Christmas Present
So, my wife has asked me to draw a portrait of her Mother and Fathers dogs for this years Christmas Present. well, I've got to be totally honest with you all, I am really not that good at drawing yet and my wife is obviously not seeing the same drawings that I am. But, not wanting to let my wife down, particularly after she has told her parents that they will be getting a picture done by me of their dogs, I agree to do it.
Meg and Milo
They have two Boarder Collies, the female Meg is traditional black and white and the male, Milo, is a Blue Merle. The big problem I have had from the get go, apart from my lacking ability, is the less than adequate photographs of Meg and Milo. In particular, the photographs of Meg, the black and white collie has been causing me the most problems.
I wanted to draw just head shots, with one looking face on and the other facing away, I didn't want them to both be directly facing. I guess the biggest worry about drawing this for my Mother and Father in Law is the fact that this will be hung on their living room wall for all visitors to see. Or worst case senarior would be that my Mother and Father in Law hate the drawing, but not wanting to hurt my feelings they hang it and live with a picture they hate on their walls. Whilst a little bit funny, I would really hate to put them in that situation. I can just picture them both running frantically round the house trying to find the picture and hang it before my wife and I call round round as they take it down all other times lol.
So I could really do with some critical help from you guys. The image is still very much a working progress. My wife has already voiced concern on my first attempt and so I will show you both attempts.
The first picture is the one my wife was unsure about, she thought that one of the eyes on Meg was wrong and to be honest she is right I think. I will also include the terrible reference photos I have to work with.
So I then decided to start again and have only drawn Meg so far, as I have mentioned, this image is not finished yet, but my wife at least, seems to think I am heading in the right direction.
I think my biggest problem is getting depth in the black and not just making her look like a black mass of colour, instead actually showing fur.
In this image I am using a mixture of Caran d'ache Luminance and Faber Castell Polychromos on Strathmore 400 Series, Toned Gray, 9 in. x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5cm) 80lb (118g/m)
Finally the images that I have been working from are below.
Thanks for stopping by, any help and advice would be more than welcome, thank you all so much for your kind words of support on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your wonderful support and friendships.
I just discovered your blog on Marty's youtube video and am looking forward to watching your video!
ReplyDeleteI admire your for being able to draw portraits from pictures, something I find really difficult because when I copy from a picture I tend to overdo it, going into more details than I should. When I copy from pictures everything ends up looking lifeless.
A good tip my former drawing teacher gave me I use all the time is: if something looks wrong cover up parts of the paper with your hand or finger and when it suddenly looks better you can be sure you're covering up the mistake. As a beginning I never knew where to LOOK for mistakes, it just ALL seemed "off"! I still use that tip, even when I'm painting (watercolors). He also told me to step back and look at it from a distance or even walk around the table and look at it upside down to free yourself of "how it should look". I wish he would still give classes, he was a really wonderful teacher. You could find out WHICH of the eyes are wrong that way.
That drawing was surely a the Best Present Ever!
Sorry, I noticed far too late I made a bunch of typos in that comment .... I should have checked it before sending it off ....
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