrait. The skull has numerous planes each with a different direction and therefore with a different tone.
The idea is to think of the surface of the head as a collection of distinct planes with a certain direction relative to the light source. You should try to identify each of the planes and sketch its accurate shape and tone.
The accurate handling of planes contributes a lot to the likeness of your subject as well as the illusion of 3-dimensionality.
Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: pencil portrait tutorial.
Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert drawing teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits.
Whether it was heroes dying or aliens invading, 2008’s comics definitely aimed for bombast – but how many of them were actually great? As the year stumbles to an end, we take a look back.
In terms of SF comics, 2008 feels a bit… lacking, to be honest; there was nothing with the energy of King City or Wonton Soup, and a lot of the best books were final issues, instead of the start of something new (Collections and reprints-wise, it was a great year, however – I’d point you in the direction of Skyscrapers of the Midwest, The Babysitter and Jack Kirby’s OMAC, to begin with – but they weren’t really created this year…). It might just be a necessary lull; next year has new work from Paul Pope, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Brandon Graham, James Stokoe, et al, after all. But it did make this year seem curiously anemic in retrospect. So here is the pick, perhaps, of a poor bunch:
BEST
All-Star Superman
Quite simply, the best superhero comic of the last few years. Tapping into the awe-filled tone of the 1950s and ’60s Superman stories while still seeming contemporary, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s twelve-part reinvigoration of the Man of Steel finished this year with the perfect send-off: Something positive, optimistic and just a little melancholy.
(Fraction almost ended up on this list twice; his Invincible Iron Man series for Marvel was, to my mind, the ideal follow-up to the movie, finally figuring out a way to make the character interesting without making him an asshole.)
Casanova
Matt Fraction’s sci-fi superspy series filled its second run with time-travel, sex and gigantic reality-altering weapons before, in its final issue, folding in on itself with a reveal that, at first, felt like a cheat but ultimately recast everything that had gone before and made you need to re-read it like you need to breath. If only everything was this fearless.
Fight Or Run: Shadow Of The Chopper
You can argue amongst yourself whether this silent series of strips is really science fiction or not, but Kevin Huizenga’s videogame-inspired shorts that bring two surreal characters face-to-face to see their response works both as an exercise in comic formalism and experimentation, and as a funny, surprising reading experience. Me, I’d probably run.
Love & Rockets: New Stories
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis analogs slaughter aliens. Surely I don’t need to say anything else.
Final Crisis
Yes, there have been a lot of problems with DC’s big 2008 “event” – the seeming inability to hit deadlines and switching of artists midway through the story, to start with – but despite it all, Grant Morrison and company’s slow-motion apocalypse has been creepy and hypnotic, all the moreso for the way in which it refuses to play by the rules.
Patsy Walker: Hellcat
I don’t know if it’s the lightness of Kathryn Immonen’s writing, the pop of David LaFuente’s artwork, or just the sass of the book’s star, but there’s something wonderful and unexpected in this lowkey miniseries from Marvel about a fashion model-turned-superhero fighting magical demons in Alaska. In the middle of the publisher’s highly successful year, this hidden gem is easily the best thing they put out.
Project Superpowers
Again with the “unexpected” thing, I didn’t expect much from Alex Ross and Jim Kruger’s 1940s superhero revival… and certainly not the most strange and unusual superhero series of the year. The US government creating zombie soldiers in the Middle East? Lying ghosts with hidden agendas? An evil corporation of robots manipulating everyone that just so happens to have the same name as the parent company of the publisher? It’s all here, my friends. Just don’t ask me what it all means.
Teen Titans: Year One
It took animation writer Amy Wolfram and artist Karl Kerschl to finally fulfill the potential of DC’s team of sidekicks, by offering a story that stayed on the right side of cartoony, but kept an undercurrent of angst and insecurity to provide characters who actually acted like teenagers, for a change. Add some of the best art to appear in any comic book this year and you have a very underrated winner.
WORST
Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes
A strange one, this. It’s not really the quality of the comic strip itself that lands it in “Worst” position – although the comic strip itself was nothing to write home about, pretty much generic “alternate world”isms from Warren Ellis and friends – but the format. Charging $4.99 for 16 pages of comic book would be a bit much for a small indie company with a lot of overhead and little say in the matter… but for Marvel to do it, especially without letting fans or retailers know that that’s what they were doing…? Kind of an unnecessarily low blow.
Batman RIP
It started so well, but… well, finished so badly. There’s very little way to look back at RIP without getting frustrated at the lack of resolution and all the unfulfilled potential left untouched. It’s called Batman RIP people – Couldn’t you have done something with that that didn’t have a villain who may or may not have been the Devil and the most unconvincing, inconclusive death scene ever? Or, for that matter, had a story that actually ended in its final chapter?
Countdown To Final Crisis
DC’s Final Crisis may be flawed but great, but the 52-part prelude series kind of missed out the “but great” part of that idea. As well as missing out the “coherent plots, interesting dialogue and story you feel involved in” bits. And, to make matters worse, it outright contradicted multiple points of the series it was created to lead into. Worst of all, perhaps, was the fact that it took the goodwill that DC had gained from their first weekly series 52 and pissed it away in record fashion. An own goal of almost cosmic proportions.
DC Universe: Last Will & Testament
What do superheroes do when they expect to die the next day? Exactly what you’d expect them to, sadly, according to this uninspired, ponderous comic. While not as much of a disaster as Countdown, Last Will & Testament may have actually been a worse comic by dint of just being… well, not unlike well-illustrated fan-fiction.
Jenna Jameson: Shadow Hunter
From its very conception, you knew that a comic that recreated pornstar Jameson as a comic book demon hunter was a bad idea, but only the comic itself could convince you just how much of a bad idea it actually was. Confusingly written, with overwrought narration and a plot that didn’t really go anywhere, this was a celebrity tie-in that made Ed Burns’ Dock Walloper look like a good idea.
One More Day
This is, of course, a bit of a cheat; One More Day started in 2007, and the final issue came out in the dying days of that year (December 27th, I believe)… But nonetheless, the full effect of it was what started off this year in SF comics, and pretty much sabotaged the start of Marvel’s (remarkably not-as-bad-as-you-think) Spider-Man relaunch – all because Peter Parker made a deal with the devil just to get a divorce (Note: This may be a somewhat biased take on what actually happened in the story itself). Who would have thought that a boneheaded, out of character move that turned your everyman character into a Satan-handshakin’ single man would have been one of the big comic news stories of the year? Oh, that’s right – everyone.
Secret Invasion
Yes, it was hugely successful, and yes, it was on-time (unlike Final Crisis). But if there was a point to Secret Invasion beyond “Let’s try and sell lots of SF comics,” I must have missed it. With a story that lacked plot – or, for about half the series, anything actually happening – based around a premise that was abandoned almost immediately (What if aliens had invaded without us knowi- Oh, wait, they’ve started blowing things up and coming to Earth as giant green monsters), this was slick, showy… and entirely hollow.
Ultimates 3
I was no fan of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s Ultimates, but Jeph Loeb’s follow-up was a mind-blowing miscalculation that offered fans of the series almost no continuity with its previous incarnation, garish art outshone only by insanely overblown dialogue and, in a reveal that still boggles the mind, a Black Panther who turns out to be the most white of all superheroes. Pretty much an entire series of WTF that led into Loeb’s Ultimatum.
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