Mindy Where are you ? Have you decided to do this one ?

Here's my grids.. I redid one of the little ones in the middle it was off a little bit.. Didn't see it til I scanned it..

Hi Carol. Yes, I'll join in today. If I have enough black ink to get this thing printed.

Have to agree I was wondering if my printer had enough as well.. was thinking it would have been cheaper to take it to Wal-Marts and print it from a CD.. Ha ! even still it left those window blind things all across it. That's a lot of black, but the contrasts will be awesome...

i did the grit to...

Sorry about the bad quality I did the best I could with just a cell camera that is less than 1MP

I was able to put about an hour into this.

I started the very light line drawing with a mechanical HB 5mm pencil. Same reason I use the HB for the grid lines, the light sketch is not meant to be a part of the actual drawing, and the HB can be easily manipulated. Basically, I'm just putting down more reference lines to work with. When I've given myself enough of these reference lines, I'll hit the very darks with a mechanical 2B ( which goes much darker than a 2B wood pencil ) and pay very close attention to where I'm putting it, I'll go over that when we get to the darkest tone layer.

I'm trying to be as accurate as I can with this sketch, This is the most important stage of getting the accuracy right. Take your time while doing this stage, pay close attention to the angles and relate them to imaginary vertical and horizontal lines if needed, this helps me.

You can see that some of my lines are shaded out a little, as I'm doing this, I'm thinking EDGES and just trying to full in a light value up to the edge and creating my line that way. They appear to be lines, but they're edges... I hope that makes sense. I'm pretty tired.

Fast is Slow, Slow is Quick. Discipline and Control.

Remember that I'll be updating slowly as I have a few other drawings I need to get done, so there is no hurry. Take your time to get this stage as close as possible to exact.

Push down very light throughout the entire thing, you'll run over it all again with a 2B, so this phase is for accuracy ONLY. None of these lines are going to be visually there anymore when this drawing is done. So LIGHT PRESSURE.

I'll add more in the morning.

pff.. i think it's allready to difficult for me

Just take your time with it and see where it goes.

Even if this entire thing backfires, its about exploring new options and trying different methods and techniques. What works for me might not work for you, but you'll be trying different roads and may pull something out of it you find useful

I couldn't really make you drawing out so I did a little tweaking and maybe this will help others ? or maybe it is just my monitor?
BTW.. could I ask what is your name ? Poe?

I will get busy today and get my beginning drawing started .. you have a wonderful way with your tutorial and I don't find it to be confusing or intimidating at all .. you are doing Great !!

this is what i have made of it...

okay .. I did my starting sketch.. I have probably failed today for jumping up in to the hair part.. sorry .. I will restrain myself from now on..

The sketch is very light, my scanner barely picked it up. Carol, I'll join you in the time-out corner for working ahead too.

I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again,I will not jump ahead again.

lol :<)

LOL

I think its me who's falling behind!

I have this last minute commission for my girlfriend's mom. They gave me like 4 days to do it before her mom's boyfriend's birthday. She already gave me **** when she saw I was working on something else I'll be back in the game in a couple of days, or I'll sneak when she's not looking

i do exactly what you are doing, so i wll not work further
take your time...

I am so not used to taking this long on a piece and I swear you just had to pick a reference that was hard for me I'm still working on the grid not even half way done

Then you've already learned something valuable (seriously!) To a large degree, learning to slow down and take your time is one of the hardest things you have to learn.

Ab-so-dang-lutely !! Very hard for me and I have been making the same mistakes for many many years..

Finished the grid and did I do it right is it really supposed to look this odd

Hi, sorry for slacking on this project, I'll be back with it as soon as I'm finished with this dog.

Sorry,

I think you did great, Jonathon, from what I can see. It does look odd, even when it's finished, because of all the blackness. However, our brains know this is a face, so we automatically fill in the black areas in our mind. That's why this particular picture is so good to practice on, because we're drawing what's actually there instead of what we assume is there.

It's ok, no hurry. The dog drawing is looking fantastic, hope you're able to finish it in time.

Hi guys, sorry for the lack of a reply, now I have a minute to post.

Your sketches are looking great.

Jonathon87, yes, this one does look strange as you go. I've found that most drawings look a bit odd as you put it together, but you just have to keep going and let it develop. Several times I used to look at the beginning and want to toss it and start over because it looked funny, but when I get past that beginning phase of a drawing, it always pulls itself together as you layer in the values. You'll especially notice this in the stages we're in now. Looking at your drawing so far, I'm wondering just how hard you went with your initial sketch. Since this is just a basic sketch for placement, you will want to go as light as you can so it can be blended away or erased as you go and build around your sketch and make whatever changes you need to as you go and refine your drawing. It might also just be the contrast in your photo which pulls those lines out like that...

The key things I'm trying get across here are focusing on the different layers instead of the final outcome, identifying the extreme dark and light values and taking them to where they belong, not rushing a drawing and learning discipline to keep control over your project and not letting IT get a hold of YOU, and like Mindy said, drawing whats actually there instead of what your brain tells what it thinks you should draw, we have to eliminate the "middle man."

Keep going on the line sketch, I only didn't finish mine because of lack of time. but you get the idea for this phase, just don't go past this stage yet.

The next stage will add a great deal of depth to this and start to really throw it into gear.

This particular project is lacking in a crazy range of mid-tones. I figure if this goes well, we can do a different one after with a wider range of values.

...and by the way..

I'm not really following this method for the dog drawing. As I've said in my initial post, every drawing gets done differently. The dog for example, I've added more value and detail than I normally would at this stage, but since I have her looking over my shoulder, I thought I'd give her more to look at and a better idea of where its headed. It was layered up to the point its at, but just not the entire drawing. I figured I'll do this one is sections. I still have a lot of detail and sharp dark values to add to the head to accent fur.

I am in on this one I didn't see this until today. So I will try to catch up

great,

You should have plenty of time to catch up, I have a couple of days left on this one.

The dog looks allready Brilliant!!!

Here is my beginnings

OK, I'm done with this dog that got into the way, so I'll be starting back on this project tonight.

Remember that when you're doing this first sketch, its extreme little pressure so you'll have sketch that can easily be blended away or erased with leaving no damage to the tooth of the paper. It should be roughly as dark as your extremely light grid lines. In the dog drawing, I didn't erase any of my grid lines, they were all blended away into the drawing. The graphite was simply resting on the paper, much like your pre-sketch should be. Mainly, you used your grid lines to make the new form grid lines. Don't erase your grid yet....

I'll spend more time tonight updating this thread...

The dog looks great!!!
i'm looking forward to the new part of this tutorial!!!

For this Layer, I've taken my 2B mechanical and gone over all the very dark spots. All I'm doing is putting the medium onto the paper, nothing fancy. The magic with this layer is done with the blending after this step. Thats where the real fun is IMO.

Be aware of the edges while doing this layer, use your judgement to determine where you need to darkest value to end and the shading to begin. Right now we're not worried about any shading or mid tones, just that darkest value. If its not the darkest value, than it doesn't go in this layer.

Leave the grid there, we'll need it for the next layer.

Your 2B looks darker than my 2B am I not applying enough pressure ?

Since some of us have wooden pencils wouldn`t we have to take it to like a 4B to achieve that shade

Are you using a 2B mechanical or a wood? The mechanical 2B is darker than a wood 2B. The diameter of the lead also plays a part in how deep it goes into the tooth. I used both a 5mm and a 7mm and tried to maintain a nice chisel tip by twisting the pencil as I went and always worked the side of the chisel tip. As it blunts, I can do a slight twist to always be using a consistent edge on the side of the chisel tip. If I need a VERY fine edge, I can roll the pencil and use the fine edge of the tip if needed.

Looking at yours, it looks to me like your pencil wasn't all that sharp and glided over the tooth instead of actually working into it.

The way I see it, there are 7 influences in each pencil stroke. Not including mental motivation or mood related influences.

Paper (and surface behind paper)
Medium (and / or grade)
Speed
Angle of pencil
Pressure
Tip of pencil (point, bluntness, diameter)
Direction of stroke in relation to angle of pencil

I've done different strokes in this so far, strait lines, hatching, tiny circles, random scribbling... Everyone is different, the best thing you can have is experience gained from practice and experimentation. Being only the first layer, as long as its semi-consistent, it'll blend into the paper well enough to be a good foundation for the dark values I'll add later.

Sorry if some of my text gets choppy, I have gotten up about 9 times from typing this because of the 1 year old and my train of thought keeps getting reset...

Yes, sorry I didn't mention that before.

A nice sharp 4B would do the trick.

Remember that this is about a "primer" coat and is mainly just there to be worked into the paper and to load the stump. Something too soft would have a larger impact when sculpting in the mid-tones. I wouldn't go any softer than a 4B wood.

Well I wish I had known that before I didn't know there was a difference.. Okay so I need to go back and go over the 2B with a 4B .. or just start all over again ?.. Geeze.. My wood 2B wasn't all that sharp and I did not apply a lot of pressure following your instruction to keep a light touch prior to this .. .. I went in circles for the most part.. Now I fear the tooth of my paper is lost..???

It won't make much of a difference, this is just a "primer" and is there only to give a starting value to get into the tooth. You could even blend in what you have there already. Its just to fill the tooth with a dark value... we're not looking for the finished value.

So .. Just leave what I have done alone ?

Yeah its looking great

Okay .. Sounds good to me .. the thought of redoing this was not a happy thought.. (grin)

Half way though the first blending stage.

the first pic has the only tools I'm using for this stage, besides my click eraser.

Every time I have a drawing on my drawing board, I have a scrap sheet of paper taped somewhere, usually to the right of the drawing. I can use it as a shield and a scratch sheet for unloading and testing my blending tools. Sometimes I'll scribble some graphite onto the scratch sheet to use to load my blending tools.

In this case, I load the stump from the dark value I've already put there. I first go and blend the stuff I already put there. Blend it as evenly as you can and try to get all the tooth so its consistent.

I always have much better luck loading my stump from an already blended surface, or its a bit too loaded.

Pressure is important, its best to go very light and build up to the darker value you're looking for. Again, this is just the "idea" for the mid-tones. We're shaping in the values with the stump, we're not trying to get the finished look here. Try to be as accurate as you can, but remember that this is just 1 layer of many to come. (this reference doesn't really require too many layers, but it still has a few to go.)

Your dark value will lighten up as you blend it. Its fine, just leave it alone as that will be one of the following layers with the softer pencil.

For now:
use your blending tools to blend the already laid down dark value into the tooth...
carefully sculpt in the darker mid-tones and mid-tones, being sure to test whats on there on the scratch sheet of paper and building up. Little pressure to harder pressure as needed. Steal graphite of different values from other parts of the drawing as you go to load the stump. I'll usually load it with the dark value, start sculpting in the darker tones and work to lighter ones as I unload the stump. When the stump runs out, I do the process over again.

this stage should keep you busy for a bit, take your time on it and don't touch it with a pencil yet.
After this stage is where I'll usually erase what part of the grid is still there. If you've blended over a grid line and its still there, you can very lightly pick it out of there with the eraser and lightly blend away any eraser marks you might have left. Your sculpted mid-tones and edges are now your only reference lines.

I'll post the first blended layer update when I'm finished with it, than I'll wait for the next one till others catch up. So take your time, there is no hurry.

You have no Idea how bad I wanted to darken up those areas !!! Oh and that mole on her face .. I flicked at it so many times thinking it was a bug or something on my paper.. !

Its looking great! Re-darkening the blended dark values will be the next step.

How do you think its looking so far?

So far I am totally loving it.. My son came over yesterday .. He has been in love with Marilyn for I can't even remember how long ..He wants this when I am done.. I am doing one of Butch Dohmann now... He is an Old Cowboy from Austin Texas.. I found a super photo of him and just had to get him started.. Helps me in the downtime of Marilyn.. I am extremely impatient and draw most all the time.. some say I stop breathing til it's done..
I was so upset with the darkness of the Marilyn portrait , and learning the difference in Mechanical and Wood was most helpful... enjoying the process..and vision the finished portrait.

Thats great, but don't be upset about the dark value, it will make no difference

Are you doing the other portrait in the same manner as this one?

yes I am but using Bristol Board.. I really like the smoothness of it..
I love this mans eyes and the ruggedness of his face .. will take me a while to get those lines in his face but They will get there..

Hi all,

normally i'm a silent reader here on drawspace, but this time i want to point out what an outstanding job Poe.. is performing and what great results all the attendees are presenting - congratulations.

I'm also really happy to see someone else (except me) working with stumps, torillions etc. because everytime I used it, I earned harsh critique from people who thought they where art-teachers.

Kepp up the good work - it's a joy to read this thread.

cheers...
ishiprog

Thanks Ishiprog for speaking up, it's great to have you here, hope you'll join in with this WIP! I agree that it's a wonderful thing Poe is doing, very thoughtful to let us join in the thought processes for this portrait of Merilyn.

I'm still working on the initial darkening with a 2B mechanical. I've never used a blending tortilian before, this will be my first experience trying it. I usually just take the extra time to give the impression of blending with the pencil itself. Hopefully I'll catch up within a couple days.