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 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 Restaurant Owner: The Budapest

I attended the Al Hyter Portrait Group on Saturday morning and created these two portraits. The model's name is Robert and he is the owner of the restaurant, The Budapest, on Monroe Street in Toledo, Ohio.

Seems like creating art or in this case drawing portraits always has an adventure and a journey. Every month the Al Hyter group has two new models and we, the artists, get to meet and learn about interesting and unique people that we probably never would come across or have met on our own.

Meeting Robert was interesting to me because I pass the Budapest restaurant when I go to my Wednesday night figure drawing sessions. The restaurant is in an old brick building. It’s a diner style restaurant, and always has a warm and cozy glow when I pass in the evenings. So whenever I pass by I’m intrigued and often think about someday visiting. Well I made a portrait of Robert, got to know him and felt it was fate, I had to visit his restaurant. I had lunch at the Budapest and really enjoyed the food, the environment and the company; the place has a lot of character. I highly recommend visiting the Budapest.

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

Portrait of Young Woman

I attend Saturday morning Al Hyter portrait group in Toledo, Ohio. They have two new models, but since it’s a two-hour session I focused on drawing one model. I first created the ¾ view then created the profile. It was cold in the room so my arms and hands felt a little stiff but I still had a good time drawing these two nice pieces.

I feel all my recent drawing is paying off because I felt comfortable drawing these portraits. I was confident creating the cross hatch texture, proportions, sighting, and composition. It’s a good feeling for me. I’m looking forward to next Saturday’s portrait session; I’ll focus on drawing the 2^nd model.

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

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

Bust Drawing - Guitar Player Man

Here's another drawing I created at The Toledo Portrait Artist Group, Saturday mornings 9am-12pm. They hire two models for 4 weekends giving the artists plenty of time to complete a painting. Next Saturday will be the model's last posing session. I'll miss the guitar player, he plays good James Taylor tunes.

When I attend portrait sessions, I enjoy creating drawings of the models. Some of the members use paint, some use charcoal, but I like using a sharp Ebony pencil and Strathmore drawing paper, I feel these two mediums help me develop better drawing skills quickly. Plus I like pencil and paper because I can set up fast, move around the model easily and I can often finish several pieces in one session.

I've really enjoyed drawing the guitar player. This Saturday I decided to sketch him from straight on and it was more difficult then I thought. It was a challenge to draw the hands, guitar and face proportionally on one page. I finished at the tail end of the session, with not enough time to start a new drawing so I sketched a quick profile of the model on the right side of this drawing.

Portrait Drawing - Male Guitar Player

I attended a portrait drawing session this morning, I had a great time and completed this nice piece. I decided to position my
Strathmore Drawing Paper Pad in portrait position as opposed to landscape because I wanted to draw the head and hands bigger.

I used Ebony graphite pencils. The model sits for 20-minute sessions before breaks.

1. In 1st 20-minutes, I began with quick gesture drawing of head and hands to make sure both elements were going to fit. Then I sketched in head.
   
2. In 2nd 20-minutes, I started sketching the hands.
3. In 3rd and 4th 20-minutes, I worked on detailing both head and hands and building the contrast.

This was the result. I'm happy with it. O ya, I forgot to mention I created this piece while listening to good country music :)