Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones
We finished up our portrait drawing class a little over a week ago. This is what Souzi looks like when she is complete!
Souzi was drawn from a photo reference I had taken of her last summer.
Our new portrait class that started March 16th will only have live models to draw from! No need to be intimidated from live models. The quality of drawing from life is much more rewarding!
Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones
Souzi has eyebrows and eyelashes! We started working on her hair last Saturday. We are using 5 Prismacolor colored pencils in her hair, Black, Tuscan Red, Indigo Blue, Dark Green, Dark Umber. There are about 2 layers of each color and then more Black is applied for the last layer to give the hair more definition.
“Souzi”, Work in Progress
Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones
We are finishing up the skin tones on Souzi in our Saturday colored pencil portrait class. This coming Saturday I will show everyone how to do the hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows. She is so much fun to draw!
Happy coloring!
“Souzi”, Work in Progress
Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones
Last Friday we finished up getting the hair done on this portrait of Souzi. Now that the hair is in, we will see what need re-defined in other areas on her face and clothing.
This coming Friday in class, we will re-visit those areas and get the values correct.
We have been working from a photograph to complete Souzi. On the 16th of March, we will start using live models to create our work!
Happy drawing!
Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones
What a way to start the week! Mondays are awesome when you start them out with drawing!
For the past 3 weeks we have been studying perspective and how to use our pencils. Next week, we will put those skills to work using a still life setup.
Drawing from life can no way compare to drawing from a photo. Photos flatten things. Just think how much our art will improve when we start drawing from life!
Happy drawing!
“Souzi”, Work in Progress
Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones
We have been busy drawing Souzi in our Friday portrait drawing class. She is getting close to being complete. This coming Friday we will finish her hair and put in her eyelashes. Then, the week following we will do any touch up work before finishing her. I know I have a lot of endings and roundings to complete on her face before I will be satisfied.
Happy drawing!
Attending class at The Ryder Studio is like reading a good book you can’t put down. It becomes part of who you are. You will not return home the same person. Your heart will ache to go back to the studio to learn more.
Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones
I recently attended a workshop taught by Daryl Reimer at the Bartlesville Art Association. Daryl has attended The Ryder Studio for several years. He taught us the same classical method to drawing that Anthony Ryder taught us when I attended the studio last summer. The workshop re-awakened the fire inside me to learn all I can about drawing and painting as the masters did.
In preparation to attending The Ryder Studio again this summer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I am offering a class this spring teaching the same method. I will give more details about this class in a week or two.
Happy drawing!
Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones
We got a lot done in drawing class today! We worked on Souzi’s mouth and her ear. It was fun to draw the pathways in her lips.
We don’t have class next Friday due to an extensive portrait drawing workshop by Daryl Reimer at the Bartlesville Art Association.
Next class, February 17th…we will follow all the wonderful pathways of the face and create the skin tones of the cheeks, chin, and forehead.
Happy drawing!
Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones
I am so excited for our Friday drawing class to get here! We are working on Souzi in graphite. She looks a little bit like a reverse raccoon at the moment! But just you wait….She’ll be a beauty before too much longer.
Hmmm….what should we work with next? I am thinking we will work on the lips and the ear this Friday.
We haven’t put in her eyelashes. I am going to wait until the end to put those in. I want the skin tones just right before adding those jewels. I will also wait until the end to put the little wisps of hair around her head.
For this drawing, we added the hair first. I usually don’t do that, but her hair is soooo dark. I didn’t want us taking a lot of important class time adjusting skin tones. When a person has dark hair, it is easy to go too light on the skin tones in the beginning.
Happy drawing!
Copyright 2011, Valerie Jones
This past week I have been awakened to all the blessings in my life. It’s a wonderful, peaceful feeling that has washed over me as I think about all the people who have walked along side me. Life on earth can be a pleasurable journey.
Above is a graphite drawing of “Cara”. She was one of our models while at The Ryder Studio. I am teaching the method of drawing that I learned while there. I have seven amazingly talented students who are learning how to draw “Cara”.
Mr. Parker
Copyright 2011, Valerie Jones
I delivered this finished drawing to a happy client today!
Mr. Parker – Work in Progress
Copyright 2011, Valerie Jones
As I begin Week 2 of working on Mr. Parker, I find myself smiling back at him! Do your paintings and drawings talk back to you?
Copyright 2011, Valerie Jones
Ever have a day when you want to draw and all your pencil strokes come out choppy? I had such a day recently.
What did I do to remedy the problem? I took a scratch piece of paper and practiced only pencil strokes. As I practiced, a rhythmic feel came over the pencil strokes. As my pencil strokes calmed, so did my breath. Everything seemed to work better.
What kind of technique do you use when you need to create a peaceful calm to draw?
Day 10
Santa Fe, New Mexico
The last day of my experience at The Ryder Studio…an awesome time of learning. I was saddened to see it come to an end. I am looking forward to returning again in the near future!
We learned about drawing hair on the 10th day. The hair is sometimes darker than skin tone and sometimes lighter.
Hair is just another form.
The border of the hair on the head is very important to get.
Don’t draw the block-in as a generic form. Draw it as an appearance of what the person looks like.
Look for the hair shape during the block-in.
Continue the scalp with an imaginary line through the hair to help create the form shape.
To some degree, the hair clings to the head, like a cap.
Hair naturally groups into locks.
When things overlap, use a T-intersection. Same goes for the hair.
We all know what it feels like to put your hair behind the ear. Make that feeling happen.
The locks of hair are sort of glued together, in a sense.
After the shape block-in of the hair, then add the placement of the locks, each with a certain convexity.
For short hair or hair challenged people, draw forests of hair with meadows in-between. Crew cuts, etc.
Hair is glossy and shiny – as it arks up and turns, it reflects a highlight. As it turns back down it starts to darken again.
The highlight cuts across the shape of hair in a different way than it does on the face.
Shapes of shading are shaped like tornadoes.
After the block-in and shape placements, then add tonal washes.
The highlights in the hair follow the shape of the light on the forehead.
The terminator of the jaw-line follows into the hair.
When hair falls into the shadow, you have a less-see zone.
Remember not to over-define areas in the shadows, draw only what you see as accurately as you can.
Hair casts shadows on the face.
As hair is not solid, the cast shadows are not solid. They sometimes are fuzzy. ie: dappled sunlight on the sidewalk from a tree at sunset.
Draw hair in a scruffy fashion instead of smooth and silky. If you are having a bad drawing day, draw some hair.
Hair falls vertically at a faster rate than hair falls horizontally.
Hair has a certain spring to it.
When the curl sits on a shape it curves differently.
Leave the highlights the white of the paper.
Think of mixing eggs for scrambling when applying the pencil to the paper.
Value is an aspect of color. You can give a sense of color about how dark the values become.
When class was finished for the day, this is what I came up with. I drew “Souzy” for 4 afternoons. She isn’t complete at this stage, but she has a good start.
Copyright 2011, Anthony Ryder
Day 9
Santa Fe, New Mexico
We learned all about ears on the next to the last day at The Ryder Studio.
There is kind of an updraft from the neck out to the ear shape.
The ear is around the horizon, around the side of the face.
Keep in mind that the hair tucks behind the ear.
Where the hair originates from the scalp, it is like it is just born, with little color to it.
Although the ear sticks out, it is rooted to the head.
The rim of the ear is wide to narrow with little kinks in it. It is not smooth! Think of it as having mosquito bites.
The central part of the ear form pushes out.
Pay attention to the tilt of the ear.
While working in the shadows, lightly block in the shadow shapes and gradually work up to the darkest dark.
Remember that drawing tells a story.
And…You get endorphins from foreshortening!
Day 8
Santa Fe, New Mexico
We started Day 8 at The Ryder Studio talking about lips. I learned a lot about how not to fence things in that day.
Anthony Ryder started his demonstration with saying that lips are around the face, from under the nose to the top of the chin, earlobe to earlobe.
When you bring the edge of the mouth up toward the nose, it doesn’t make a corner edge. It tucks up under the lip.
Think of the upper lip like a very round rowboat. If looking up the bottom lip will curve downward instead of upward.
I learned that the terminator lives in the form shadows.
The bottom lip has lobes, like a peanut.
The rim of the lips are not a shape! There is a roundness to it, with little breaks here and there.
Lips are like a string purse.
The lower lip is shaped almost as if you are sticking your tongue out. The diffusion on the bottom lip is not always pronounced on certain people.
Every convex form on the body has a certain degree of roundness.
The forms of the body are non-separate and integrated in the forms around them.
The mouth shape goes into the cheek, helping form the cheekbone area.
With shading, we tend to put the big shapes in and forget to put the smaller interwoven lines of shading on the form.
Copyright 2011, Anthony Ryder
Day 7
Santa Fe, New Mexico
On the seventh day at The Ryder Studio we learned about noses. Just look at the detail in the picture above that can be seen on the nose! Amazing!
Noses, in general, are wider into the forehead.
A nose has shadows that run at right angles to the direction of the light.
Nostrils are not drawn as exhaust pipes…o o
The tip of the nose has a furrow in it.
The nose is a projection of the skull. It turns with the head. The turned portion of the nose is far shorter than the side closest to you. There is no contour to the opening on the far side.
People like lines because it creates ownership. Do not fence the shadows of the nose in. ie; the nostrils
The mouth is a spherical form. Roundness comes up to meet the bottom of the nose. There is a slight curve at the bottom of the nose as it sits on the top of the lip. The philtrum has sub-forms. The philtrum is wider at the top, toward the nose.
Do not draw a fence around the nose highlight.
Pay attention to shadow shapes and form shapes.
Form is a shape. Shadows have shapes that form from the shape of the form.
Think of the nose as an upside down tree. It has roots going up into the eyebrow areas, way up into the forehead.
The eye is built from the same kind of rhythms coming out of the nose.
The nose is kind of knit into the head.
The light side of the nose has light shadows. Do not make them dark!
Do not overmodel…learn how to integrate the forms into the drawing by being subtle.
Think of the head as a bus and the features are like passengers on the bus. Wherever the head goes, the features go too.
Something to keep in mind…Draw the light on the form and not the skin pigment.
Copyright 2011, Anthony Ryder
Day 6
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Day 6 began the second week of studying with Anthony Ryder at The Ryder Studio! This week proved to fly by in a hurry. Now that I’m home and trying to draw from a live model, I find that I still have a lot to learn.
On Day 6, we learned how to draw eyes. Anthony Ryder began the day by reminding us that the eye is basically a hollow sphere.
Copyright 2011, Anthony Ryder
The upper eyelashes are thicker than the bottom eyelashes.
From the side view, the triangle shape of the eyelids are foreshortened. The more the person is turned away, the more foreshortened the feature.
Things to think of when drawing -
- The upper lid catches the light.
- The downward facing surface of the upper eyelid is dark, (rounding down).
- The upper side of the bottom eyelid is light.
-The upper eyelid is casting a shadow on the eye surface.
- Highlight is toward the light source on the upper part of the pupil.
-The lower part of the iris will have a smaller highlight.
-The highlight on the pupil (closest to the light source) has a slight anti-halo around it, (sitting on the cornea).
I learned a new term – truncate – to remove part of a geometric shape. Now I can’t remember why I learned it! Guess I need to go back to the studio…
It is very important to get the shape of the eye correctly. It gives the position of the head.
When drawing the highlight of the eye, put a little fence around it. The highlight “floats” in the dark space of the pupil. The highlight is the only part of the portrait that he puts a fence around.
“Iris” is the Greek word for rainbow.
The bottom of the top eyelid line is the “porch”. The eyelid is the “roof”.
The upper eyelid is non-parallel.
Check the angles of the facial plane very carefully.
When setting the eyes on the head, the width of the bridge of the nose- there is a funnel shape from the forehead to the bridge of the nose.
The term “terminator” is the form shadow edge of a shape.
Notice the spinning around shape of the head.
The upper eyelid curves down into itself. It creates a soft edge. The nose edge is almost another form. You will see this in the photo at the top of this post.
The shape of the light is the critical part of the drawing. Kind of like the beef of the hamburger.
The curve is inside of the beautiful shapes.
The pathways of the human form are like flowing curving movements of music.
Celeste Ryder sat with me in the afternoon while I was drawing. She gave me some helpful tips. When drawing the nostril, tuck in the shadow. Ask yourself where is the shadow and where is the light on the form? They eyeball is sitting on the inside of the eyelids. Wrap shapes around and marry it to the form.
“We don’t have to be superheroes to have an incredible experience as an artist.” – Anthony Ryder
Copyright 2011, Anthony Ryder
Day 5
Santa Fe, New Mexico
By the 5th day in class, the demonstration that Anthony Ryder was working on began to take shape. The hair became life-like.
Tufts of hair come out of the forehead. To draw hair this way, you need to work on the negative drawing. Toned paper works best when drawing hair.
Draw what you see. Draw the fuzzy edges. Don’t draw what you “know” is there.
A strand of hair has a fullness about it.
Multiple hair strands are a little like the Blue Ridge mountains, going off in the distance.
When you draw the parting of the hair, you can draw it kind of like a valley.
The line and the light need to agree.
The funny overlap and gaps are what you need to look for when drawing hair.
To make the tonal direction of the hair, go across the grain of hair.
When drawing ears, watch for the movement within the ear. The way the ear functions is kind of like a radar dish or trumpet.
When drawing the nose, the highlights of the nose are no fly zones.
Anthony & Celeste Ryder studied under Ted Seth Jacobs while learning the technique of drawing light on form. Ted was born in 1927 and studied during WWII. Ted created restructured realism.
Ted Seth Jacobs has written several books. Drawing with an Open Mind is one that has been popular with artists. He has a new one that I would someday hope to have in my library, The Dictionary of Human Form.
I had finally moved past the block-in stages of drawing into the shading. We had worked on “Cheryl” for two afternoons. Here is what I accomplished during that time.
Copyright 2011, Anthony Ryder
“The human body is like a symphony.” – Anthony Ryder
Day Four
Santa Fe, New Mexico
On the fourth day at The Ryder Studio, we learned a lot about the whole drawing process.
Draw the nose using very minute details. Draw moment by moment. Minute details are used to capture the likeness of the model.
Don’t draw exact lines parallel to the other lines. Pay attention.
The teeth are a portion of a sphere. Think of the mouth being a section of an orange.
Don’t put as much focus in your drawings. Think of how Vemeer captured the likeness without too many details.
Create soft edges, not hard edges.
The Florentine and Renaissance masters had complete drawings of a subject before putting them onto canvas.
Anthony Ryder has always been drawn to softness of the Florentine style.
Pay attention to the distribution of light across the form.
Light doesn’t stop – it continues on across the form.
Think of the tear ducts as being part of the nose.
Take time, slow down, and enjoy the process. Drawing is not mindless creativity, as some people think. Every form on the surface of the body is unique. Every pencil stroke is thought out, it is not mindless.
If you just draw value change, you don’t get the shape of the form. Think pixels.
