Artistic Realism Art Studio

In this stage, the second cup and the plate of cookies are almost finished. I used 0.5 mm 2B mechanical pencil for the coffee and cookies.

From the Art Studio,

David

I worked on this yesterday, so here’s an update. Used a brush, 4H and 5H wooden pencils, and 0.5 mm B mechanical pencil.

From the art studio,

David

About the still life drawing I mentioned in my previous post entitled Portrait of Ankong – Stage 2, well here it is.

It was transferred to a 25.4 × 20.3 cm (10″ × 8″) Canson paper by means of the graphite transfer method. This is actually included in a series of still life drawings called “Coffee”. Again, Faith and I teamed up for this project. She will be doing two out of five drawings.

From the studio,

David

An update on the Portrait of Ankong that I am currently working on. Here, the face is almost finished.

As mentioned in Portrait of Ankong – Stage 1, Faith will be doing the hair, clothes and background. I will be finishing my part of the portrait first before she does hers. But as this stage shows, she has already started working on the hair and clothes .

I took a holiday break and only resumed work on it way after Christmas . But during the break, I got back to the outline of a still life drawing which has been lingering for quite some time in the composition stage. I’ll post it here soon. I’m kind of slow, but I’ll try to change all of that this year as part of my New Year’s resolution. Anyway, it’s just to show that I was not totally idle while enjoying the holidays.

David

Now that we have finished the male eye, here’s another portrait drawing tutorial: the male nose. As before, my drawing technique varies to give me a chance to experiment on different methods. Although I merely applied a 4H wooden pencil for the first initial layer, I decided to give it a try. More on this in Step 2.

The materials I used are:

• 0.5 mm B (Staedtler), 2B (Dong-A) and HB (Faber-Castell) mechanical pencils
• 4H and H wooden pencils
• A brush
• A shop towel
• A kneaded eraser (when necessary)

Step 1: The outline was drawn on a piece of bond paper then transferred to an 11.5 × 12 cm (4.5″ × 4.75″) Canson paper by means of the graphite transfer method.

Step 2: Applied 4H wooden pencil for the initial layer. It is blended with the shop towel. This is to prevent the paper from being too rough when further layers of graphite are applied. Then, with a soft brush dipped in a bit of graphite powder, I covered it with two to three layers of the medium.

Step 3: Just to establish where the darks would go, especially the sides of the nose, I used the HB mechanical pencil and then I blended again with the towel.

Step 4: Now I really established the dark tones and shadows on the wings, sides, ball, and tip of the nose using 2B, B and HB mechanical pencils and H wooden pencil. In this stage, I blend only occasionally.

Step 5: The nostrils were rendered using the 2B mechanical. The shading below the nose was done using B and 2B mechanical pencils.

Step 6: I did the skin beside the nose by means of HB, B and 2B mechanical pencils. Here I blended a little.

Step 7: With the B and 2B mechanical pencils, I started going all over it again for the last time. So here it is — the male nose. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

From Artistic Realism’s Art Studio,

David

• Website: Artistic Realism Drawings
• Other tutorials: Pencil Drawing Tutorials Category

I prefer to render drawings, especially portraits, in the realistic style. My method varies from drawing to drawing or from portrait to portrait because I like to improve my ability in working with that style. I hope this tutorial can be of help in some way. First, let me mention the things I used for this tutorial:

• A soft brush
• 0.5 mm 2B (Dong-A), HB (Faber-Castell) and B (Staedtler) mechanical pencils
• 4H, 5H and 6H wooden pencils
• A shop towel
• A kneaded eraser
• A lot of patience

The paper being used is Canson Grain. I draw on the reverse side because the other side is too rough. The size is 11.5 x 12 cm (4.5″ x 4.75″). Let’s start!

Step 1: The outline was first drawn on a small piece of bond paper and then transferred to the Canson paper using the graphite transfer method.

Step 2: With a soft, thin brush, I applied 2 to 3 layers of graphite powder while avoiding the highlights. If I do get any graphite there, I would clean them with a kneaded eraser before moving to the next step. Because the first few brush strokes are darker, which you may not want, just take off excess graphite powder from the brush by rubbing it on a piece of paper. Then, the skin around the eye is covered with a 4H wooden pencil.

Step 3: With a 0.5 mm HB mechanical pencil, I continued the underpainting and then blended with the brush.

Step 4: Going back to the same brush, I began rendering the eye itself avoiding the highlights if possible. With the 0.5 mm 2B mechanical pencil, I did the pupil. For the iris, I drew spokes originating from the pupil by means of a 6H wooden pencil. Then using the 2B mechanical, I darkened it — especially the shadow under the upper eyelid and its edges. Used the kneaded eraser to pull some soft highlights.

Step 5: 5H wooden pencil and a light touch are used on the white of the eye to make it smooth and also to keep it from receiving a lot of graphite when the eyeball is established using primarily 0.5 mm B and 2B mechanical pencils. Lastly, B mechanical pencil is used for the tear duct. In this stage, I made some corrections on the tear duct and the crease of the eyelid.

Step 6: Rendered the lower eyelid with HB, B and 2B mechanical pencils while 5H and B were used on its thickness.

Step 7: The same thing was done on the upper eyelid. Applied 2B under the crease to make the upper eyelid “go in”.

Step 8: Established the skin tones above the crease which is then blended with a brush dipped in a bit of graphite powder.

Step 9: With a B mechanical pencil, I rendered the skin under the eye so it will be lighter in tone than the one above.

Step 10: Applied HB, B and 2B mechanical pencils on the side of the nose and the eyebrow area. Blended this with the brush and shop towel.

Step 11: Following its growth, the eyebrow is drawn using a 2B mechanical pencil.

Finished: Saved the eyelashes until the skin underneath is done. To draw them, I sharpened the 2B mechanical pencil to a pointed tip. I started from the base of each hair, getting thinner as it ends at its tip. The upper eyelashes should be darker than the lower. Finally, I did some finishing touches on the skin tones. It’s finished. I hope you like it.

From the Art Studio,

David

• Website: Artistic Realism Drawings
• Other tutorials: Pencil Drawing Tutorials Category

On the easel, I am working on a portrait of my grandfather (father’s side). Because it’s quite large, my sister, Faith, will be helping me with this. She will render the hair, clothes, and background while my part will be from the forehead up to the neck. This is quite an experiment since this is the first time we have collaborated on a single portrait. Here is the cropped version of the first stage to show the progress of the portrait so far. I am using graphite pencil on Canson Grain paper. The size is 46 x 61 cm (18″ x 24″).

From the Art Studio,

David