Creative Process: Adopt Da Vinci's Drawing Techniques Using a Variety of Media | Jennifer Moorhead | Skillshare
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Creative Process: Adopt Da Vinci's Drawing Techniques Using a Variety of Media

teacher avatar Jennifer Moorhead, Artist, Art Professor, and Entrepreneur

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      1:05

    • 2.

      Art Materials

      3:34

    • 3.

      Pen & Ink

      6:58

    • 4.

      How to Use a Crow Quill Pen

      6:55

    • 5.

      Pen Quill & Washes

      9:17

    • 6.

      Pencil (part one)

      5:57

    • 7.

      Pencil (part two)

      6:13

    • 8.

      Charcoal (part one)

      7:09

    • 9.

      Charcoal (part two)

      5:46

    • 10.

      Conté

      10:33

    • 11.

      Project

      7:24

    • 12.

      FinalThoughts

      1:17

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About This Class

If you are wanting to improve your drawing skills then this amazing resourceful class is for you. Not only will we learn the techniques used by Leonardo Da Vinci but we will also explore the different drawing media he used as well.  Leonardo worked in charcoal, pen & ink, and conté crayon. He also worked a lot with drypoint yet we are going to simplify and modernize the medium and use pencil. Pencil creates the same effect as drypoint with more intensifying results.

Leonardo had an insatiable creative curiosity and worked with a variety of themes. His technique of connecting what he observed into what he drew was phenomenal. Our exercises will include the same themes of Leonardo such as plant life, animals, and human portraits. We will practice through these comprehensive exercises to achieve the visual harmony of drawing techniques with awareness to proportion and perspective.  Come and enjoy learning the experience of drawing with passion! 

Art Skills you will Learn

• Hatching Lines

• Gesture

• Modeling

• Proportion

• Sfumato

• Variety of Drawing Media

Art Materials you will Need:

• Sketchbook (at least 9" X 12")

• Pencils (2B, HB, 2H)

• Pencil Sharpener

• Ink Pen or India Ink with pen holder & quill

• Charcoal (soft sticks & pencils)

• Sanguine & White Conté Crayons (soft)

• Kneaded Eraser (optional)  

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Jennifer Moorhead

Artist, Art Professor, and Entrepreneur

Teacher

I am confident you will develop and 'find' your creative artistic 'gift' through my unique fine art teaching methods.

I incorporate the same fine art methods that I taught in college for over 34 years yet I modify the art exercises into fast-paced, easy to understand, and simple to create. The exercises are all 'hands-on'. This allows you to really explore and experiment with the art methods...while having fun!

See full profile

Level: Intermediate

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Transcripts

1. Introduction: Hello. I'm Jennifer Morehead. I've been a college professor for over 34 years and I can't wait to teach you the techniques of Leonardo. This class is for intermediate Student. If you want to awaken your creative mode and learn the wonderful techniques of the garden such as hatching Screw Monta, his Carol scarab, those model lines, this classes for you. We have tons of exercises. We start with plant life dealing with panini. We also go into dealing with animals using pencil way do charcoal, trying to emulate his absolute technique, that smooth effect. And then, for our final project, work on contact. Do in a self portrait. This is serious, unfortunate mode. And this is just a wonderful class to learn lots of bonus for this course. Upload your project into the project. I will personally greatest. Can't wait to see class. It's exciting. It's fun. It's fast moving. Helping, joining 2. Art Materials: I'm going to show you the materials that you'll need for the class. They're essential ones and then also ones that you might want to introduce and have fun with them. Be more challenged and likely to work with. The sketchbook could be larger, like this one here, that's 11 by 14 which is great. And if you really Aniket challenge is to use pastel paper what I like about this particular brand of being thing. It's a mixed media paper, so this will work well. It's a lot thicker to see this this paper, well Dependent Inc and washes and the charcoal that will be using Next are your pencils. It's great to have at least the two B H B and to age to work with. I haven't Artkraft here. There's a black pencil. It's kind of fun to use and also pencil sharpeners any kind that works best for you. It's very important to keep your pencils very sharp because he wanted to look very similar to Silver Point. And that's the device mint mechanism that Leonardo use. Next we have Inc. You could use in pens that make sure that, like uni balls or something that really has ink flowing out of that versus a ballpoint pen . And there's many kinds, the Coptic as well. It's Prisma colors that you can use. I highly suggest cause it's this. It's more like Leonardo's is to get some India ink. Be very careful. This stuff. It spills its on you. You can also get some pen holders. There are different types. One I highly suggest it's similar to what he had used is a quill if you'll notice it's a round hole in here and also the quills very round, and it's the smallest one that you'll find. There's other pen holders that have different with some wedges on it. That will be a lot more difficult to work with. But if you want to use this, this is great as well. I suggest watercolor brushes do not purchase expensive watercolor brushes with ink. You're gonna ruin them. So to get something very inexpensive, you can get a flat one around one in a very small one. That's gonna be a lot of fun to work with. Next we have charcoal. I suggest the essential ones would be Turkle pencils. They're a lot easier to work with because they create a very solid line. You can also use compressed charcoal. I was suggested medium type Yvonne it fairly soft, not a hard one or a software. Here we have soft pastels that air Terfel by charcoal That worked very well, and they're messy and fun. And that's what art's about. And lastly, is content. Content is actually contain Paris that you can purchase that they come in these stick forms . They also coming pencils a little bored, a difficult to work with them pencils. So I highly recommend the Crans. The cranes have waxed to them, so they're hard to manipulate. But once you get it going, they're just wonderful. I haven't. They're also white because you'll be doing wonderful highlights with them as well. Sanguine is the color that Leonardo did work with, and that's meaning blood red, and you'll see a lot of portrait stunning this So those air by suggestions. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. Have fun gathering all your materials together, number you're looking for to see in the next section. I'm going to show you the materials that you'll need for the class. They're essential ones and then also ones that you might want to introduce and have fun. Would that be more challenged? I'd like you to the least Work with a 9.5. 3. Pen & Ink : this section is on pen and ink. Our subject matter for panic is pick tactical. We're gonna be looking at leaves, flowers and weights and things that you could gather and having them different from each other and something that's interesting to you that you can apply a lot of detail. A quote from Leonardo da Vinci from his notebook said he's written. It's not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see here is one of Leonardo's drawings of flowers. You can see his attention to detail and the very uniqueness of stylization because it's very clear, concise. You have to remember at this time in the Renaissance here that artist did not make drawings as the final product of art. They were always preparatory drawings for paintings or sculpture pieces in auto took a scientific approach to his work. We're not going to be copying his work exactly. We're going to emulate. We're going to try to understand how he does it and acquire those skills that we can incorporate into our own personal style. I'm starting out with one flower. I'm using the Coptic multi liner SP 0.5. It's a rather in line. You noticed my lines are contour lines. I'm filling in. I'm looking. I'm not going back and forth so much, but I'm really looking at detail. What you're seeing is a speeded up version. It's just for your viewing purposes. But I want you to know that as I was drawing this, I was taking my time. I'm looking at the subject matter and drawing as what I'm seeing. There is no pencil marks. I haven't pre drawn this. I have just placed the pen down and started drawing very important to get to detail. Very important proportions, which you're learning here is adopting to Vinci's line control and has detail of observation. If you feel like you're making mistakes or you're not getting it right now, don't worry about that. If it doesn't look right and just another sheet of paper and keep going and practicing until you can attain this, this is very simplified at this point, and we're going to be getting more complex. So keep added. It's a amount of practice to really adopt Divinci skills. I've already done two views of the flower. Now I'm attempting my third view. I've only drawn my flower three times, but you can do as many as you want to on this page. Here's another drawing by Leonardo. He also did the tactical studies. You can see how he's observing it, and he's looking at the flower and and such different directions and how it's growing. Those wonderful, lovely lines of the grasses coming out and they're so flowing You can really understand when he starts drawing hair painting hair. Is that having that flow? He believed that everything connects to each other, so I really see this evidence here. Composition is not obeying character because he's really just tuning himself to looking and getting a knowingness off his subject matter. Keep going back over your lines to get in the darker areas. Just two hands make disappear a lot more three dimensional. Draw it as you just saw it for the first time in your life. Really? Look, Leonardo would also besides finishing this, he would have gone through and started to really examine each of these units separately. So try to draw a few more Prisma colors, the third penned that I'm working with Now I'm finding each one of home creates a different type of mark. I like all of them, even though he Leonardo did not work with them. This is a great tool to work with to get that practice of line control. So when we can attain that, where we go into the next segment of working with the quill, you'll have the confidence of I in hand control. When I'm excited about this drawing is the ease that I have making these long lines that describe the flowers. And that's just practice and feeling comfortable. Also not using my wrist, but easy my arm to make that movement. Now we're going to start the hatching lines, Which of Inches noted for Hetty, lines are short parallel lines that will create a sense of three dimensionality. You go over them, but you have to be careful of not crossing over or you getting to cross. Such are doing different angles or crossing into the other lines, which creates a lot more texture to it. What I've done over here is I've tried to work with using my left hand like DaVinci would have and create nicer lines. So the do's and dont's of this are keep the lines very consistent, at all in the same direction. Here's a view of it just going to one complete direction. It doesn't matter how your object is place, but the lines themselves will go in one direction. This is a little better, so keep drawing. I'd love to see your wonderful drawings, upload them to a project gallery in a little hand. If you do, post him up you. And as for a personal critique for me, how exciting is that? I'll see the next segment. 4. How to Use a Crow Quill Pen: this section is on how to use a crow quill pen. Here's the pen nib you notice has a very fine point to it. His air diagram of the nip If you look to the very bottom part where it says point has a very sharp point to it, the important thing is from that point it's called a time. And that is where the ink will go up into the breather hole. Also the time conspire it if you press down on it. It allows more ink to flow, which allows a larger line but those air important features of it Next. Putting the pendant onto your holder. You want to go halfway on the shank. The base of the pennant is actually round. The holder is also around, Bert diffident and you only want to go about halfway gets loose. You what? I'm gonna put a little piece of paper in there. My tip is just a small piece of paper towel manipulated just to put it in there. Obviously you've got a plastic holder and a metal pendant, so they're always not gonna fit. But you just don't want it to be able to move difference between other pans versus the crow Quill is that they don't have a complete round base to it. As you can see, it's only halfway, but it still has the same type of function usually fit in a little bit better, and going in halfway will actually stop most the time. But it still has the same features. Now I'm gonna show you how to ink the pan. I have money, India, ANC, which I love to work with because it has a nice, rich black ink. I have a paper towel for my messes and cleaning the pen along the way. A little bit of water and a small container on a piece of paper that I'm gonna be working with. Begin with just to share with you. This is a stopping point of how far you wanna go on your name to load your ink. You want to go about right in here? You go a little bit beyond that, and this works well. If you go beyond that and come up here, what's gonna happen? It's gonna overload and you're gonna have a mess of drops before we get inking. I want to share with you a special tip. I learned years ago doing calligraphy loaded from a teacher in high schools. Sister Ignatius and you apply your own spit to this area in here and what it does it it enhances the fluidity of your marks. You can either apply this, but with your hands or to do your mouth. Jack prefer doing that? So I haven't all ready to go. And next, I'm going to start with my India ink and make sure you shake it up really well. It's gonna have bubbles on hit, so it's really hard to see how far down your pendant goes. I try to shake it down and just watch it as I'm being very careful with it. If you want to, you can also poured into some little small container so you could actually see it and have it better controlled after it inked my pen. Okay, I want to shake it off, so just in case there's any extra and just give a few flicks just to get it started, I feel more comfortable with that, specially if I'm working on a long project, I don't want anything to happen to it, So I'm making my lines. I'm happy with the flow things they're working. You want to hold the pen in this manner. I'm not holding it like this, but I'm holding it this way so the ink flows down. Very happy with that. I know it's starting to lose Inc just but my field, but you'll see that there won't be a line. You don't have to go back and think it up. So I go back, click it and come back. If I press notices thicker. And if I go up, it's thinner, thicker and practice with this. Seeing how many lines you could make and really have fun with this now try going sideways with it and seeing those wonderful lines that you can make that doesn't equal. Just keep going back. Don't flip out with this. It's just just a quail and just play with it. You can't go backwards with it, or that thing will just flick all over the place. Have fun in practice. I'm through with this, or it starts to just not be working properly. The inserts to harden. You just want to dip it into the water, flick it down, and then that's where your paper towels comes. in hand is to wipe it off there and start again, Inc It up again, applied spit to undo my hands. It's not my mouth and begin again when you're finished with Thank you. Do you really want to clean this out? I wet paper towel and actually go all over this pendant and kind of try to clean all the ink off it because it will harden up on there. I think it's really looks good for next time. I'm gonna compare the line quality of the crow quill pen to that of the Coptic multi liner the unit ball, as well as the prisoner covered, starting with the cop IQ. If you notice a difference that it's very thin for the croak well versus the point, which is a flat point on the multi liner. What's nice about these pens different from the crow Quill is its continuous until the inkwell goes out. But it starts out with a rather wide line, and I can make it thinner and wider, so it has a beauty to it as well. But I still feel this crow Quill has a really nice in quality to it, which comes through within your drawings. Next is your uni ball. You meatballs a little bit finer, but not much more, and it has a heart surface to it as well. Uni ball also has a nice flow to the line, a little bit better than the Coptic here, Although you can get different lines from the CAA pick, that could be a lot thinner. I'd like working with you, Nimal. I just have more control on it for some reason, but everyone has their old personal preferences with the Prisma color. It's very similar to that of the Koppett markers, and here we can also have those differences. What's nice about these pens? You could go any which way you want to croak. Well, you're have to be very controlled, but the quality is amazing. So I can't wait to see you in the next section will be doing beautiful drawings with the crow quill 5. Pen Quill & Washes: this section is on the Penn quill and washes the stick. Another look at a drawing by Leonardo Skill is one factor of learning how to draw something . But it goes a little further with Leonardo. He's thinking about his object. He's seen through its that knowledge, sort of talked about before. Skill and itself is not going to produce a beautiful piece of art. It's that creative. It's that knowing this, that feeling inside, being a little more carefree, not as being so careful, having that creativity to really get the feeling of lying here, the materials he used. He is a calligraphy pen from a goose feather, which is very similar to what we have with the crow quill. And also he was a very knowledgeable about it cause he could cut that thing and keep it sharp because it would del out. Very quickly. The Yankee used was called our own goal. It was actually black ink. It was water soluble, and it was used even in ancient times by scribes he used for his notebook and his drawings . What would happen after time that ink would fade into a brown, but he actually had used it in black, and that's how we're gonna look at it. This point. The paper was usually an unprepared paper or parchment, or sometimes he prepared the grounds when he was using the ink along with the silver point . You can tell he's using every part of that paper. Asil sometimes even did the back of the paper and the brush. He used it mainly for tone washes and enhancing details and any more shading to the objects . Here's another raising, joined by Leonardo. Here you really concede is hatching technique, which is using that straightened curve parallel lines, as I said before, he was noted for it. But he also invented it, and it was zoos to create shapes and shading. It requires an awful lot of practice, and he's not only used constant, continuous lines that you would see in Contour as an artist doing this technique and doing multiple line, you really get the feel of that object is your having to go back and re look. You're feeling your way through the drawing. Let's get started on thinking at Mike Wilk on halfway, working on a rose to try to do one object. No photographs. I'm just practicing on my paper. Here I go. When you start out with your lines, it's gonna feel very unfamiliar, especially making these curves and something you really need it practice with. But as it goes, it feels really comfortable to me. I love the idea of the thick and thin nines. It just such a wonderful thing to work with. Get up close, really Get that detail. That's what's so nice and you have something, handheld, you can pull it very close to you. Now there's a tip. Here is the variety of the intensity of line. This is really what you want to work with and try to figure out What do you gonna make darker? What are you gonna emphasize? You're the one that chooses What are you going toe met? We're gonna add what's going to be dominant challenge yourself. Probably despite now that my notice in too far in the shank. Well, that's kind of my own way of thinking. I like to have it really inked up, but the proper way is to just go halfway up. But through practice, you'll figure out what what works best for you. I'm finding the more drawing the rose, it becomes easier. And I'm really enjoying observing the small details. Ouch. It happens. I've brought on the ink as well as I'm scraping into the paper. So be very cautious that I just couldn't over drama drawing and just be careful with it and not like Oh my gosh, that's the end. Just keep going. It's a good time to clean my quill. I did a few more joins of my Rose, and now I'm going to start with brush to make some washes. If you'll see here these air, the brushes that I'm working with, you could use any brush, and we're just adding water to This is just a nice wash here. I'm working with my smaller brush and just going into the small areas to enhance the details. Kerem using my larger brush to get some tonal washes. I'm just using the water that I'm washing my quill with. It has a little bit Inc in there, which is fine, and also when you apply this right on top of the India ink, it will lend itself toe. Add a little more tone to a swell. Here's my completed version. I could have added a lot more, but I just decided to stop at this point. And also, I've just shown you a version of what it would look like in a brown town. We covered the cross hatching and my last drawing for this segment. I want to introduce you to curved parallel lines which another term for that is cross contour. Here we have a drawing by Leonardo. This is called the Enunciation. It was a preparatory drawing for a painting. But if you look at the lilies, you can see the lines are curving along with the pedals on the dailies I'm gonna be working with. So watch and enjoy the journey with me. Don't forget to post your work on the project gallery and I'll see the next section. 6. Pencil (part one): in this section, we're gonna be working with pencil drawings. I first started out with my cover of being this horse and as I drew it, although it was done in pencil, it has done so heavy and dark. And the more I investigated and looked at the Vinci's work didn't look like this. So I went back to his stylization, and it really came from Silver Point. Supper Point is actually a tool with a point of silver. They also call him Battle Points, and through this you get a very fine line. You can barely see it here. The only way that this will appear is un prepared surface. On paper, it be someone of that of just so some kind of chalk and binder that's pieced together so that when it scrapes up on that surface, you have the remnants of the silver. Let's look at the Silver point done by Leonardo. This is called a profile of a warrior and helmet, and you can see the softness of it, although it's a little tainted here. But if you closely look at the detail, there is some line work that's visually seen. But there's a lot of softness to it as well. So I wanted to emulate this type of drawing technique. You could really see the softness in these portrait. It's especially the detail ing in this one. How beautiful. My subject man is gonna be horses for this particular section, the next section when working on dogs and cats. But choose a large animal, horses or cows, or even go the zoo and got wonderful animals to draw from. You want to work on a hard surface. I chose plexi glass. You get a really nice fine hardline, and I chose the two h pencil that was the closest that looked like Silver Point without getting too light. And it really forced me to have to draw much different because I couldn't use those harsh lines like I'd like. Let's investigate the lines that he used in these drawings. They're very gestural, lots of moving lines to describe form. He goes and finishes some of these drawings a little bit further, using the hatching lines and there to to get more of the form, as well as searching lines and multiple lines to really get to the edge of the horse itself to get more of a completion. There's another adjuster right there. Think the volume of the horse is very evident here. He actually shows you two views of the horse Really looking at the length within the height of the chest. This is pen and ink. Although this is interesting in this part because we're dealing with animals and he takes it a step further by really getting very aggressive in the look of the animal. And if you go in here, you can see, then he's taken the face of a lion. He's taken the face of a human being really create this emotional expression, which I call a creative expressiveness. And this is something that I think would be fun to tap into this. Well, I'm working with the to be just so I could make were expressive lines and I'm trying to get this fearfulness of this horse. I had always had this dream imagery, This horse coming at me that crazy I actually happened on any horse, exactly white horse out of my dream. He got upset in the stall, but I was bringing in water and he bit me and I could see him coming right at me. So this is drawing out of knowingness and just out of my head and just that that you But I have to get that crazy. I That's what I'm going towards its not there. So trying this again here I have the month pretty good. And the I tried it several times still working towards that crazy I And now I've achieved their You know, you've learned certain lines, gestures and creative expression. And don't forget to poster image in the Project gallery. 7. Pencil (part two): this section is pencil part two who were gonna be drawing cats and dogs to begin with. I'm going to show you the Silver Point drawing of a bear. I think it's just fun and a lot of intensity of lines in here, and you can see a detail ing of his Paul on the left hand side. Here we see some positive there, wolf or maybe a dog even. And here's one of the lion and look, oh, wonderful. The faces being depicted here. You don't have many drawings of Leonardo's cats and dogs. We have this one page, and I've just taken the images off the page. The cats appear very soft and cuddly and somewhat of how we would depict it today. His lines are across contour. Noticed. They follow along the cat's body, and this is probably done in Pen Aneke. This is my cat, scruffy. All the animals that you'll see in this class are my cats dog and my horses and a few of my friends horses. They're all done from observation, and that's how he works. So I really clearly had address. It's you see a lot of gestures done and have drawn a lot of drawings to get to this point, and auto says it's not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see. Practice is very important, as you can see in this drawing my lines air very quick because the cats are constantly moving is you're trying to address. It has passed, you can so more the edging that I'm getting first, and then I can go back in and later get my shading done. So it's just placement drawing fast. It's fun, though you really learn. You have to understand that Davinci lived to the Middle Ages as well as went into the Renaissance, and he was truly the Renaissance man. Here is a few depictions of the Middle Ages of cats. Cats were considered evil and demonic, so cats were not glorified like horses, cats and dogs air now really part of our life and more domesticated. Here's the pay is showing you a lot of cats. I've already showed you a few of home, but really start looking at these. He almost look like Cougars in their one on the very left, looks like a sheep, and they're fighting and and I think this one really becomes interesting. Look at his tail. It almost looks like a dragon. They're very creative and very expressive. I have three barn cats, so they're pretty aggressive in their own nature. So I really was watching that and making him a little more expressive. - Here's a civil point by Leonardo. You can see two cats on the left, and then there's a dog there in the upper right, really drawn in the same mannerisms. The cats here, some of Leonardo's notebooks. He had close to 13,000 drawings. They weren't bound toe. Later, he worked on loose sheets of paper. Somebody gathered them together, bound them and they're proximately nine by 12 inches, which is kind of interesting because that's what are our notebook sizes are. Here's another dog drawing by Leonardo that I found pretty interesting what he does here. He's measures it out, so he's analyzing and really looking at the anatomy of the dog. Measurements are very important to me, is very mathematical. He does a lot of writings in his notebook SA's well, great exercise to work with this Philip pages of the cats or the dogs or both, and I'm depicting with my dog kind of interpreting what Leonardo did, and I'm expanding upon it and taking an adopting his techniques into my own. So I hope you enjoy this. I hope you do the same and then put it in the project gallery. I'd love to see what you're doing. Here's my joint of Surat Yes, sets from the famous French painter, and I really like what's happening because it's it's feeling a little bit like Leonardo in his way. It's really portraying my dog, the white I feel about him. Let's learn Leonardo's technique, a spoon motto using charcoal and the next section I hope to see you then. 8. Charcoal (part one): this section is on charcoal and movie. Working with the technique of spam, Otto Simba toes a hazy tonal effect, creating model forms you can see in here. It's very soft. Leonardo believed that there aren't really fine edges, as we visually see, but they're more of tonal effects. Another term for his carol Sterile. This is something that Leonardo developed and invented. The subject matter for this section will be drawing a portrait of face. I think this charcoal really lends itself to doing a beautiful portrait, but I especially enjoy about his drawings is his attention to detail, especially in the hair and the softness of the girls. Here's an excellent example of school motto. If you look at the hair on the left side towards the cheek, how soft that imagery is, and if you come up close to the braiding, it just almost physically go in and touch. It has such a airiness to it and beauty. Seeing the detail of the face noticed, no lines are appearing there a little bit in the hair, but throughout the face, it's very, very soft. This is the paper we've been working with before, just white paper. I wanted to place it against what I'm thinking it might work with. It's, um, or total effect. I like pastel paper like Cason, but you can buy other ones. There are £98 weights of their little bit bigger. They have a surface to them, and I'm an assortment of colors so you can get a chance to see them. And this is also a size nine by 12. If you choose not to do the pastel paper but just want a tonal paper, you could use the art graph, which is a graphite stick, and what I do with that it's taken Exacto knife, and I can just shave off just a little bit blended in. So it just creates a very light tone to it, which could create kind of a antique effect. So this is another idea that you can choose. The art stick is also fun just to do drawings with, so you might want to play around with this as well. But it's not an idea to do both pencil and charcoal. They don't work very well together, but if you just lightly apply to the paper, that is no problem. These are the items I'll be working with. Is it a compressed charcoal stick? Another compress. But it's a softer mode, as you could see in this block one and charcoal pencils very soft and extra soft. This is to be soft. And if you want to, this is something extra. They have a charcoal Dwight, we could play around with this. Well, now, remember, this is just exercise. I'm only copying just for technique and having a understanding, and I believe in copying for finished piece of work. But sometimes you need to learn techniques. I've had this charcoal paper I first started out with thinking that this would be a nice total. That's kind of a life gray. But as I looked as it made this copy, this kind of a tan color looks closer to it. So this is the color. I'm a broken so you can take any images that I have placed in this session and choose one of them to work with. I'm going to start with my softest one first because I can always add to it. I'm gonna go in the direction that it is in. All I'm gonna do is make round circles another term for this is scum building. You're just slightly using the side of this so I can lightly do a placement because you could see a kind of just doing the darker edge of it. I can always go darker. Remember to leave the white of the paper or the lightness of the paper. In this case, I'm gonna next start with I always break. These are easier to for me. Just this is the way I like to work, and I'm and you'll notice it. It has a more stiffness to it. So I can I have a little more control on this, and all I'm doing is doing circles just going down. - I started using my finger so I can blend a little bit more. Boy, you have to be careful with this because you can really over work it being really different . Really? Really. Care can you can almost see a very light, almost white line right in here. So he is so careful with this. Unbelievable. You don't notice it until you actually doing it. To get a true appreciation, I'm going to get more detail, and I'm gonna use my extra soft and here but I have a little better control. - I'll see in the next section as we finish this off. But remember, have fun with this challenge yourself. Learn from this and half up. 9. Charcoal (part two): Welcome back. This is charcoal part two and we're going to finish up our exercise. I have speeded this section up for your viewing purpose only. So you don't have toe spend as much time watching the draw. But I wanted you to see all the elements of what I'm working through. I will interject certain points and highlights of things that you really need to know. So enjoy. A helpful hint is to have all your different types of charcoal around you. So it's easy accessible because you're going to switch back and forth so you don't have to keep finding things or putting things away and bringing it back. You can just merge into your thought process and just be doing a great job. Found that I needed my need eraser just to help out in some really tight areas. The needy racer that I use is a small one and what's gonna happen with charcoal? It's gonna ruin it, so make sure if you have a large one to stick a piece off it, and with this I can flatten it out, and I can also lift off the charcoal. It will given a lighter tone to it. And I could also make on edge to this need Eraser. I could manipulate it and also get into small areas. Toe lift up a little bit, the charcoal. You might not need it, but I did. - Okay . Mass areas to go back to that soft chalk that blocked chock and places. Here is where I'm lifting with mean eraser. I'm not scrubbing into just lifting that charcoal off. I'm not that detail with the hair do little hatching and adding some lines. I really just wanted alert parts of this. You don't have to do the whole pace. I'm just doing parts just to get that feeling. A spy, Mata. That was our goal for this particular exercise. No. - Doesn't have to be perfect if you didn't feel challenged with this and get something a little more difficult so that you're learning. If you're doing something that's easy, you're not learning anything. Got something fun to share? Please do it. Put the project calorie and our next section is going to be working with contact. Look forward to seeing you 10. Conté: in this segment, we're going to be learning about the media content. Let's begin with looking at Leonardo's drawing. What's wonderful about this is the expression that he has, and that's something to consider in your own portrait. Maybe we'll have an expression to it and have a different angle asses. Well, this looks like a portrait for a painting. You can see the gestural drawings of working now, how the woman's gonna have the position, and it's beautifully done We've seen it's similar to that motto that we've seen in the charcoal, but the so motto. Remember that it's something that is hard for us to visually see, but we have to understand that we visually have a way that it merges together. It's that hazy effect, and the line quality is something that we really kind of ad in there just to get the edging information of it. But it's formed a form which creates that line. When Leonardo had actually done porch, it's of people that he saw versus these drawings that he made for his paintings had dealt with religious scenes. He has a realistic way of portraying these, so this is something to really consider is to get is realistic as you can and really created dynamic image of yourself. Look at his line quality. Look at the feeling that's being admitted and that's something to consider or a project we're going to be using the continent Paris colors sanguine and white. Also, we're going to be using the stick form versus a pencil. That content does come in a zwelling. I want to show you a little bit of a demonstration of working with charcoal vs Contact, seeking an idea how to work with the content. What I have here is my Terkel stick, as well as my charcoal pencil and my white charcoal that I didn't use my other drawing because I didn't need to. And then here's my content. Aziz usually break it in half. So let's is place a little bit of hatching lines with my pencil and maybe some side massive lines using my stick, and I'm gonna blend it a little bit in here. When I use my white to this, you'll already see that it has kind of a greatest tone. It's not as white as the paper is. You have to be very careful with your charcoal and very light with it to get the light lights and you can blend a little bit, but they tend to great out. So it looses the effective working just charcoal with the white paper. It was clearly what helped. It was a need a razor. We could lift it up all the way to the white, so that's why didn't use this now with the content, it's the stick form. It's gonna have a nice clean edge, military corrected. But you're gonna have an edge here as well issues in the side, and you are able to manipulate it. Using the cran form, as you can see in my demonstration here, create nice hatching lines. I can also society of it, but you'll find that it's little waxy holds have to bend into the corner area. To really press down really creates a very luscious color. I really believe that when you're doing things in context, it looks very masterful. Now let's add a little bit of the white to this. Is that come across here? It really lends itself to have a beautiful blending to it. I can come in here is well but again, the white is never gonna be the white white of your paper. You always have to consider that. But look how lovely it is in here. It just works so well together versus that of the charcoal. So let's get started. I want to show you my set up here that you can see that I'm actually working in front of a mere I'm not doing a selfie. You'll be able to do a more three dimensional portrait if you could just keep working and notice my eyes air constantly looking in the mirror. More so than looking at the paper, here's a drawing out of his notebook. You can see that he also dealt with a lot of anatomical drawings. Very important to start with this, understanding this skull because you have to understand that three dimensional structure of the face So you know where to put the darks and lights in. Here's another drawing that he's done and showing you the proportions of the face served work on this, but I would like todo exercise with me to start your join. I think this is very helpful just to get your proportions down. Having a nice beginning, I work on the side of it, just like we did before. I have already kind of know how I want my position of my face to bay. So I'm going to start out just placing where my I'm gonna place my head just ever so lightly. Then I'm gonna come in and start to do my edging. Where do I want my edging off the top of your forehead? You have more because of the skull. I can almost put my skull back here. Place it. So you wanna have enough of a forehead and up above a lot of people? Forget that. And that's why it looks like it's cut off. So I I'm gonna just shade in areas where my skull is, where there's empty pockets knows I'm going to go home or sideways. So I'm going to create nice line. So everything lines up with it. My eyes will line up my nose in my mouth so they're not gonna be even either side. But it's gonna go with the curve. My face. This is so helpful to start out that way. What a position. When my eyes are side of my face here just going up to it. I haven't made any direct lines in there. This is just my practice sheet right now, so you could really make your hair look good, like myself. Look a little younger, but I have this certain Look what I'm my serious look, that's I was showing you I'm gonna keep have this brow that goes up. I thought it's gonna fund. I'm playing with this. I mean, you could be more serious if you want to. I just think it's fun to play. I mean, use the whiting here. Just just get used to it again. This is We're just practicing with this to get it feel when I drop Portrait's whether they dogs or human. I always like to put the eyes in first because it feels like a I don't know the personalities there, so I can kind of work around it. It's always good to have one thing done. I do a little bit of front, and then I start to zero in on areas, so that builds in my proportion. Now, this is where my con taken coming. I could really go in here that hot a lot of it, but I can just do a little bit and I could tone it down to get my more than I like what's going on so far. So now I have this eye and then you want to go from one to the next to the next and proportionate out. Remember having the curve to see where your your image is gonna be. I feel pretty comfortable what I'm doing right now. My nose is gonna get in here. Keep my head One position. That's just kind of nice. You don't have a model moving on you all the time. It's just you. You have the middle of the I. It kind of fits. Gonna be fitting to the corner of your mouth, Milly, I to the corner, mouthy inside of the eye will be to the edge of your nose. So this I need to move over, but more That helps me with placement of the eyes very quickly. You need to understand the confirmation of the form of the face and regards the darks and lights like the upper part of my lip is going to be darker because it goes back. That's not a word. Should be. That's another thing. I can wipe it out with that. Now this this does not lend itself to any kind of a race. You can't use your needy racer on this. So you really got a pretty clear. It's like the top of my lips underneath. My lips will be darker underneath. My eyes would be a little bit darker. So you understand the confirmation of your face. Okay, I feel pretty good about this. I'll see in the next section, because then we're gonna I'm going to start work. Pastel paper got kind of a grayish read, so we're not gonna be working his heavy risk for going to be very minimalistic with our portrait CIA. 11. Project: in this section, We're gonna do a self portrait in contact. I do another quick study of myself and I was thinking about my light source so I can create more of a three dimensional form. So that's something to think about also, what you're wearing a word, something light. So that it also had a reflectiveness on me and then really looked at how I'm going to position this onto my paper. I drew out my portrait very lightly onto my paper like I had showed you in the last section . I have speed this up all the way through, as you can see be draw the whole portrait and action. I will add throughout this segment a little bit of tips and techniques along the way, so I could just point them out to you. I always feel the beginning. It just looks so awkward. So we're not going for perfection and not worry about what it's looking like along the way . What you're doing, you creating and changing and trying to really create something wonderful with the contact . I mainly put it all in with the sanguine color and at the very end is when I add my white because they've started any. My white. Now I can start to get great areas and will never be able to get it darker or lighter. It just neutralizes the tunnel. Really make sure you align the eyes and that they're looking right back at you. - Now I'm ready for the white and I go straight for the eyes because that's what I'd like to complete. The first, - always important to stand up, to get away from your portrait or hang it up and look at it. And this will really give you a better perspective of looking at your proportions. Sometimes you're so overwhelmed or detail in one area when you get away from it or even walk away from it for a while, come back. You'll see some things that just jump out at you that you need to correct. - Well , here's my portrait. Is serious, is I look, but I think it's kind of fun. There's so many different ways to do it. Challenge yourself, really enjoy this process. I think it's great. I think it's a fun, fun media to work with. I hope he enjoyed this. I definitely hope to see your project in the project gallery. I'll see in the next section of my final thoughts 12. FinalThoughts: my final thoughts. Hope you enjoy the class. There is awful lot to learn and don't feel overwhelmed by anything because you can always go back and redo it. Feel good about it. Feel good about the journey in the process. I really can't wait to see your beautiful portrait in the project gallery. And after this I have a couple classes that you might be interested that deal with. Leonardo da Vinci. Good luck to you. I hope to see you again. I have lots of classes that I teach. You can check out on my profile page and I look so forward to seeing you again. And I want to thank you so, so much. Also, you'll get to see my wonderful models using the class just for fun. Take care.