Sketch #2: Oliver

Attempt #2.
As I was doing this sketch, I kept thinking...the thing I love about the magic of make-up is the exact thing that makes drawing recognizable people so dang HARD. The way you use eye shadow and blush to contour your features and make yourself look slightly different is the same way you shade in a picture. The slightest area too dark or too light makes the countours of the face change drastically. All the lines in your sketch can be perfect, but if you shade wrong, you'll get a different person than the one in your photograph. And, the more familiar the person to you, the tougher it is - it is so HARD to draw yourself even though you know your face better than most other people's. Weird? Yes. So here's my second attempt, and my son at that!

I like this sketch much better and am getting a little more confident in the chance I might be able to draw again soon! This one was somewhere between 1 1/2 - 2 hours, so since it's 3-4 times longer than the first one, it should be 3-4 times better. I think so. It looks like Oliver to me, but not quite. The nose is in the wrong place, but it's getting there. Phew! I might still need to make the top of his head taller too. I might try that sometime, or just leave it. I can't tell right now...maybe if I look at it again in a few days I'll see more of the mistakes and how to fix them. For now, I'm feeling a little better!


The Evolution of this sketch:

Step 1: Basic sketch

Step 2: Fix some of the details in the shape and shadow shapes

Step 3: Begin shading and make eyes look "wet"

Step 4: Block in shadows and leave highlights - the less you erase, the better

Step 5: Adjust details, darken darks so highlights are more visible

Step 6: Adjust anything that needs a change...in this case, the top of the head needed to be bigger and rounder, and the cheek less round.