While doing a little clean-up in my basement and garage I ran across a few of my older illustration portfolios. Granted I shouldn't be keeping my art in the basement or garage because my pieces are starting to wrinkle and show some discoloration. Anyway, as I was going through my portfolios, some dating back to high scool and early college, I decided I should probably archive the pieces before their condition worsens. Where better to archive that art than here.
The images shown above were done around 1989 and proved to be a real turning point in my art. Up until this point my art was never really bold in terms of shadows and highlights.
I remember I drove to Grand Rapids, for no particular reason, and wound up walking around some mall. (Which was very abnormal for me to do). During my walk I stumbled upon an artist doing really detailed pencil portraits. What struck me about her work was how bold they were. So I asked what sort of pencils and techniques she was using. She informed me using Ebony pencils and smudge sticks really work well for achieving nice tonal ranges.
So the first chance I got I bought a bunch of Ebony pencils, locked myself in my room and didn't come out until I figured out how to make my portraits look somewhat like hers. I remember it didn't take long to figure out. Then all I drew for the next few months were portraits.
Here it is 16 years later and I'm thinking to to myself, the portraits are pretty good except, why were all my eyes uneven? And why didn't I spend more time on hair details?
In any event, I still love the feeling of sitting in front of a blank piece of paper with a really sharp Ebony pencil.
No comments:
Post a Comment