Hello! We have an upcoming art exhibit this March. I've been making visual studies to make my own watercolor renditions of these. Hopefully I succeed.
Here's two sample sketches I did for a time duration of 1.5 hours.
My goal was to capture the likeness and expression most importantly and the eyes.
Tell me what you think!
Line drawing, this was the beginning. One circle and some lines then I build it and shade. I let it flow and last is the face. Mysteriously my flow became reverse normally I'd finish the face first then the body but I suppose it's a benefit not to become lazy on drawing other elements and just keep focusing on the face.
The accuracy of the drapery is somewhat irrelevant for now because the shading and the folds can be easily winged. What I was nervous about was capturing the face.
Yes, the iconic ladies from yesterday yet ever so timeless.
Phew, I drew her first actually as my warm up. Challenging to think "can't mess up now!"
Best part was drawing hands, they're so elegant and well formed.
Avoid the dull blank stare
Once I finish the sketch as a whole I emphasize lines of the eyes if I feel like they're not expressing too much yet. Our sketches have a tendency to capture less and less so it's ok to exaggerate. Maybe that extra push will make it shout out the most.
When I draw eyes they tend to look slanted upward so I self check on my art and say, okay the eyes I am aiming to draw are deep set and droops so I really make extra effort to exaggerate the droop and ending up creating it just right.
I would say I captured the likeness. I also add extra shine to eyes as much as I can which means shading the eye white gray and erasing it. I was using a hard eraser so it was hard to reach the little spaces.
I also smudged some parts of the face and erasing for highlights it helps the plump appearances of the faces to show.
Back in the day roundness and plumpness of a woman are deemed preferable and holds much of womanly essence (good for childbearing). Yes it's ok to have flab and be round. Contrary to magazine slim stick perfection, many old pieces of art will always show the roundness and gentleness of women.
They say many secrets revolve around her expression, yes she may look like she's hiding a thing or two. While drawing them, I did think, "well there's one thing that's not a secret, it's how difficult it is to copy them!".
Expression truly is deep. They're pictures of people who have expression which makes us think,
"Why do you look?"
"What are you thinking?"
And from there a story plays in mind, of a life, an opinion, never ending.
My current attempt is to now add colour after sketching them once more.
Now I've memorized the "look", the angles and contrasts.
Till next time my friends!
She knows something you don't....
Buhbyeeee!
