A Sketch Blog Recording my Attempts to Render Pretty Feminine Faces in Pencil with Occasional Use of Charcoal, Crayon, and other Artistic Media

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Short on time for sketch viewing? See the first 272 (or so) sketches I've posted in a 34 second music video!

Sketch #51

Well, after a drawing a series of women with "closed lip" smiles, I thought it was time to post a one willing to show her teeth.

The drawing phase went quite well, but it took two photo sessions to get a digital scan that I was happy with. I noticed after the first set that she seemed to be gaining some added weight in the chin area somehow in the transition from sketch to digital file. It seems I had placed the sketch at an angle that was not parallel to the camera so that the lower half of the page was closer (and therefore got enlarged). So maybe there really is something to the saying that the camera adds 10 pounds :)

Ted

Sketch #50

I liked the hair and the expression in this sketch. I would say she has a pleasant smile with perhaps a tinge of sadness.

I think that for once, the eyes, nose, and mouth are all pretty close to the correct positions to eachother (although the eye on the right could probably stand to be tilted down just a little to the outside). With this, my 50th post, I've come to realize that it can be quite hard to get all of those elements to line up right. A slight tilt or movement of an eye/nose/mouth/chin line in the wrong direction can lead to the sketch looking just "not quite right". Hopefully as I continue to practice my accuracy in this area will improve.

Ted

Sketch #49

This sketch needed some editing on the computer before I felt it was ready to post. I lightened her chin a bit and played around with brightness , contrast, and some of the other effects in Corel Photopaint. I was never able to achieve the quite the effect I desired (editing can only do so much), but I think the edited result was an improvement at least. Tommorrow I'll be posting a sketch I like much better :)

Ted

Sketch #48

I was quite happy with the facial expression in this sketch. I think my Mona Lisa sketches of earlier this month, were good practice for me in drawing "no teeth" smiles. The eyes are probably a bit bigger than realistic, but that can be attractive too in an somewhat "Animi" sort of way.

Ted

Sketch #47: Plain and Retouched

I thought the woman in this sketch was mildly attractive, but I couldn't help feeling that she could be so much more so with some editing on the computer. So edit I did! The top version is a simple crop from my scan of the sketch. The one beneath it was heavily edited in Corel Photopaint.

Starting with a slightly different crop of the scan, I adjusted the lighting and color balance. Going a step further, I did some some extensive redrawing/editing in and around the eyes. (That way I could lighten away the excessive eye shadow without having the eyes appear faded). I also strengthened the chin line a bit (as it tended to disappear when I lightened the sketch). Finally I lightened the shoulder, cheek, nose, and lip highlights a bit. I may have done some other edits, but that's everything I remember. Anyway, I thought she ended up looking pretty decent :)

Ted

Sketch #46: Untamed Hair

For this sketch I wanted the woman to have long hair that was definitely "messy", but in an attractive way. I was happy with the hair and most of the other features. The eye on the right was just a bit too large to be in perfectly correct proportion to the one on the left, but I don't think it was too glaring - I've drawn far worse :)

Ted

Sketch #45

This sketch is actually the same sketch as that in my previous post, with some modification to correct the flaw I perceived (I didn't like the way the face turned out on the right side of the page).

In the image posted yesterday, I simply cropped out the part of the face I didn't like. In this one, I moved the hair on the right further in to cover it up. That had the unwanted side effect of making her hair seem somewhat lopsided to me, so I drew a lot more hair on the other side of her face to compensate. I'm not sure it is necessarily a better solution, just another way to go.

Ted

Sketch #44

In general, I was quite pleased with this sketch. The eyes, hair, lips, and line of her cheeks/chin all looked good to me. I like the way her happy/dreamy expression turned out.

I was, however, rather disappointed in the way the face turned out on the far right side of the page. To solve this problem, I cropped that side of the page quite severely. In my next post, I will show an alternative solution to the problem.

Ted

Sketch #43

After quite a number of straight ahead poses, I thought I'd try another 3/4 or so for this sketch. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turn out, especially the lips, chin, and general face/neck contour.

I did have a bit of trouble getting the eyes to line up with eachother and ended up doing quite a bit of erasing and redrawing in that area. The one on the right side of the page still looks too high to me, and both eyes suffer from perhaps too much eye shadow. Still, I think they are pleasant eyes, albeit a bit mismatched :)

Ted

Sketch #42

OK, back to someone other than Mona Lisa for a while. I like the way the hair and most of the face turned out on this sketch, but the area around the lips looks a little smudged to me, as if she was a little careless in applying her lipstick.

Ted

Sketch #41 - Mona Lisa, Third Try

Here's my third and final (for a while at least) "Mona Lisa". I decided to lose the background and go with a "cleaner" look for this sketch. I still didn't quite get the look of the eyes in the original, but I definitely think this is my best imitation yet.

It was an interesting experience trying to capture the the essence of the original - I think I gained a lot more appreciation for Da Vinci's skill, and it was a very worthwhile practice exercise. I liked being able to compare each effort to a printout of the original Mona Lisa and noticing little (or not so little) things I could do to make the next attempt better. I definitely hope to try sketching Mona again sometime after I have gained more experience as a sketch artist.

Ted

Sketch #40 - A Second "Mona Lisa" Attempt

Well, here's another "Mona Lisa" sketch. I think this one comes closer to Leonardo Da Vinci's original than my previous attempt. In particular, the hair is a better match, and the expression is better.

On the other hand, I still see PLENTY of room for further improvement. I made the irises of the eyes too big and perhaps open a little too wide. The face seems a little too broad (The eye on the left of the picture is much closer to the hairline in Da Vinci's original). The nose (and that area of the face in general) appear a bit too long. Finally, although the expression is getting better, it still has a ways to go. I need to get the mouth and the area around the eyes to more accurately project that famous "Mona Lisa smile".

Ted

Sketch #39 - First Try at "Mona Lisa"

Here's my first attempt at imitating Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". Although I felt the sketch came out reasonably well, I have to admit that I don't really think she looks all that much like Mona Lisa - There's some similarity. Perhaps she is "Martha Lisa", Mona's younger sister :)

Ted

Sketch #38 ... in color!

I was not overly pleased with the facial expression in this sketch, but I did like her lips, and I thought the chin, neck, and shoulder area came out fairly well.

Coming up next I have some of my attempts to imitate Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa".

Ted

Sketch #37

Here's yet another young lady with the "windswept hair" look. In contrast to the yesterday's sketch, this one was easy to prepare for upload. It took repeated tries (at various points in the day) to actually DO the upload, however, as Blogger was being finicky. Fortunately, persistance paid off :)

Ted

Sketch #36

This one took a bit of effort. After photographing the sketch with my digital camera the first time, I noticed that an impression from the eye of the previous sketch had carried through to the page below, leaving the woman in this sketch with an "eye tatoo" on her cheek. I also noticed some "light glare" around the edges of her eyes and the pupils.

Desiring to eliminate the aforementioned flaws, I did some heavy rubbing to minimize the impression from the previous sketch and a little erasing/redrawing/rubbing/etc. to fix the eye edges and pupils. Then I photographed the sketch a second time.

It was only after all this that I noticed one of the pupils really did not match the other very well, so I got out the pencils again and corrected that, photo'd the sketch for the third (and final!) time, and made a few more minor adjustments in Corel Photopaint. If at first you don't succeed ... :)

Ted

Sketch #35: Another Digital Manipulation

The original sketch (the one with the signature) was not quite what I wanted it to be, so I did what any red-blooded technogeek would do - made some changes on the computer! Thus, I produced the other image.

Using Corel Photopaint (TM), I took the right half of the image (which I liked better, especially for the eye placement) and created a mirror image which I then pasted over the left side to create a symmetrical portrait of the young lady. Next, I used the "mesh warp" feature to tame her hair (which would otherwise stick out sideways too much as if the wind were blowing both ways) and also to make a few adjustments to her facial structure. Finally I played around with color/brightness/contrast settings a bit to define her features more clearly.

It was an interesting experiment. I think the new picture is a definite improvement in the areas mentioned, although a few things have been lost as well as gained as the new version looks a bit unnatural at the center of her hair and neck. I also like the overall mood of the lighting better in the original. Oh well :)

Ted

Sketch #34

Here's another innocent-looking, elf-like face. I wish I could have drawn the chin and mouth just a tiny bit more to the right to line up with the nose and eyes better. I don't think they are horribly askew, but even small variations can make a big aesthetic difference. Oh well - practice, practice!

Ted

Sketch #33

The woman in this sketch has a rather innnocent look. She reminds me of someone from a fairy tale ... maybe the poor but virtuous daughter of a peasant who must face great danger to save the family farm ... or something like that :)

Ted

Sketch #32

Here's another sketch of a woman with windswept hair. I think she looks like an elf, due in large part to the way the ear came out.

Ted

Sketch #31 - Windswept Hair

I like drawing windswept hair - It's easier to draw in some ways than other styles as one just needs to know which way the wind is blowing (although one should give some consideration to gravity as well). I usually have the wind blowing to the right, but in this sketch I drew it the opposite way.

Between the hair, the lighting, and the smile, I'd say the woman in this sketch is enjoying a day at the beach.

Ted

Sketch #30

I like the way the face turned out on this sketch. Eyes, nose, and mouth all look about right to me ... maybe a bit longer in the nose area than I'd prefer. I like the hair too. The neck, on the other hand, was a bit of a disappointment. I think I made it a little too wide and the shadowing ended up too dark. Oh well, that's how we learn :)

Ted

Sketch #29

To me the woman in this sketch looks like she is trustworthy, smart, and a hard worker. She is perhaps a little bossy, but she has a kind heart ... All speculation on my part since she, like all of the sketches I have posted so far, is not consciously based on any real person.

Ted

Sketch #28

The face in this one is a little broader than usual for my sketches, but I really liked the eyes and hair, so I decided it was a keeper. As with yesterday's sketch, I accepted the greater yellowing from using the flash on my digital camera. This time I went one step further and did a fair amount of digital manipulation to get the lights/darks/etc. just the way I wanted them, at the cost of still more yellowing. (Despite appearances, the sketch was drawn on white paper).

I'm not sure the yellowing is really a bad thing though. I think it gives the sketch a classic "antiqued" look. The skin is closer to a realistic fleshtone this way too

Ted

Sketch #27

I tried a slight change in technique for photographing this sketch. What I had been doing was to turn the flash off on my digital camera and using mostly light from a lightbulb that claims to emit only natural light, then adjusting brightness and contrast as needed on the computer prior to posting. That process required considerable brightening on the computer, which resulted in more distortion/alteration of the sketch than I wanted, so for this one (and the next few afterwards which I shall post soon) I tried using the flash. It adds a bit of a yellow tinge to the image, but I think the overall result is better.

Ted

Sketch #26

In contrast to sketch #25 from last month, I think the woman depicted here looks a bit simpler and less sophisticated, still pretty, but in a less flashy way. I think I might have made the chin and mouth a tad too tiny, but I like the way her eyes and the visible ear turned out.

Ted