Michael G's Sketchbook
 

Hello, I am Michael Georges, the Moderator of the Life Section.

Welcome to my Open Studio sketchbook!

After an extended absence, I am back to drawing weekly at a local art center and I am really enjoying it. Drawing and painting from life is hard for me and I struggle. So what you will see in this topic are not only my victories, but also my victims. But that is sort of the point isn't it? :)

I am the classic portrait artist who learned by painting exclusively from photographs. Let me take photos of my subject, and I will put up a pretty nice portrait. But that is only half of the picture. As I learned later from great painters like Bill Whitaker, painting from photos can teach you "how" to paint, but direct observation from life will teach you "what" to paint, and more importantly, "how to see". Now I am not knocking painting from photos - 3 year olds, and bank presidents have neither the time nor the patience to sit for the amount of time it takes to do a high finish portrait from life, and photo reference is more the norm than the exception. But as professional artists, we need the expanded skillset that direct observation gives you.

So come along as I wrestle with this conundrum of translating what I see onto a 2D surface. Heck, start your own sketchbook topic and let's all do it together!

Cheers! :)

Let's start with three from recent weeks sessions and in Sanguine Creatacolor sticks. Times on these varied, with the portrait of the gentleman being the shortest - about an hour and a half.

Enjoy! :)

Edit: One thing to note is that you can see a pretty clear progression in these as I got used to using the creatacolor sticks and adapted to how to model the form with them.

Michael, it's so nice to see you posting again. Welcome back!

Thank you Enzie, it is good to be back. :)

Hi Michael,

I am glad you are posting your sketchbook. I wish I could see a lot of the SOG members drawings. I was lucky to get good advice HERE early on about the photos. My life teacher says that all the critical mistakes are made in the first 2 minutes. That is why he makes us do so many 2 min gestures. My only question about that is, why does it take me 5 minutes to do one? ;)

Looking forward to more,
Donna

Hello Donna and thanks for your comments. :)

I so agree with you that those first minutes are crucial, and as you can see below, it is a lesson I am still learning. :P

I might say that the first session of 20 minutes are when we must be most critical. I used to use the first 20 to place features...these days, I am spending the first two getting placement and proportion right, and then refining it all the way. It is not easy, but Gods is it fun!

Last night's model had such character in her face, and the glasses were wonderful to puzzle out!

Also, I scored about 150 sheets of Fabriano 140lb watercolor paper in 30x40 inch sheets...for free! :) This is the first of many on that paper, it is wonderful!

I toned the ground on this one with powdered sanguine so I could work a bit with the white sticks.

Enjoy!

When model's don't show, the proprietor is often pressed into service. This is Lanette, who runs the Wild Arts Center where I draw each Tuesday, with a "the model didn't show" expression. :)

I am finding that my traditional way of doing charcoals - i.e., blending with bristle brushes - is really what I need to be doing. Took one along last night and the coverage an ability to get smoother transitions over the texture of the paper is superior over either a chamois or fingers.

I am also struggling with "next morning syndrome" - she looked great last night, and this morning, I see drawing errors in her eyes that last night I just did not see...

Last night we had a beautiful young lady whom I have drawn before - Chantelle. She came in her prom dress and I decided to pull out the paints. I fought the surface like mad all night and really need to prep boards for painting weeks in advance as this was just too absorbent and just sucked the paint in like crazy and I had a devil of a time pushing anything back and forth.

Still, there are things I like about it, so here it is.

I got lucky last night - great model, all the stars in alignment, and the drawing somehow fell together quite nicely. I am pleased with this one. :)

I have refined my process with these Cretacolor leads over time. I am beginning with the oil stick to define the shape and place features - it is harder and I can draw more subtle lines, then I switch to the chalk sticks to begin rendering values. Again, blending these with bristle brushes and chamois cloth works wonders! Over time, I am learning how to eliminate that "filling in the lines" look.

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.

Hello Allan and thanks for your thoughtful comments and advice. :)

I got a book last night that was recommended to me by both Linda Brandon and someone over on the Cennini forum - it is "The Artists Complete Guide to Drawing the Head" by William Maughan.

It looks like a wonderful method guide for drawing from life and I intend to devour it and apply it to my works at OS to see if I can further improve. :)

Nicole was our model in open studio tonight. I am pretty happy with this one, getting a better handle on proportions and dropping the lines and doing value-based rendering of the form. Done on Strathmore Velvet Gray paper in sanguine.

Hi Michael,

I am enjoying this thread very much. In this latest drawing and in one or two of the others I wonder if you are doing axis lines to establish alignment of the features. I know that I very often put eyes to flat or I overcompensate and put one eye to high or low and ditto for alignment of lips and nostrils. I find that one way to see problems and perhaps to avoid them is to establish axis lines at the beginging of the drawing process and leave marks visible perhaps outside the edges of the face so alignment can be checked from time to time. I really think that taking a more scuptural approach to the drawing process in the early stages to establish alignment and the basic planes of the head would help you rather than to rely only on shading to establish form.

Keep up the good work.

Michael, I can really appreciate your challenges and can see definite improvement.

I am at the moment teaching one of my students to work with Sanguine. Not many understand the difficulties that this medium presents. One is to keep the pencil sharp for the details.

I tend to think that, If one does not receive instruction in this medium then one is better off working with charcoal. Why charcoal? Because it is more manageable than this red chalk. The charcoal pencils are too oily, more permanent, difficult to erase. So, charcoal sticks are best and if you can get the fusions they are the real deal because they have no hard spots, which can put a gash in your paper, and you have B, HB, H. Plus you can sharpen them to a fine point for detail work.

If you haven't tried these charcoals then it's a must and when you do you will never want any other for these are top of the line. Super Fusians.

I like charcoal because you can really push the darks which I find that Sanguin lacks and one is forced to use a darker value.

I do agree with Peter's suggestion. Have you see Green's DVD on drawing faces? If you haven't you should. He in great detail explains the proportional process and takes you to the finish.

Keep up the good work.

Michael, I don't have any more suggestions. I just wanted to tell you that I see a lot of new things emerging in this drawing. Very exciting progress!

Hey Peter,

Thanks for your feedback! Actually yes, I am starting to work with axis lines and also lines that define the front and side plane of the head. For these last two, I have been doing division as suggested by Maughen of initially locating the eyes at the midpoint of the head, and then dividing by thirds from the hairline to define the brow and nose, and then one third down from the bottom of the nose for the lipline. All of those lines go to a vanishing point off the paper. All of those lines change depending on the horizon line which varies by model position either above or below eye level. I am still getting the hang of it all, but am finding it a very workable system of which, after some additional practice, I will no doubt understand better. :)

Mischa:

Thanks also for your feedback! I have not seen Greene's DVD, but I will look for it. :)

This latest drawing was done using the CarbOthello sanguine pencils that Maugnan recommends in his book. I found the color to be too intense for my taste and will likely go back to my Cretacolor sticks which are not as intense and I felt more workable. I will look for the fusion charcoal sticks you recommend and give them a try as well.

I also have some sticks in umber that I want to give another go.

Alexandra, I have to tell you I am almost jumping up and down at this new process. :)

I am working hard and combining drawing concepts from multiple sources from Harold Speed, to Loomis, to Maughan and what I have learned over time from folks like Bill Whitaker.

I have to tell you, I have NEVER felt more alive than when I am in the middle of one of these drawings. It is electric! :)

Then you are even more rigorous than I am. I was taught to forget about traditional perspective and proportion and to trust your pencil and thumb. Your pencil to establish angles and your thumb and pencil to establish lengths of line. Measured angles and lines will give the perspective and proportions of the object you are drawing and its position in space in relation to other objects.

Of course there are many ways to mutilate a cat. I tell you what though Michael, you are inspiring me to drop the paints for a while and get out the pencil.

Michael it's great that you are having such fun and keeping at it! :thumbsup:

Michael,

I have also very much enjoyed following your sketchbook! I love your open experimentation! I definitely enjoy seeing your shape vs line transition.

I have worked to try to go to one (wish it was more) open studio session per weeek. I know that it helps me every time. And I love the freedom to know I can THROW out the canvas at the end - the learning happens in the process. And, as Enzie says, it is so much fun.

Enzie and Chris, thanks much for your comments! I am actually finding that this method is easier for locating the features than a line method, and it feels so much more organic and free than lines. :)

Natalie, our Open Studio model for this evening. She had really cool hair - all scrunchy and soft. The outside eye is looking off in a slight different angle - why can't I see these things in session? :P But I am pleased with it none the less.

Edit: You know, I have noticed over these weeks that the photos show up all of the mistakes and not much of the "put togetherness" that a piece has. This looks a lot better in person than it does here in the photos! BAH!

EDIT: Took slightly better shots of these.

This is Teddy, model for Open Studio this evening. He was fun and interesting to draw! Such an interesting character and his face was just chock full of land marks!

Changed to umber for this drawing, but still using a middle tone paper. Tried to keep it a bit loose and not overly fuss. Pretty happy with this one. :)

EDIT: Took a better shot this morning - need to wait to post these until I can take photos in the clear light of day.

There are still alignment issues Michael as perhaps you already know - draw a line across the nostrils and the same for the eyes. I have been trying to decide what it is I like about all your new drawings and I think it is their angularity which I find reminiscent of Van Gogh. Whatever you do keep this and perhaps explore its possibilities.

Michael, I'm enjoying this thread so much. I keep checking back to see your latest sketches. Each one is an improvement is some way, and I think your progress is accelerated by your willingness to try different techniques and materials. Very exciting to see!

Peter, thanks for your comments. Yep, I see the issue with the angles of features. :)

Alex: Thank you for your kind words. I will be posting a "progress report" soon with my first drawing since I picked this up again, and my latest side by side.

I want to show that dramatic progress in drawing can be had in a relatively short time - for me, it has been about 16 weeks. And while I still have a VAST distance to go, I am quickly loosing my fear of it and gaining confidence in my ability to get a likeness and produce a descent drawing (a minimum for every portrait artist) - even with the current "lyrical imperfections" in my drawings. :P

If its any consolation I just put my current piece on the monitor and found exactly the same problems :) I am serious about the angularity - it gives the drawings strength, immediacy and honesty.

Yea, I agree with you Peter. A wonderful wacky thing is how many different styles I am seeing pop out of these drawings. My work in the past has been hallmarked by very technical rendering and high finish and what is coming out of some of these is so organic and raw and as you said - immediate feeling.

I cannot help but believe that these are going to have a dramatic effect on my more finished work long-term. :thumbsup:

I shall follow what happens with great interest Michael.