Pencil Portrait Lessons

Change of Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 23:15:00 +0000

Sometimes art takes you in a different direction than you had originally planned. In my last post I presented a reference photo and had created a preliminary sketch on paper to begin a pencil drawing of the female form. That project sat for a long time and I never completed it. There was always something that kept me away from it. Other projects, other interests (roller derby being one of them) and basic life in general pretty much kept me away from art for several months.

Then I read a book by Jacqueline Carey called Kushiel's Dart. I became completely enraptured with the main character of that book, Phedre no Delaunay. One day I was looking at the original photograph that I had taken of my model, Tamara Tenny, and I realized that I was looking at a photograph of Phedre. Everything from the curve of her back to the expression on her face was that character to me and it dawned on me that as I had been reading, I had been seeing her in the character.

That, for me, is where technique moves into the realm of art. I could no longer be satisfied with simply creating a drawing that demonstrated technique. I had to create the character that I had become so obsessed with. I had to create a work of art that brought about the same emotion in me that I experienced while reading the book. So, I started over.

There was no way I could express what I wanted in a work that was only 11x14. So, I searched my stash and found a sheet of 20x30 cold press illustrator board that would work perfectly. It's smooth finish was ideal for the techniques I use and with that size, I would be able to capture that beauty that was the character. Not only the physical beauty, but the beauty of her personality.

Background

Kushiel's Dart is set in a mythical world several hundred years ago. The kind of wall that my model was standing against is not appropriate for that time period. It is also not appropriate for the upper class world in which the character existed. My original thought was to have her standing in front of a marble pillar that would be illuminated by the light at the lower left but fade into blackness on the right. But the more I studied the work as I was creating it, the more I realized that too many things would be lost in the contrast of the darkness against her hair and that contrast with the body being lit from the distant light source on the right would be way too much. So, instead of a marble pillar, I decided to go with a solid marble wall. A Google image search brought me several options that I could choose from, but none of the results were really what I was looking for. In the end, I simply created my own marble based on many of the images that I had found.

I began by sketching in some of the striations and deformities that would be inherent in the marble. Then starting in the lower left corner I began VERY lightly laying in some graphite, making sure that there was a lot of variation in the level of intensity (for more information about my techniques in laying down graphite and using the tortillion, please see my Lessons page.) Once the graphite was laid down, I used a medium sized tortillion to smooth and blend the graphite to create a line free depiction of a marble wall.

I normally start a portrait from the eyes and work my way out. But since this one was so large, I was afraid that if I did not work from left to right, I would end up accidentally damaging work by laying my hand on a finished area. I also wanted to make sure I utilized the same light source in the finished piece as I did in the photograph. In the photograph, the light was coming from a directional lamp that I had on the floor pointing up. My vision of the drawing is that she is standing near a fireplace and the illumination is coming from the fire.

The Stages

There is not much to tell about the following images. If you have followed my lessons in the past then you know that I do not draw objects or people. I simply recreate lights and shadows using graphite. For the lighter areas I used a Derwent 2B woodless graphite pencil and for the darker areas, like the drape she is holding and her hair, I used a Derwent 6B woodless graphite pencil. If you have any questions about anything you see here, please email me and let me know. Or comment on this post.

The last thing to do for this project was to create the tattoo that is a very important part of the story of Kushiel's Dart. The problem I ran into was that I did not agree with the publisher's official design. To me it did not evoke what was described in the book. So, I decided to create my own tattoo design based on what I saw while I was reading.

"With some effort, I recognised the underlying design, which was based on a very old pattern, the briar rose. Somehow Master Tielhard had kept the dramatic vigor of the archaic lines, yet infused them with a subtlety that spoke at once of the vine, the bond and the lash. The thorny lines were stark black, accented in only a few choice hollows with a teardrop of scarlet - a petal, a drop of blood, the mote in my eye."
(Phèdre no Delaunay, Kushiel's Dart)

The following image is the completed piece with my own version of Phedre's Marque.

New Graphite Project: Tammi

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 16:40:00 +0000

I have been getting a lot of requests from people to expand upon the pencil portrait lessons and start working on the full body instead of just the face. I have been blessed with the friendship of an amazing woman that has agreed to, not only be my model, but to co-write my next book with me. The book will cover as many aspects of drawing the female form realistically as possible. To that end, I would really like to hear from you. What would you like to see in this book? What areas do you have problems with that you would like to see us cover?

We are just getting started with the art for this book and have done very little writing at this point. But we have done an amazing photo shoot that I'm sure you will absolutely love as reference material for your own learning.

Over the next few weeks, as we begin work on the book, we will be posting a series of lessons that will deal with a bit more than just the face. The photo we have chosen for this lesson includes muscle definition in the back, dramatic lighting, Tattoos, fabric and a texture for the background. The following image is what we will be using for this project.

We will be working with:

Strathmore Bristol smooth 100 lb stock 11 x 14.
A good quality 2B pencil
A click eraser
A selection of tortillions

If you have any questions regarding any of the tools please see the lesson entitled The Right Tools.

I choose to work with Strathmore Bristol smooth 100 lb stock because I like to get as smooth of a surface as possible in order to get a nice even blend with the shading. But here is a little tip for getting an even smoother surface. The face of the paper is designed with a certain texture specific for certain artistic needs. But if you turn the paper over and use the back side, you will find that it is even smoother still.

Once the tools have been gathered you have to create your initial sketch. I go over several methods of doing this in a previous tutorial called Creating the Initial Sketch. The method that you choose is entirely up to you and what you are comfortable with. As in previous lessons, we are working from a photograph instead of creating a figure out of nothing. So make the best use you can out of the reference available.

Below is a scan of my initial sketch. Please note that the lines you see here are a lot darker than what is actually on my paper. You can barely see what is on my paper so I had to enhance the image a great deal in order to show it to you. Remember that you will be erasing or drawing over all of these lines as you progress so you want them very light and easy to erase. Also, if you put too much pressure with the pencil on your initial sketch you will cause indentations in the paper. If you need to blend over those indentations (as will be done with the definitions in her back and with the draping) you will end up with very unpleasant lines where the graphite is having to work over them.

As you can see, I only sketched out the roughest of details in order to use as a guideline for the rest of the work. At this point I have some decisions to make. Mainly in what order to work on the various elements. Most likely I will start with the face because it is most important for detail. If the face does not work correctly then the entire project will look wrong and I will have to start over. From there I will move to her body, likely starting with her left hand and making my way towards the right. Since I am right handing, this will lessen the chances of my hand damaging work I have already done. Then I will work on the wall behind her. This is going to take a lot more work that you might imagine because of the texture detail. If done incorrectly it could look flat and boring or it could be way too exaggerated and completely take away from the beauty of the subject. We want the viewer's eye to be drawn to her, not the background. Finally we will work on the fabric and hair. I want to leave the darkest areas for last because using that much graphite can get very messy if you aren't careful, plus there is a technique to getting a darker coverage but in order to do that, the rest of the image needs to be complete.

That's it for now. Mull over what I have said here. Work on getting you supplies together and creating your initial sketch. I will be back in a few days to talk about the next step.

First Art Tutorial Video: Yellow Rose Colored Pencil

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 11:57:00 +0000

This is the first of what I hope to be a long series of art tutorial videos. This image is the finished project. So, click play on the video below and enjoy.

Supplies List:

Strathmore Smooth Bristle acid free 100 lb white paper

Prismacolor Art Markers:

Dark Green (art marker)
Canary Yellow (art marker)

Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils:

Carmine Red PC926
Mineral Orange PC1033
Warm Gray 20% PC1051
Canary Yellow PC916
Sienna Brown PC945
White PC938
Dark Green PC908

Art for Alzheimer patients.

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:41:00 +0000

Art for therapy has always been very important in my life. When I was a teenager and a young adult, I used art to help me get through tough times. My art was how I expressed the difficulties I was going through. Recently I have seen more and more people promoting the use of art for healing purposes. This video on CNN shows how art is used to enrich the lives of people with Alzheimer.

Tuesday Afternoon - The Evolution of the Design

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:10:00 +0000

The Inspiration

A couple of years ago I drew a quick sketch that I stuck away in a sketch book and forgot about. A few weeks ago I was going through my old sketches and it caught my eye. As I was looking at it, a finished piece started to form in my mind. I imagined a faerie sitting on a the hands of a clock with a couple of birds.

The sketch itself had some problems and needed some work, so I spent a few minutes fixing those issues and went looking for reference material for the final piece.

The Elements

I can't remember life as an artist before the internet and Photoshop. I must have blocked it out because life is so much easier now. What used to take hours at the library searching for reference material and possibly days drawing and redrawing to come up with the perfect design can now be done in a very short time.

I sat at my trusty laptop and searched for three things: a clock face, doves and wings. I found three images that I liked and saved them. I separated the doves from an image that contained several birds and started putting the image together.

Layout

The composition of a piece of artwork is as important as the composition of a great piece of music. All of the elements must work with each other and they must fit into a framework that is pleasing to the viewer. Centuries of studying great artists have lead to the discovery of the use of the Golden Mean.

The Golden Mean, or Golden Ratio, is a geometrical concept derived from the mathematical Pi. There are tons of websites that describe how it all works on a mathematical level involving the Fibonacci Sequence. But for our purposes on this site, I am simply going to show you what it looks like when drawn visually.

So what does this have to do with artistic composition? For some reason that has yet to be accurately explained, the human brain absolutely loves this visual design. The eye follows the spiral line to it's natural conclusion and everyone is happy. Have you ever noticed that vacation snap shots tend to be boring, but professional images of the same locations can be stunning? We live in a very ordered society. Everything has to be compartmentalized, labeled and put in its place. So when we take a snap shot we try to do the same thing. We put our main subject directly in the center and the horizon line exactly halfway down. The professional photographer does not do that. They almost always have the main subject off center and the horizon line is never in the middle. The closer the photographer composes his shot to the Golden Mean, the more appealing his final image will be. The same goes for art. It doesn't matter what direction the spiral is going, but the elements in your final design should always follow its lead.

With all of this in mind I started putting my elements together in Photoshop for a first draft of the design. I liked this ok, but it did not have the dynamic pop that I was looking for. It did not express the emotion that I was wanting to present and the faerie, as well as the doves, got lost in the mass of purple I used for the clock face. It did not looks so much like constructed work of art as it did a really weird acid trip.

I also noticed that I put the clock hand right across the middle. Essentially putting the horizon line exactly where I was not supposed to put the horizon line.

Finally, the image was very top heavy. The bottom of the image was just empty space.

Fixing the design

The first thing I decided to do was to create my own clock face instead of relying on photo reference from the internet. This was simple enough to do in Photoshop. I'm not going to go into detail here about how to use Photoshop, there are lots of tutorial based web sites that will give you all of the information you need to know. Once I got the clock face created I decided that instead of making the whole thing one solid color, I would turn the clock face itself into a stained glass window.

I remembered one of my art books having a tutorial on how to create stained glass using watercolor. So, I scanned an image from that book as an additional element to my composition. I knew I was not going to use this exact stained glass design for my final image, but this would at least allow me to do a mock-up to use as a guide for my finished piece.

I found a different reference for the wings. I did a LOT of distorting a duplicating in Photoshop to get the wings to look exactly the way I wanted them. Then I had to deal with the empty space at the bottom. The faerie obviously had a piece of fabric wrapped around her body, so I decided to continue that fabric into a long drape that she was sitting on. A quick web search resulted in a window drape that worked nicely with a bit of tweaking and distortion.

Final Draft

So here is my final draft. In future postings I will talk about the processes of designing the stained glass, transferring the design and how to bring each of the elements to life.

Yellow Rose - A Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Sat, 22 May 2010 13:19:00 +0000

Pencil Portrait Lessons is going color! I am currently working on a new book called The Real World of Colored Pencil. As I create the tutorials for that book, I will be presenting them here. Those that read this site will have access to them long before the book is ever released.

So, let's get started!

Our Goal This image is our final goal. I decided to create this tutorial because it demonstrates a very important issue when dealing with color: The importance of seeing the colors that actually exist. At first you might think that all you need to represent the petals is yellow and maybe red. The background looks like it might be just a couple of colors of green. The reality is I used 12 different colors to create this final image.
Decision Time This is the original photograph that we will be working from. Before you start, many decisions must be made. My first decision was realism. How realistic do I want to make my final piece. I decided to go with a more artistic look as apposed to seeking photo-realism. I wanted a soft, but powerful image. The next decision was cropping. I wanted the flower to stand out and make a strong statement. So, I made the background considerably smaller than the flower itself. Next decision was tools. Paper was easy to decide on. I wanted bright vivid colors so the paper needed to be pure white. I also wanted a smooth finish without texture but enough of a tooth to get good solid pigment coverage. I went with Strathmore Smooth Bristle acid free 100 lb white. After spending a couple of hours studying the image and looking closely at the colors it contained, I decided to go with the following Prismacolore Premier Pencils and Art Markers: Dark Green (art marker) Canary Yellow (art marker) Carmine Red PC926 Mineral Orange PC1033 Warm Gray 20% PC1051 Canary Yellow PC916 Sienna Brown PC945 White PC938 Dark Green PC908 Spring Green PC913 Periwinkle PC1025 Black Grape PC996
Sketch I created the initial sketch with a Derwent 2B drawing pencil. The sketch was a lot lighter than what you see here, but it was necessary to enhance it so you could see what I have done.
Underpainting There are many ways that you can do an underpainting. You can use watercolor, watercolor pencil, markers or any number of media. I decided to use the Prismacolor Premier Art Markers. An underpainting is important because colored pencils are difficult to completely cover an area. In most cases, little bits of the paper will show through unless you really overdo the pigment. I used to do that and suffered from a problem called Wax Bloom. I put so much wax on the paper that over time it all rose to the surface and clouded the original image making it dull and lackluster. Using the Canary Yellow and the Dark Green art markers I quickly laid in the base colors for the image. I was not too concerned at the point on making it look smooth since I was going to cover the whole thing with pencil anyway.
Canary Yellow Marker I want the background to be dynamic. I want it to give the illusion that there is more vegetation behind the rose, but the detail is out of focus. One of the fantastic properties of the Prismacolor art markers is you can blend a light color right on top of a darker color without damaging the lighter marker. In this case, I used the technique to put in some yellow/green patches. Later, this will allow for some very interesting colored pencil effects.
Carmine Red PC926 Colored pencils are transparent. Because of this it is beneficial to work with darker colors first. Lighter colors can be used over the darker ones making blending fairly simple. Here I used the red on the tips of some of the petals and used light circular strokes to start laying in some of the shadow areas. This is the beginning of defining the depth or the image. Also note the red that was added to the stem. The key to good colored pencil is working in layers. This is starting the first layer. Don't forget to pay close attention to your original reference photo. Everything you need to know for you work is in the photo. Study it very carefully and refer to it constantly.
Mineral Orange PC1033 The orange is used to further enhance the shadowed areas and to blend some of the red that was laid down in the last step.
Warm Gray 20% PC1051 A lot of artist will reach for black the instant they want to darken something. It is better to use a value of gray. I chose warm gray for this because the yellows and reds are warm colors. I chose 20% because I did not want to go extremely dark, I just wanted to desaturate some areas giving the impression of depth. Remember, art is nothing more than an illusion. We want the brain to look at some of the petals and think they are actually behind the others, when in reality it is nothing more than a two dimensional image. Desaturating color is a excellent way to establish this illusion.
Canary Yellow PC916 The bright Canary Yellow is used over all of the flower. It is also used to blend all of the colors you have laid down so far, resulting in a much smoother transition from color to color.
White PC938 Don't forget to keep in mind that all you are doing is reproducing light and shadow. Look closely at the original photo and notice where they light reflects the brightest. Those areas appear to be white. The next step in creating this illusion is to add white colored pencil to those area.
Mineral Orange PC1033 The next layer of Mineral Orange is used to further deepen the shadowed areas.
Canary Yellow PC916 The final layer of yellow is applied pretty heavy. Use the yellow as a burnishing layer to blend and smooth out the rest of the colors.
Sienna Brown PC945 At this point I decided that there was not enough contrast between the lighter and darker areas. I considered using a darker gray, but I was not looking to mute the color. I was looking to make the color more dramatic. So, I used the Sienna Brown in the darkest areas. That darker color against the white highlights really added dimension and color to the project.
Dark Green PC908 Finally we get to start on the background. Put a thin layer of Dark Green over the entire background. You don't want to cover everything up. Make sure the yellow areas can be clearly seen through the layer of green. Also notice that the leaves of the rose now get a layer of green to differentiate them from the flower itself. Pay close attention to the stem. Using the Dark Green, lay in the shadow areas of the stem.
Spring Green PC913 Spring Green is used to fill out the lighter green areas of the background as well and lay in the lighter areas of the stem.
Periwinkle PC1025 If you looked closely at the original photograph you noticed that there was a lot of light blue in the bacgkround as well as the stem of the flower. I chose Periwinkle for the blue because it blends very well with the greens that we just finished using.
Dark Green PC908 Final layer for the Dark Green. Use it to deepen the contrast between the lighter green and the blue. More contrast means more drama. If we really want to make this image pop, we should attempt to make it dramatic.
Black Grape PC996 The only real purpose for the Black Grape was to outline the border. The dark tones in this color complement the blues and reds in the rest of the image. It may be subtle, but the brain will pick up on it. Using a solid black would not have been near as pleasant. I used a short plastic ruler as a straight edge to make sure the lines were as perfect as I could get them. Then I used the Dark Green to fill in some areas that remained white between the border and the background.

That wraps it up for this tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Thank you so much for joining me in this project. I look forward to sharing more projects and discussions soon.

David Deen - Everybody should have one

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:45:00 +0000

This image was created by an incredible artist by the name of David Deen. I have the true honor of calling him my friend. He created this image as a book cover for War of the Outcast written by another good friend: Michales Warwick Joy.

I met David at the first Science Fiction Fantasy convention that I ever attended. His work was absolutely stunning and I made it a goal to get to know him that weekend. I am so happy that I did. Like any other aspiring artist, I was full of questions about techniques and how to possibly make a living with art. When I asked him how he makes his colored pencil work so realistic, he gave me four bits of advice.

Don't be afraid to use dark colors
Use a lot of pigment
Use good quality pencils
Focus on one inch of your work at a time

I took his advice and immediately following the convention I purchased a good set of PrismaColor pencils and created Monarch; the first of my butterfly series.

In the years since, David has gone on to be one of the most popular artists in the midwest convention circuit, he has created many book covers and most recently worked on a popular young adult series called Groovy Tubes. Be sure to check out Groovy Tubes: Mythical Beasts at Amazon.

David has been a true inspiration to me and is the primary reason why I became an artist instead of just using art as a hobby. When I met him, my work was amateur at best, but he saw potential and treated me as an equal artist. Each of us needs a David in our lives. Someone that encourages us and believes in our dreams. Someone that not only sees us for who we are but sees us for who we will be.

I encourage you to seek out local artists, go to art shows and talk to them, comment on their blogs and get to know them. What you will learn from them can be amazing and take your life in wonderful directions.

I owe a debt of gratitude to David and I highly recommend you check out his web site - www.daviddeen.com. If you are interested in learning his artistic techniques, check out his newsletter Imprint. He has two series on his site, one detailing an incredible work of art using colored pencil and the other using acrylics.

If you have your own version of David Deen, your own artistic inspiration, please let us know in the comments. We love to promote other artists and to hear their success stories.

Art for Therapy

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:26:00 +0000

There are many uses for art, but one of the most important uses is almost always overlooked. We use art for decoration and visual pleasure. We use it as a way of sharing with family and friends. But art is far more than that. Art is a method of healing. Everything from depression to the effects of cancer treatments can be treated using art as a form of therapy. This short film introduces several people that use art to enhance their healing process every day.

A Woman’s Touch: The National Museum of Women in the Arts

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Mon, 03 May 2010 00:31:00 +0000

Colored Pencils - Tools of the Trade

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:35:00 +0000

So, let's talk a little bit about the actual pencils that are used in colored pencil art. Most people will be tempted to go cheap and pick up a set at a dollar store or in the kid's section of a hobby store. If you are really serious about creating art with colored pencil you will avoid this temptation like the plague.

What's the Difference?

Here's the deal. Colored pencils are a combination of a pigment and a medium. Normally that medium is either wax or a combination of wax and clay. The problem with cheap colored pencils is that they contain way too much wax and not near enough pigment. The result is that your drawing will end up with so
much wax that you can't possibly get enough pigment on the paper to get the rich colors that you desire. That is why so many colored pencil pieces look like coloring book drawings.

So don't skimp out. In order to create the effects that we will be working on here, you will have to have a good quality set of colored pencils. I recommend either Prismacolor or Derwent. Both are very good quality. I personally prefer Prismacolor simply because that is what I started out with and I am comfortable with them.

Color fastness

Some people avoid using colored pencil at all because they fear the color fastness of the medium. They are afraid that the colors will fade over time. While this may be the case with cheap pencils, there really is nothing to fear with a good quality product unless your finished pieces are going to sit in direct sunlight all of the time. The pigments in colored pencils are just as colorfast as the pigments that are in watercolor and pastel. In fact, in many cases, they are the exact same pigments.

If you are still concerned, Prismacolor came out with a line of colorfast pencils not too long ago. They are a little more expensive, but if you have a serious concern about color fading, you might consider trying them out.

Sets or Individual Pencils?

This is entirely up to you. If you want to invest the money into a good quality set, go right ahead. If you are a bit hesitant then try just a few at a time. As we progress in through these lessons I will tell you exactly
what colors I am using for each project. so, if you want to just purchase one at a time at a local hobby store, you will eventually end up with a pretty nice set of the colors you will use the most.

The future of PencilPortrait.org

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:48:00 +0000

With the recent publication of my new book, The Real World of Pencil Portraits, I have decided to take this site in a slightly new direction. For many years I have been working with colored pencil. With the right techniques you can do some amazing thing with the medium.

The first few posts coming up will be mostly about the tools needed for vivid colored pencil artwork. Then we will start with a small project to learn some basic techniques. As we move into larger projects we will eventually get into stunning color portrait work.

Here are a couple of examples of my past art to let you know how powerful the colored pencil medium can be.

I want to thank everyone so much for all of the support you have given me since I started this web site. I look forward to hearing from each and everyone of you as we move forward.

The Real World of Pencil Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Since I created this site I have received countless requests to publish my lessons in a book that people could take with them or give to loved ones as gifts. You have all encouraged me with your feedback on my pencil portrait lessons, and as I result, I have given you what you have asked for. This is the first in an upcoming series of art instruction books.

Art doesn’t have to be difficult and complicated. Artistic ability doesn’t have to be granted from a divine being. This series of books will show you how to make art simple. You will be able to create wonderful works of art that your friends and family will cherish forever, and all you will need is to learn a few simple techniques and understand a few simple concepts.

So here it is! The first in the “Real World of Art” series: “The Real World of Pencil Portraits.”

You can learn more about the book from either the publisher’s web site at Real World Book Publishing, or at Amazon.

The Art of Art - A Search for the Definition

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:44:00 +0000

Over the years I have experimented with many forms of art. Invariably, I have had people say things like, "That looks really nice, but it isn't real art." For example, this piece was created by taking three different photographs, putting them together in Photoshop and applying some artistic filters. The complaints that I recieved were that I didn't create anything, all I did was put photographs together and apply filters.

So, I opened Photoshop again and I created this image. This was created entirely in Photoshop but I did not use any photographs, I simply used the software as my medium. Again I was hit with, "That looks really nice, but it isn't real art." Why? Because I didn't use physical materials. I was told that anyone can create images that look good on a computer, but not everyone can take pencil to paper or paint to canvas and come up with a work of art.

Pencil to paper! I went to work. I created these three images using graphite pencils and artist's paper. Surely no one is going to complain about this. "That looks really nice, but it isn't real art." What? What's wrong with this one? It seems that replicating an existing photograph without making any "artistic" changes to it, keeps it from being art.

Ok, so that leads to the question: what is art? What are the elements required to make something a work of art? I took a long voyage of research to come up with answers to those questions, and I found them. In fact, I found so many answers that there is no way I could possibly include them in this article. Besides that almost every single definition I found of art contradicted every one else's definition. It seems that discussing the definition of art is almost as explosive as discussing politics and religion. What a dilemma. How was I supposed to come up with a definition of art for my blog post in a situation like this?

Time for a trip to the St. Louis Art Museum. I spent a lot of time on the main floor studying the old masters. I marveled at the skill and talent that was on display. Then I went upstairs. One of the first things I ran into was the Rock Circle. Um....what happened to the skill and talent I marveled at on the main floor? This was just a pile of rocks in a circle, anyone can do this.

Then I came across Spectrum II. Well it looks really nice, but it isn't real art. I mean anyone can take canvases, paint them a solid color and then hang them all in a row....right?

Photo by Gabriel

Yeah, that's right. I had become the very person that was complaining about my own art. As far as I could tell, I was looking at things that took no skill whatsoever, it couldn't possibly be art. Yet these works were on display at one of the country's premier art museums.

I had decided that art could not be defined by skill and talent. As an artist I decided that it must simply be defined by the fact that the creator of the work declared it art. But as I looked at the world around me I came to the conclusion that there had to be a different definition. I started seeing buildings as works of art. Meals presented at restaurants, wind and water erosion, rust on old pieces of metal, the patterns of stripes on a house cat all started to appeal to my artistic senses. So, does that mean that art is in the eye of the beholder? Maybe, but that doesn't really sound right either.

Time to turn to the old standby...Wikipedia! Here is what they say about art:

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature.

Ok, so that doesn't really work for me either, but it is the closest I have found yet. I have at least learned that I was as guilty as anyone else when it comes to being an art snob and I have broadened my appreciation of art in the process. The bottom line is this, don't ever let anyone tell you that your work isn't "real art." But at the same time, if you are quick to judge what others think is art, maybe you should take another look.

The purpose of this site

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 05:55:00 +0000

This site is starting to get a very large number of readers. As such, I think it is important that I attempt to explain exactly what it is that I am trying to do here. However, I think I should also explain what this site is not. My purpose in this site is not to teach art or to help people become artists. The purpose of this site is to teach a technique that can be used to recreate any photograph as a graphite drawing. I focus on portraits, because they are extremely popular.

So do I consider this technique a form of art? Actually, no, I do not. Allow me to explain why. Art is something special. It comes from the creativity of the artist. It is something that is inspired. I personally do not believe that art can be taught. No one can teach you how to be inspired, it is a spark that comes from deep inside each individual person. That being said, it is possible to teach techniques that are used in the creation of art.

That is what I am doing. I am teaching some techniques. Primarily, I am teaching how to use a tortillion. I am also teaching how to see. But first and foremost I am teaching how to use the tools.

Using what I teach on this website you can create a pencil portrait of a family member or of a beloved pet and give it as a Christmas present or hang it above you fireplace.

What is important to understand is that I am teaching a very limited range of techniques. At some point in the future I might expand the tutorials into a broader range. But for now my goal in this site is to show people the techniques that I have learned to create realistic pencil portraits from photographs.

I highly encourage anyone that wants to learn the traditional artistic methods to seek a degree from a reputable university, art school or community college. But the most important thing, is that you do what you love and you love doing what you do. If you enjoy your life, the universe will go out of its way to provide you with an enjoyable life. If drawing pencil portraits from photographs is what you love, then this is the place for you.

The Final Touches - Drawing Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:48:00 +0000

This is the final result. Once again, much of the detail was lost in the process of saving the image to the web. But I think there is enough here that we can talk about it. Let me pop in an image zoomed up to show one eye more clearly:

Eyebrows:
Remember an earlier lesson where I talked about the hatching technique for creating the lines in the iris? That same technique needs to be used in creating the small hairs that form the eyebrows. There are a few things that you need to keep in mind when creating eyebrows:

Use hatching technique
"Always" follow the natural line of the hair
Start where the hair attaches to the skin then hatch in the direction that the hair lays
All hair must have an anchor, it can't just sit in open space, it must appear to be attached to the skin
The hairs are not haphazard. Know exactly where you are going with each one before you "hatch" it in
As always "reproduce what you are actually seeing"

Tip: Sketch in hair to fill the area, then use a tortillion to blend them all out. Then use the pencil to add more hair. This will give the illusion that there is depth and many layers of hair.

Eye Lashes:
Pay particular attention to where the eye lashes are connected to the eyelid. If you want it to look realistic you must have the hairs attach correctly. The biggest problem that I used to have with eye lashes was that I was trying to draw in three dimensions. I knew that the eye lashes came out from the eye and my mind wanted to try to recreate that. As we know, that is not possible. So, look at your original as exactly what it is, a two dimensional image. Look at the eyelashes as if they are lines going across the other areas of the eye. Then draw them exactly as you see them.

The same things that I pointed out above when talking about eyebrows are important here as well.

Blemishes:
Skin is never perfect, there always freckles or other spots that define character. This is where you keep your finished image from looking like a porcelain doll. With your pencil simply draw the blemishes where you see them, then use the tortillion to smooth them out. Blending them a little bit will anchor them to the skin so that they don't just look like dots drawn on the face.

Wrinkles:
All skin has wrinkles but remember that not all wrinkles look the same. In this image there were a few wrinkles under the eyes and more tinier wrinkles where the corner of the eye meets the nose. Using very light strokes with the pencil, sketch the wrinkles in. You will likely want to go over them very lightly with the tortillion just like you did with the blemishes.

For the larger wrinkles you will want to look very close at your original source image. You will notice that there is a bit of reflective light along one edge of the wrinkle. Using an eraser that is sharpened to a fine point will help you get those highlights in place.

The Shadows - Drawing the Face Around the Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:39:00 +0000

The first thing that I would like to do is to thank everyone that has signed up for my newsletter. I would also like to thank everyone for their patience. Life has been really crazy these past three weeks or so but things are starting to settle a little bit and I am finally able to get back to getting these lessons created.

Today we are continuing where we left off in the last lesson "The Wet Look - The First Steps to Drawing Eyes." If you haven't looked at that lesson yet, I recommend that you do.

One of the things that I have been trying to make clear since I started this blog is the importance of drawing what your are actually seeing instead of drawing what your brain tries to convince you is there. This is the case in almost everything you draw. In the last lesson it became very important when trying to recreate the highlights in the eyes. It is just as important in this lesson and as always we are dealing with lights and shadows, nothing more.

This lesson will begin the process of creating the face that the eyes are set in. When we are done today, you will have created the basic shadows and shapes that make up the upper portion of the human face. In the next lesson we will expand on this base and add details such as hair, wrinkles, and freckles.

The Lower Lid

Let's get started with the lower lid. Pay special attention to areas that are in highlight. It is very important that you get them correct in order to convey the natural look that you are going for. What you are trying to do here is to get the graphite laid down on the paper, so you need to make sure you get just the right amount. Do this by taking note of the difference between the whites of the eyes and the skin of the eyelid.

This is also where you take care of a common mistake that many people make when drawing eyes. The eyelid is not a paper thin flap of skin that covers the eye. There is definite thickness. This is where you add thickness to the eyelid itself. Making sure that you get that thickness will go a long way to creating the feeling of depth in a final portrait.

Once you get the graphite in place it is time to bring out the tortillion and blend the pencil lines to create a smooth layer of graphite.

Basic Skin Tone

Now we need to create a skin tone base that we can work with as we progress through the rest of this piece. We do this by laying down an "extremely" light layer of graphite. This may be difficult to see in this image, so let me explain exactly what I did. I rested the pencil lightly in my hand. I did not provide any pressure at all on the pencil. I simply allowed the weight of the pencil to do all of the work. I then used small circular strokes to allow the graphite to transfer to the paper. Yeah, I basically just scribbled. Only I did it without applying pressure.

Note: This will likely take a really long time. All I can say it patience truly is a virtue. Don't try to rush this step, allow it to take as much time as it needs to take.

Then, using the tortillion again, I blended the entire skin area so that it has a very light and somewhat even layer of graphite.

Shadow Areas

Now that the basic skin tone is on the paper, it is time to add some of the shadow areas. Continuously use your photo reference. Especially when adding in shadows. You want to make sure you get them in exactly the right locations. For this step I used the same basic technique I used for laying in the skin tones. However, I applied a bit of pressure to the pencil to create the dark areas. But, once again, I basically scribbled.

While doing this step, go ahead and darken in the areas where the eyebrows are going to go. We are not interested in drawing the hair at this time, just the darkness. You will find that this darkness is very important when you get to actually drawing the individual hairs.

Finally we are using the tortillion once again to blend the graphite and smooth the shadow areas that you just created.

As you can see, we are starting to get something that resembles human features. In our next lesson we will work on the details that will bring more reality to the drawing.

Top 10 Art Myths

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:51:00 +0000

1. You have to be born with a natural talent to create art
This has got to be the laziest excuse I have ever heard for not becoming an artist. Let me be perfectly clear. People are not born with natural artistic talents above anyone else. The reality is that as we grow we develop interests in other things and we focus our learning on those things. Historically we focus on those things that we need to learn in order to survive. We learn skills that we know we can use to make enough money to provide for our future families. Because of this, we never spend any time really focusing our attentions on creativity. The bottom line is this, everyone can become an artist if, and only if, they have a true desire to do so. The hard work, dedication and self confidence that it takes to become an artist tends to turn most people away. So, they use this excuse above all others.

2. If you don’t get a degree in art, or go to an art school, you will never make a living as an artist.
I know lots of people that graduated art school. Not one of them has a career in art. On the other hand, I know several people that have never had any former schooling at all, and they make a nice living as artists. It has nothing to do with the training you are given. Instead, it is the real life lessons that you learn and your passion for art help you succeed as an artist.

3. Being an artist isn’t a real job
Oh please. Let’s define a job as something that brings enough income for you to support your family. Let’s say Ed makes $30,000 a year working in the computer industry and Bill makes $30,000 a year working as an artist. Can you really believe that Bill does not have a real job?

4. I can’t be an artist; I can’t even draw a straight line
I have been a successful artist for over a decade and I can’t draw a straight line; at least not without a ruler. Yup, there it is. The key to the whole artist mystery is that you have to learn to use the right tools. Art is just like any other endeavor you choose to pursue, if you don’t use the right tools, you will never get the job done.

5. I’m too old to learn how to draw
Really? Tell that to the 80 year old man that decided to become a portrait artist. He couldn’t draw a picture to save his life. After a few weeks of study he started creating colored pencil portraits so realistic you couldn’t tell them from photographs. No. Dump that excuse right now because it simply does not wash.

6. I am disabled; I could never become an artist
Bring up your web browser and search for “disabled artist.” If the people in those websites can’t convince you, I never will.

7. It requires investing a lot of money to become an artist
First of all, there are so many free online tutorials for learning to be an artist that you will never have to spend money on books, lessons or classes. Second of all, you can create fantastic works of art using $15 worth of pencil drawing supplies.

8. I am not creative enough to become an artist
Creativity is not the key to becoming s successful artist. There are tons of places you can get creative ideas from. All you need to do is learn to use the tools and keep fueling your passion for art.

9. Every work of art must be perfect
Let me tell you a little secret. No work of art is perfect. To paraphrase a famous film director, works of art are never completed, they are abandoned. If I considered every non perfect work of art I created to be a failure, I would never have sold a single piece.

10, Real art is only done with traditional methods.
By traditional methods I am referring to pencils, paints, canvases, paper and things like that. There is a world of art snobs out there that consider any work done with modern technology to be inferior and not real art. That is ridiculous. Real art does not come from the medium that is used. Real art comes from the heart and soul of the artist. So use your computer if that is your medium. Use your camera to create grand works of art. Use a yard rake on a sandy beach if you want. The important thing is to create your art. If you don’t, you will be depriving that world of the beauty that is within you.

The Wet Look - The First Steps to Drawing Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:16:00 +0000

In the last lesson on eyes we talked about the various problems that artists run into when trying to draw eyes as realistic as possible. In this lesson, we will begin the drawing process. There are two things that you need to do in order to in order to get started. The first is to make sure you are using the right tools. If you have trouble finding the tools locally, or if you would simply like to help support this site, you can purchase the tools directly from my Shopping Center by clicking on the Pencil Portrait Supplies link in the upper left section of this page.

The next thing that you have to have is your initial sketch drawn on your paper. The first two images I am going to show you here are the original photograph and my initial sketch.

Step One - The Pupil

The first step is to draw in the pupil. Using your 2B pencil, color in the entire pupil area. Make sure you lay in a lot of graphite and create as dark of a tone as you possibly can. Don't worry if you can't get really dark. If it needs to be darker later on, you can use a softer lead pencil on top of the 2B. But that will be in the final stages of the drawing as finishing touches.

Important Note: Make sure that you do NOT color in the areas that will be the highlights. This is very important. Those highlights have to be left completely white in order to get that wet look that we are going for.

Step Two - The Iris
Before we start drawing in the iris, I want to talk a moment about a technique called hatching. We use the hatching technique when creating the iris. You start with your pencil on the paper and make a short sharp motion across the paper. The key to this is to lift your pencil off of the paper before you finish the stroke. The result is a nice line that tapers off into nothing.

This image illustrates both the correct and incorrect usage of hatching. Notice the first group of lines starts out solid and dark, but ends up fading to a nice point. This is what you are looking for. The second group of lines was done by stopping the pencil before lifting it from the paper. Notice that both ends of the line end suddenly and harshly. The third group of lines shows what happens if you try to join groups of hatched lines that are done incorrectly. Notice the dark band where the two join together. The last group shows how two groups of hatched lines join when they are done with the correct motion. Notice that the area where the two groups join is nice and smooth.

There are a few ways that artists traditionally shade the iris area of the eyes. All are legitimate techniques, but the one we are going for is the first one. Start at the outside edge of the iris and hatch inward toward the pupil. This will help to create the realism that we are looking for.

Ok, the first step in the iris is to create the initial lines of hatching. The human eye has many layers of lines that make up the iris. That means that you must draw many layers as well. Do NOT start out trying to draw the darkest areas of the iris. Start out light and create the darker areas by drawing many layers on top of each other. Take your time with this. This is a very important step and there is no need to rush it. Sit back and enjoy the feel of the pencil on the paper. Also realise that you can add more layers as you continue through this lesson. So, if you don't get it dark enough now, you can darken it later. When you are satisfied that you have it looking the way you want, go on to the next step.

Did anyone notice the mistake I made here? I will point it out later in the lesson.

Step Three - The Edge of the Iris

Every eye is different, of course, but most eyes have a distinct darkness along the outside edge of the iris. In this step, all I have done is create a dark ring that I will be pulling into the iris in the next steps. Remember, never press hard when drawing! If you want something darking, simply add more layers.

Step Four - Pulling in the Darkness

Using the same hatching technique that we used before we are simply pulling the darkness around the edge into the iris so that it does not look like such a hard ring in the middle of the eye.

Step Five - Blending to Create Depth

Using a tortillion as a blending tool, start blending the lines of the iris. Make sure that you follow the same direction as your pencil strokes. This will begin to create the depth of the eye that is contrasted by the bright white of the highlight. Once again, make sure that you leave the highlights completely untouched.

Step Six - The Inner Darkness

Along with the outer ring of darkness in the human eye, there is also an inner ring. If you look very closely at the original photograph you will see this area. You will also notice that it is not a uniform ring. In some areas it is closer to the pupil than in other areas.

Using your pencil, lightly hatch in layers until you have recreated that inner area as close as you can to the original photograph. Then use the Toritillion to blend it in with the rest of the lines of the iris.

Step Seven - Fixing the Mistake

Did you figure out the mistake I made yet? I left out a very important highlight. If you look at the outside edge of the eye on the left you will see that I have "drawn in" the highlights from the photograph. How did I draw them in? I am so glad you asked. I used an eraser. Actually, I used a battery operated eraser. It is very useful for drawing in highlights when using both graphite and colored pencil. Always remember the importance of highlights and do not skimp out. The closer you recreate those highlights the more realisic your drawing will look.

Step Eight - Drawing the White

As much as your brain wants to think it is white, the whites of the eyes aren't really white. They are just whiter than the rest of the eye. The true white is found in the reflections you see in the eyes. In order to get that highlight to look as white as possible, the whites of the eyes have to be darker.

In the image you see below, I barely allowed the pencil to touch the paper while laying in just a small amount of graphite. I then used the Toritillion to smooth the graphite and remove the lines. Note that I avoided the highlight areas and went in with a very sharp pencil to draw in some lines to represent the blood vessels in the eyes. Note: it is possible that I have made the whites a little too dark. But I will not know for sure until I get the rest of the image created. If need be, I can lighten them up later on.

Next Lesson:

We will focus on the edges of the eyelids and the corners of the eyes. Attention to detail in these areas is very important.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:02:00 +0000

I first want to apologize for not being around for the past week or so. Unfortunately, there was a series of unfortunate events that we could not have foreseen. The good news is I am back online now and will be working this site even more than I did before. For those that are interested, read on and you will find out exactly what happened and just how lucky we ended up.

For those that are not aware of our lifestyle, Kylie and I live full time in a motor home and travel the country. We left California in the spring and spent the summer in Southwest Missouri with my family.

Last Wednesday morning we left Columbia Missouri, heading to St. Louis on our way to Florida. We got a couple of miles down the road and the engine started making a bit of a rattling noise. We pulled off the side of the road and checked things out but there was no one in the area that we could have look at the engine. So we drove a few miles until we found a Freightliner repair shop. We stopped there and they told me that there was no one there that could work on gas engines. So we decided to drive on to Kingdom City. About 4 miles before we got to the Kingdom City exit, the rattle became very loud and was obviously from one of the engines cylinders. We were lucky in that there was an exit right there. We pulled off and called a mechanic from Kingdom City to come take a look at it. He agreed with what we had diagnosed, so we had it towed to his shop where we could get an estimate on repair.

The tow, which was only 4 miles total, cost us $225! After a couple of hours of being there they told us that the engine was going to have to be replaced and it was going to cost between $5000 and $6000. So, we started panicking. A little while later they told us that it was actually going to cost between $7000 and $8000. Ok, even more panicking. Then a while later the owner of the shop showed up and said that there was no way they could do it for less than $9000. It might as well have been $100,000, because there was no way that we were going to be able to get that kind of money.

Kylie's parents came from St. Louis the next day, we rented a U-Haul to take all of our stuff to St. Louis. I called a couple of salvage and scrap dealers to try and sell our home for scrap. No one would take it. All we could do at that point was to head to St. Louis and see what we could come up with. It just so happened that Kylie's mother has a cousin with a piece of property and he said we could park the rig there while we worked on it ourselves. I hope that we can fix it ourselves for less than $1000. I am going to try anyway. So, we had the rig towed the 160 miles or so from where it was to where we are now storing it. That tow cost us $1000!

Well, that left us homeless, so to speak. It just so happened that Kylie 's grandmother is in a nursing home and will likely never leave that facility. Her house is full of junk, important papers, photographs and family records that go back to the late 1800s. So, Kylie's mother suggested we stay in that house for the winter and help her go through all of that stuff and get the house in a condition that it can be sold once Kylie's grandmother passes away. She will likely pass this winter.

We didn't make it to Florida like we had planned, but we are ok. We are in Illinois. Kylie has a potential job lined up. I am going to be focusing on our online businesses, organizing all of the stuff in this house and distributing Juice Plus+. BTW - if anyone uses Juice Plus+ or are interested in doing so, let me know and I will hook you up.

Featured Artist Blogger of the Week - Daisie

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:49:00 +0000

It's time again for the Featured Artist of the Week. Today I am introducing you to a wonderful artist from Canada. Daisie is a fellow portrait artist and her work is absolutely stunning. She has learned in a few months what it took me 36 years to learn. I myself am learning simply by studying the work that she is doing.

She has over come all of the problems that I mentioned in my first lesson on eyes that most people have when trying to get eyes to look realistic and her skin tones are incredible. She has a social networking page on I Draw and Paint that you must see.

http://community.how-to-draw-and-paint.com/profile/daisie

Moving again

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:19:00 +0000

First thing in the morning we are heading south, going to Florida this time. I had planned on doing at least two more posts of my lessons on drawing eyes, but getting ready for the move had taken every spare minute I had. I don't know what kind of internet connections I am going to have over the next week. So, I am not sure how often I will be able post along the way.

If I don't talk to you all before then I will talk to you when we get to Florida. Now, here's hoping the gas prices go back down again before we get too far. Five miles to the gallon is pretty painful when you are driving almost 1000 miles.

Featured Artist Blogger of the Week - Stacy Rowan

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:52:00 +0000

Welcome to the Featured Artist of the Week. This week I wanted to try something different. Last week I talked about how wonderful the artist was and sent you a link to her blog. This week I want to introduce you to the artist. I sent her a few questions and she has answered them as only a true artist can. Stacy Rowan has a passion for art that very few possess and it has driven her to create some of the most beautiful works of art you will ever see. Her blog, Stop and Draw the Roses, has been a huge inspiration for me over the past few months. I am including two images of her artwork here, just to whet your appetite. After reading her interview, make sure you click on one of the images to visit her site.

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

I remember when I was probably around 10 years old drawing a copy of a Girl Scout cookie poster. I worked hard to duplicate the poster on my piece of notebook sized paper. When I was done I was proud of my result so I called my older sister in to see my drawing. She took one look at it and accused me of tracing the image even though my drawing was much smaller than the original poster! I guess that means my drawing was a success! Luckily, my sister is much more supportive of my art now.

What is your favorite art medium to work with?

I don't have just one favorite. I love working in watercolor and when viewing other artists' paintings I always seem to be most drawn to watercolors. It is great for capturing the play of light on an object because its transparent nature can be used to create a wonderful glow. Watercolor painting requires a lot of planning since typically the white of the paper is reserved for highlights, and since making changes or corrections can be difficult. The challenges which watercolor presents play well to my analytical side. About 18 months ago I started working with charcoal and was really surprised by how much I also enjoy this medium. The ease with which a charcoal drawing can be changed gives me more freedom to experiment. Also I enjoy the process of starting with paper that has been toned to a middle value and then adding charcoal to achieve the darker values and subtracting (erasing) charcoal to create the light values. It is a different process from how I work with watercolors, but exciting in its own right.

How has being an artist effected your life?

Art gives me a challenge. I am always learning, trying to improve, wondering how I can create what I see on paper. I have so many ideas for paintings - new subjects or techniques that I want to try. It's exciting and motivating. At the same time, art provides a reassuring constant in my life. When I sit down to draw or paint, and I find that zone where I lose track of time and tune out the outside world, it is a bit like visiting with a good friend and it provides a sense of normalcy no matter what else is going on in the other areas of my life.

Who is the artist that you admire the most?

A tough question. There are so many artists out there creating wonderful art, not to mention all the masters who achieved things with their art that most of us can only dream of. But if I am forced to choose one artist, I would choose James Toogood. I've had the pleasure of taking two workshops with Mr. Toogood. He not only creates beautiful, detailed watercolor paintings, but also has an extensive knowledge about watercolor pigments and painting and he generously shares this knowledge in his workshops. I admire this combination of artistic skill and technical knowledge.

If you could tell the world only a single thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would tell them that with art I have found a true joy in life and my life is better for it. I'd also recommend that they find something they love or feel passionate about and find a way to make it part of their life.

It's All in the Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:54:00 +0000

Of all the human facial features, the one that stands out the most is the human eye. I personally think it is because we use them so much as a means of communitcation. We speak with our lips, but we communicate with our eyes. We are drawn to them when we look at other people. When people wear makeup they spend more time working on their eyes than they do any other part of the face. Why am I mentioning this? Because when people look at your portraits they are going to be seeing them as real people and they will be focusing on the eyes more than anything else. Therefore, it is vital that you get the eyes right from the very beginning.

I am starting a new set of tutorials today. Each one will focus on a different feature of portrait drawing and will go into detail on problem areas and what do to about them. As we go through them, I want you to keep two things in mind. I talked about them over and over in my lessons creating the Tanna portrait. First; you are not drawing people, you are drawing light and shadow. Second; you are not drawing in three dimensions, so do not look at your source in three dimensions but rather look at it in two.

The Shape

People have asked me time and time again; what is the basic shape of an eye? Well, the absolute honest answer to that is "round." The eye itself is round and that is a very important thing to keep in mind. Now, the eyelids that protect the eye is where you get into different two dimensional shapes. If you whant to draw eyes from scratch, without using a photo or live reference, then there are some basic eye shapes that you can start off with. But, I am not going to talk about them. There are plenty of books and online tutorials that focus on the technical aspects of drawing eye and the correct anatomy to get them right. That is not the purpose of this site. This site is about creating Realistic Pencil Portraits of people that already exist. We are not creating things out of thin air, so we don't need to focus on basic shapes. What we want to focus on is the shape of the subject we are drawing.

This is an image that I put together that shows a variety of basic eye shapes. I wanted to use it to show you an example of why I am not teaching you a basic eye shape. With so many differences from one person to the next, I don't want you to get hung up on whether or not you got the basic shape right.

The Eyes We Will be Working With

Over the next few lessons we will be working with a photograph that I took this morning of my wife, Kylie.

Problem Areas

In this next image I have pointed out a couple of problem areas that people run into when drawing eyes. Below the image I will discuss each of these and a couple of others. Then when we get into actually drawing the eyes with graphite, I will point them out so that you can keep them in mind.

Highlights - When most people draw an eye they shade everything and put a single highlight in the iris area, usually partially covering the pupil. What people tend to forget about are all of the other areas of the eye that have highlights that are just as bright as teh one in the iris, they are just much smaller. Getting these highlights correct is what creates that wet look in your drawing and brings life to the eye itself.

Round Iris - Remember earlier when I said that the basic shape of the human eye is round? Well, it is. And so is the iris. Some people tend to draw iris' in more elliptical shapes because that is what they see the entire eye as being. But the reality is that the both the eye and the iris are perfectly round and should always be drawn that way. Unless you are drawing an image of someone who deliberately has there eyes wide open out of fear or surprise, then part of the iris will always be hidden behind one or both eyelids.

The eyelid has thickness - I can't tell you how many portraits I have seen where people totally ignore this. The eyelid is not like a sheet of paper covering the eye, it has a thickness. In order to depict the eyes as realistically as possible, you must show that thickness in your final drawing.

Eyelashes - The eyelash has always been a very difficult thing for artists. In fact, a lot of the old masters completely omitted the eyelashes simply because they were so difficult to get right. This is the advice I am going to give you. Remember that you are not drawing in three dimensions. Do not look at the eyelashes as tiny strands of hair coming out of the eye. Instead, look at them as two dimensional lines that are placed over certain areas of your image.

Shadows - A lot of artists tend to ignore the different shadows that are all around the eyes. I think they are afraid to work with it too much. Here is the thing. High contrast in shadow areas is essential. You must put as much focus on the shadows as you do the highlights, it is absolutely vital in getting the results you want.

Skin tones - Skin tones tend to scare a lot of people off. A nice smooth blend is easy, but creating freckles or wrinkles or other skin blemishes is a daunting task. I will cover this in a bit more detail when we get to that lesson in the series. For now simply try to remember that you are not drawing freckles and wrinkles, you are drawing values of light.

Photo Reference

Here is the photo reference that we are going to be using for the remainder of this tutorial. If you click on it you should get a fairly large image that you can use. If you need help in getting the image transferred to your drawing paper, take a look at the post on Creating the Initial Sketch.

Next Time

In our next lesson we will start working on the iris' and discuss the highlight areas in more detail. As always, throughout this tutorial, if you have any questions or need assistance with anything, please comment on the post.

Temporary Outage and Upcoming Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:21:00 +0000

Outage
As some of you may have noticed, this blog was offline for a few hours. I want to apologize and explain what happened so that you can make sure it doesn't happen to you. This week, I have been trying to make this site a little more user friendly. People have asked about supplies, so I created an Amazon shopping cart with a few different categories in it. I then created the links you see in the upper left to link directly to those Amazon store categories that I set up.

For a moment I need to explain about something called linkspamming. There is a method of internet spam that unscrupulous marketer use where they create a fake blog, often called a splog, and they put lots and lots of gibberish on it. Nothing that really makes sense, but within the gibberish, they include tons of links to a site where they sell stuff. The reason they do this is that search engines will give you a higher ranking if you have lots of links to your site from other places on the web. Basically, this is a way to artifically boost page ranks and get more traffic.

Now, let's talk about Google. Google has to have some way of stopping linkspammers. But paying people to search for them all day long would not even come close to catching all of the spammers. So, they created something called a SpamBot. This is a program that constantly looks at Blogger blogs and scans for potential violators. When it finds one, it shuts it down instantly.

Back to my Amazon shopping cart. The SpamBot scanned this blog and found that I suddenly had several links to the same site. Since that is one of the signs of linkspamming, they shut me down. Needless to say, I was a bit shook up over this. But the good news is that they provide a link for you to restore your blog. Now, this does not happen right away. All that restore link really does is notify Google that a human needs to look at the site and determine if it is spam or not. The bad part obout that is that is can take up to 24 hours. In the mean time your site is completely down.

So, now you know the story and hopefully you can avoid having the same thing happen to you.

Upcoming Changes
I am getting ready to make some major changes to this site. In fact, it is likely that by the time you read this, the changes will already be made. First off, the reason I created this blog in the first place was to provide lessons on drawing pencil portraits. Over the past several weeks I have strayed from that and started getting into watercolor and various other media. As of now, I am redirecting the blog's focus back to pencil drawing and pencil portraits will be the primary work done.

With the refocus I am also going to change the name of the blog to Pencil Portrait Lessons and the URL will be www.pencilportraits.org. It is my understanding that Blogger, at least for a while, will continue to send traffic to the blog if people use the blogspot address that I have been using for several months. So, if you have any links to my blog you might want to change them and if you are subscribing to my feed, you might want to resubscribe once the domain name is in place. I plan to have all this done sometime tonight.

Other than that, I want to thank everyone for supporting me in this blog over the months. At first it was more of an experiment to see if I could keep it going or not. All of the support I get from you guys has shown me that I can. So, I will be spending the evening tweaking this blog and making it what it should have been from the beginning.

Featured Artist Blogger of the Week - Kellie Hill

noreply@blogger.com (Lilly) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:46:00 +0000

As of today I am going to start a new feature on this site. I am going to attempt to do this every Wednesday, we will see how that goes. LOL.

This week I am featuring Kellie Hill. You can see her artwork at One Painting a Day. I highly recommend taking a look. Her use of color is absolutely incredible. She has the ability to take simple items like a teacup, or a shot glass on a wire and evoke an emotional response in the viewer.

I have spent hours looking at her work and I never get tired of doing so. Please take a few minutes and visit her blog. You will be very happy that you did.