Portraits are the fascination of any age. These are the pictorial records of a culture, kept in museums and other revered places. These are the quiet contemplative things into which we put: our time, concentration and attention. Like any endeavor that takes a higher level of consciousness, making portraits is something worth doing; these are the things we leave behind us, something that will show our children and grand children: who we were, how we thought and what we considered important. Most important, a portrait made by hand offers the chance to capture something a camera cannot: the person who does not photograph well, the rough exterior that hides a heart of gold or the shining exterior that hides a heart of darkness - these things cannot be seen by the camera, but can be displayed in a portrait.

On the average, the face is an oval divided horizontally in two. That line lies somewhere between the pupil to the eyebrows. Face on, this means the horizontal dividing line is about at the top of the ears. Most people are exceptions to these rules, but the average is about there. If you can capture the shape of the eye and distance between them, the shape and placement of the eyebrow, you have captured the major part of the likeness.

You can age or “youth-en” a drawing by the approach to mark-making. Soften curves and features to make the person look younger. Provide precise lines and sharper features to make them older. Everyone has a distinctive ear shape. Draw it as you would the details of the face, and the subject will be pleased (we know our own ears). Everyone has a distinctive eyebrow shape. Women usually spend time choosing and controlling that shape. Men usually do not, but they know it and are identified by it. Capturing an accurate eyebrow shape will contribute a great deal toward making an accurate likeness.

Process

1. Start with gesture. A loose drawing repeated many times, establishes a proportional relationship. You begin to see accurate lines - that match precisely what you see. Emphasize those and you establish your composition and produce a proportional drawing.
2. Put in value, establishing light and dark relationships and a full range of grays. Use an eraser to correct the value areas until the drawing begins to look like a photograph out of focus.
3. When the darks are dark enough, add details, eyes first and then put in other details to flesh out and add flash to the drawing. This one-two-three approach will keep a control on proportions and will provide an accurate or expressive value range. Leave details until last and you also leave the best for last - a major contributor to keeping your interest in the process and producing a drawing that improves with every stroke to the finish. Like the dessert allegory, we save the sweetest part until the end to keep our appetite, and make the entire 'meal' satisfying.

One student asked about the tinted charcoal paper on the materials list. It is used for push/pull - add black(or color) and white to a neutral paper tone, and we push and pull the dimension of the portrait. In abstract terms it means creating depth by the manipulation and placement of light and dark. In practical terms it means adding to the range of light and dark to increase believability and the illusion of depth. Establish a neutral value as ground and save time.

Homework Assignment: Due October 8, 2003, - 5 quick portrait sketches of passersby

In-Class Comments
Questions & Answers

Q - How does gesture work as a first step in the drawing sequence?
A - All of these processes are short cuts for the beginner that become tools you can refer to later once your eye hand coordination is developed.
Gesture is the classical and easy way to establish proportion by attempting to capture the 'gesture' or apparent movement of the form. Each mark is a single line that shows that movement. Make that line 60 times, in different ways, and you have what appears to be a wire armiture that looks like the figure. Add weight to the lines that are more accurate and you begin to establish the contour of the figure and weighted lines that represent mass. As the drawing continues some of these repeated mass lines become value, and we begin to push and pull the form - erase and draw -to make the value drawing accurate, almost like an out of focus photograph. When that is established, we add detail and texture, or directional mark making to 'finish' the drawing. The steps of: gesture, contour, weighted line, value and detail are all present, but they are not distinct parts. They overlap as the drawing progresses to a finish.

Q - How do you make a gesture for something that is moving?
A - In my work as a student we had to draw ballet dance students at the Armory on the UW campus. We had to draw them in motion, and capture the gesture of their movement as well. I produced a series of gesture drawings across the page that did the job of representing both the movement of the body and of the motion across the floor.

Q - What is the process of mark making and how does it apply to drawing & painting?
A - In contemporary use it means controlling the direction and length of marks to represent texture, motion and scale. In classical use it means combining contour and weighted line in each stroke to develop and define the form. This is usually left as a project for upper level or advanced students, because it is difficult achieve and maintain, and it works best after all other considerations have been mastered [ie - accuracy of image-making, graphic expression and consistently successful compositions]. Instructors don't usually introduce these problems to beginning students, because it can scare them off - or worse make them feel like they are inadequate. Everything is a learning process. If you would try this level of control in your mark making, realize that many of the masters could not do it either.