Portrait course eye exercise, approx. 5" x 6"coloured pencil on Stonehenge, copyright Teresa Mallen
Happy Halloween! Did my big eyeball scare you? Hopefully it isn't too ghoulish!
Here at Teresa Mallen Studio, November is portrait month. Over the next four weeks I shall be teaching a course on how to do portraits in coloured pencil. I have been having an absolute blast creating new exercises. I love it when a subject comes to life on paper and it is even more thrilling when it is a face.
This is a real nitty gritty course, chock full of fabulous info on how to avoid common drawing errors. There is also lots of practice in creating skin tones. The big eye is one of the exercises. There are so many mistakes made with the eye. Usually it is because we think we know what an eye looks like, but when it comes to drawing and capturing a likeness, never assume anything!
I shall share some of the other face parts next week. For now I shall leave you will some photos taken two days ago. Mother Nature got in an early Halloween trick as we have had a snow and ice storm. Now before you start thinking that here in Ottawa we must live in igloos and have no sun for nine months of the year - we are not that far north! We never get snow in October and often not in November either. So this snow will melt when it warms up next week.
My husband snapped this picture. I am in our backyard (decked out in one of his old coats) and no I am not raking snow. I was using the rake to get ice off of a lilac tree.
You might wish to scroll down to the October 18th post to see how this tree looked just a week and a half ago.
Remember the picture of one of my favourite spots? Well, here is how it looks now.
Forget the costumes and carved pumpkins...isn't Halloween just an excuse to eat candy? Enjoy! Just adding beauty to my life, right? :-)
4 comments:
Brilliant eye drawing, have to agree with you, human portraiture in CPs is not easy, much more easier in graphite methinks. Lovely photos...looks so cold!
Hi Vic,
Glad you liked my large eye! After looking at my post, my husband commented that the eye looked yellow in places. And then he asked, "Is it supposed to?" :-)
So maybe I should put in a disclaimer...yes the yellowish bits are intended. This is just my palette creeping in. I tried to do the exercises straight up, but somehow pencils in my favourite colours kept finding their way into my hand. I wonder how that happened? :-)
And yes Vic it was very cold. It was extremely windy which caused lots of power outages and tree damage. Ah, but it is a beautiful warm sunny day today. We are appreciating it all the more because of our brief encounter with winter.
Thanks for stopping by!
Wonderful, luminous eye Teresa. I'm sure your class will be well received. These are really common problems in human portraiture.
Snow.....brrrrr. We had a brief encounter with it the other week with wet sloppy stuff but it didn't linger. Then on Thursday it was 19C! I'd prefer winter kept at bay awhile longer yet.
Thank you Jeanette. Wonderful and luminous, goodness, high praise indeed from such a talented portrait gal as yourself!!
And yes, we are hoping for some above seasonal temperatures for a change. A balmy November would be nice.
Now get back to moving the stuff in your studio. Good luck with that! :-)
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