Violinist Portrait Drawing & Brooklyn, New York

Here’s my last drawing in Toledo, Ohio. This is Virgil who plays for the Toledo Symphony. Virgil modeled one day for the Toledo Portrait Artists. He did an excellent job holding the pose.

I was feeling good at this session. I created two nice drawings within two hours, I was hoping to draw more but including his hand and violin in my drawing slowed me down.  Usually I just sketch the portrait but I wanted to sketch that hand and violin. Here’s when I had a great time working on this piece. I like when models wear glasses or hats or when they are holding something, so drawing the hands and top part of the violin was awesome! It adds more to the drawing, and makes it a bigger challenge. For me this is three drawings in one, the portrait, the hand and the violin, all three needed special attention.

I wish I had bigger paper for this drawing. I really wanted to keep drawing the bottom part of the violin and the other hand holding the bow. I could have sketched smaller but when I do that it loses detail and I like drawing bold and sitting up close.

I stayed focused on these drawings because we only had one 2-hr session with model. When I felt finished with the drawing, I quickly tried to sketch a profile drawing in 30 minutes. Virgil played for us at the end of class: Meditation by Thais. It was beautiful, a real treat for the artist.  Thank you, Virgil.

So I’m now living in Brooklyn, New York. I’ve got a nice place to stay, and I'm now attending classes at the New York Academy of Art! I’ll be posting my school work.

Goodbye Toledo, I will miss you, and hello New York, I’m ready for a new adventure.

Drawing a Portrait With Eye Glasses

Here are two portrait studies from a recent Al Hyter Portrait drawing session. They had an excellent model, she did an excellent job holding her pose and she wore her eye glasses. I love it when portrait models wear a hat, ball caps, jewelry, a pencil on the ear, or eye glasses.  It adds so much more depth to the piece and it often makes it a bigger drawing challenge, that's what i enjoy the most. The best part for me is not the finished piece, it's the drawing process. I finish a drawing in about 20 minutes, then I'm looking forward to starting a new one from a different angle.

Saturday morning portrait artist: The Al Hyter Group

Last Saturday morning, we had a new model at the Al Hyter portrait group.  Her name is Meti and she's from Ethiopia, Africa. Nice person, I enjoyed drawing her portrait.  Meti has beautiful bold eyes, nose, lips, great for portrait drawing.  We especially liked the way Meti draped a yellow shawl over her head, it adds more depth, visual texture.

I created this slide show so you can see the artists that attend the portrait sessions. They are a great bunch! Notice the intense concentration.  I think this is one of the reasons why we attend, it helps us produce good work.

Portrait Drawing: White Bearded Man

Another good Saturday morning portrait drawing session at the Al Hyter portrait group.  This model is great, he can really hold his pose well. This time around the hair on his head was a little wild, it was great for drawing: added more depth, shape, and emotion!

This drawing session was fun, I was giving tips to fellow artists on their drawings.  It's always good for me to hear myself share my views, knowledge, and techniques with others. There is so much thought I put into a portrait drawing that I'm not aware of until I start talking to others.

Here's something I do with almost all my portraits:  I like positioning my drawing pad in landscape to draw a portrait. I like a lot of white space (negative space) on both sides of the portrait drawing, it's what gives depth to the piece.

Portrait Sketch, Elderly Man & White Beard

This past Saturday, I attended the Al Hyter Portrait art session in Toledo, Ohio. They have a new model for the next four Saturdays. This model has a white beard, which is great for portrait drawing. The beard adds more shapes and depth to the face. I have to be careful not to get caught up in drawing the hair from the beard, instead focus on the shape of the beard, as if the model had smashed potatoes on the chin.

When I draw portraits I'm constantly looking and drawing the shapes on the face: The shapes of the eyes, the nose, lips, head, ears, collar, forehead, hair. Believe it or not, I just draw shapes and when I'm done the viewer sees a portrait.

I had fun drawing this model, looking forward to sketching him again on next Saturday's portrait session.

Portrait Study: Young Man & Hat

I haven't been drawing in a long time. I had a dry spell.  I get that sometimes, good or bad I don't know. When I look back at my drawings I say to myself, "Wow! Those are nice sketches! Did I do that?" It's a weird feeling.  Perhaps its good to step away from my art for a while, it's a humbling feeling when I return. 

I haven't gone portrait drawing in a long time, finally had a Saturday morning off from my part time job. It felt good to visit the Al Hyter portrait drawing group in Toledo, Ohio. I was a little rusty with my technique at first, but after a couple of drawings, I warmed up and I felt comfortable with my medium and was having fun sketching. 

Portrait of Sara

I attended Saturday morning's Al Hyter Portrait Session and produced these two nice pieces. The model's name is Sara, she modeled for the month of March and did a great job holding her pose still.

I really enjoy drawing portraits, they are incredibly challenging. Of course the big challenge is capturing the likeness of the model and I believe these two drawings look just like Sara. But one element I can’t capture in a group portrait session is the model's true character.

I say this because in a group environment of portrait artists, we have to compromise the model's pose. The model arrives at the studio nicely dressed, sits on a podium so everyone can see the model with a lamp turned on to highlight the face and gives us a simple pose so that all the artists attending can have a nice and beautiful view of the model. Here's where we lose some of the model's character and all the artists know and understand this. We use this time to practice our skill, to have the opportunity to produce art, and to take time out of our busy lives to be amongst artists and friends. It's a compromise all the artists understand and accept.

So how can we capture a model's character in a portrait? Well, the other day I saw Sara at a local mom-n-pop style restaurant. She was working there taking food orders from customers. Sara looked appropriate for the working environment: casually dressed, hair bundled up in a pony tail, wearing eyeglasses with a beautiful decorative frame and when I saw Sara smiling, talking to customers and taking orders on a notepad, the first thing that came to mind was, “this is the type of portrait I want to capture”. Here is were I believe a portrait artist captures a person's true character, when people are themselves in their environment.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE, GRAPHITE ON PAPER 14" x 17"

portrait Drawing Male Teenager

Today we had two new models at the Al Hyter portrait drawing group in Toledo Ohio, Joseph and Jessie, two teenagers with their own unique character. This portrait is of Joseph, he has a great hair style for drawing. I like the way the length of his hair makes a nice shape for drawing. His hair is parted at the face so it frames his eyes, nose, lips and chin. I really enjoyed creating Joseph's portrait. Next Saturday I'll sketch the other model, Jessie.

Good drawing music was played at the portrait drawing session today:

• Fiddler on The Roof
• Simon & Garfunkel
• Ray Davies

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Full Figure Portrait Drawing of Heather

Here's one of my drawings of Heather from yesterday's Al Hyter portrait session. This was Heather's last modeling session. A good crowd of artists showed up. Everyone produced nice pieces, and Bruce the organizer played some interesting folk music.

The portrait sessions are two hour, so the first hour I created a close up portrait of Heather. Then in the second hour I decided to created a full figure portrait. Here's where all the figure drawing sessions I've attended at Geiger Studios comes in handy: sketching this full figure with chair in 20 minutes came easy to me. I approached this drawing like I would a nude figure drawing. I started with a gesture drawing to make sure the figure would fit and that all main shapes were proportional, then I began to add detail and tone. Creating this piece was rewarding, it's a reminder that I have to keep attending these drawing session and draw daily on my own to improve my drawing skills. It's what it takes for me to become a better skilled artist.

I'm already looking forward to next Saturday's new model.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE