Emily Armstrong

Drawing Portraits: Sketching Eyes, Noses, Mouths

Hey Chris, The nose is great, Im impressed! Good range from light to dark. Without looking at the photo perhaps it needs just a little more study of the tone at either side of the long part of the nose to get the protrusion from the face. Did you use an eraser at the end to get the highlights? - its created an effective reflection. I really like your mark-making too - maybe its more obvious because of the close up photo, but I look forward to seeing a full portrait from you and how your style comes across within it....Oh I better get on to making the third video!!

Thanks Emily. I did keep the highlights free from shading, however I did resort to using the eraser to clean them up and extend them a bit. One thing I didn't do was mark out the main features first to get the proportions right. Instead I started with the tip of the nose and nostrils and worked out from there. This is why the bridge of the nose is longer than the in the photo. I'm really enjoy taking the time to do these exercises. They are not taking as long as I expected them to. I'm looking forward to the third video. A full portrait will be a real challenge for me.

Good to experiment with different ways of working. I often switch between measuring, and putting shading together like a jigsaw puzzle working from broad areas to details. Whatever works!!

Fantastic! Thanks for posting your project! I like your systematic way of testing the pencils and you've achieved a really good sense of form and depth from use of tone in your drawing. And I can tell which eye you chose so that is a very good sign :D Thanks again

Thanks Emily. I hope to try drawing another face part this weekend.

I bought some pencils and thought I'd try to sketch one of the supplied&nbsp;eyes. This is definitely the best eye I have ever drawn.
<img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/9d0366f4dd97c25a5dfc01c79988673c/e44251b3" alt="My First Eye + - image 1 - student project" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=600,format=auto/uploads/project/9d0366f4dd97c25a5dfc01c79988673c/e44251b3 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/9d0366f4dd97c25a5dfc01c79988673c/e44251b3 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">
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Added a nose...
<img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/9d0366f4dd97c25a5dfc01c79988673c/2036b5b7" alt="My First Eye + - image 2 - student project" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=600,format=auto/uploads/project/9d0366f4dd97c25a5dfc01c79988673c/2036b5b7 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/9d0366f4dd97c25a5dfc01c79988673c/2036b5b7 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">

My First Eye +

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