Susan was a hoot, but she was darn difficult to draw...

She was dark skinned and lit dramatically. Her hair was no more than 1/4 of an inch and the shadow side of her head reflected light that was really fun to try to capture.

I struggled all night with this one and only came out with what I think is a mediocre result. It does look like her, but I am finding that I struggle with the positioning of the mouthbox and the bridge of the nose - those two features tie in as they are both on the centerline of the face and one recedes and the other projects.

But there are things about it I like - the neck area with the necklace in specific.

I think toning the board for her to begin with would have been a good idea since she was so dark to begin with.

Michael,
Thank you for your many fine postings lately, I really admire your honest struggle with basic problems. One should never end starting up at a fresh approach.

I have a suggestion that you might want to try at the open studio.
I see some general problems in getting the profile right and I wonder if you settle too soon on the placement of the eyes and then finish them off with highlights and all.

My suggestion is that you draw the profile and the nearest eye only, untill you have the three dimentional headshape correct. Only mark the eye with a darker value and no highlights at all.
Then, but only when everything is in place, you can suggest the far eye. This will give you the freedom to model the head like a sculptor.

I speak from experience and I would like to see if it works for others as well.

Hello Allan and thanks for your reply! :)

Your idea is an interesting one and I will try it at my next OS session. I do struggle with the proper placement of the eyes - both placement of distance and the plane of the eyes. I am generally drawing out an outline first with basic shading of planes rather than finishing. None the less, I have to work more at proper placement of features and your suggestion is a good one to try.

What I am working out -should be- pretty basic stuff to most portrait artists, but I suspect it is not for many and I thank you all for putting up with my posting of less than stellar drawings on this fine forum.

This is the point. As I say in my signature, drawing is the foundation of all we do as artists. Many of us need work in this area and I am sort of a poster child for the maladies that affect artists today.

I am hoping others will step up and take on this challenge too. :)

Ha not so! I think that everyone (OK, almost everyone:)) fights the the tendency to "go Egyptian", especially when working frm life. I think there are four nearly universal challenges:

- in anything other than a straight-on pose, the tendency to have too much face in the turning away part of the face;

-the tendency to paint ourselves into the model;

-the tendency to "grow the head";

-the tendency to place the head,especially in profile, so that the profile is too close to the center of the canvas, so that the back of the head gets either truncated, or squeezed.

At the PSA this past year I was on a panel that talked about how to identify mistakes - in advance, in process, and after the fact. This was part of the discussion.

I try to be aware of my tendencies and to fight them every time:)

Micheal, I think it is great that you share your studio work with us.

Oh, Chris, please do share what else was mentioned! ;)

Michael, I also want to thank you for posting your drawings. They have so much energy and honesty.

I really like all the suggestions, and I thought of another one: you could try first sketching very, very lightly with a few basic lines and some dots to indicate the features and edges until you are satisfied with the shape and placement of everything. Then try to suggest everything including the eyes, mouth, ears, etc,. with shading, no lines. Just continue to work on refining the drawing without lines, though making accents with a dark pencil is okay. See how close a likeness you can get without lines. It's really fun and liberating.

Dear Enzie,

I will be happy to do so, I just need to deal with converrting my power point images to the forum sizes etc.

Chris, that would be wonderful and extremely generous of you!

A handsome young man showed up in a white linen suit and a fedora and looked for everything like a 1950s G Man.

Focused my time on the drawing and placement of features as people have suggested, then brought it up in value very slowly so as to not loose my placements. Also gave attention to the body and head sizes.

I took my time with this and am pleased with the results. :)

Michael,
this is so much better than the last one, one can really feel the three dimensionality in the head.
One thing that might improve this fine portrait could be to develop some softer edges in the shadow areas and also and have less contrast within shadow areas.

Keep up the good work.