Due to this lockdown period, a lot of things have been on halt and adversely affected. Aside from the economies of different nations especially that of the USA, individual pockets have been drained. Social life has been shifted online and food has gotten scarce (in Nigeria here).
How I have been affected
I must say, it has been terrible for an extrovert like me to stay indoor for over three weeks. Sometimes I feel like I'm probably going to run mad and I actually sleep when I'm not drawing or listening to music.
I have not been able to swim for weeks now. I'm currently in birth town and they have deep clean pools. I can't just explore
All art commissions I should have gotten have been cancelled so it has definitely affected income for me.
How I've benefitted
More time to draw now. I used to be really busy with school that it's hard to get time to draw but now, I have quality time to focus on drawing.
I'm getting quality sleep.
I've been working out and getting very fit. I'd advise people to try getting a home workout app and try this out.
On to today's business
I tried out my newly acquired canson Bristol paper with this detailed photorealistic drawing of an eye and I'm very impressed with the quality of the product. It beat every other type of paper I have worked with in the past.
This paper is so smooth and at the same time still holds on to graphite and charcoa. I do not understand how.
Erasers moves easily on it and this helps for adding highlights and textures.
It retains the pitch of the pencils no matter how much I blend.
So yeah.. Best paper yet!!!!
I start off the drawing by outlining the image very lightly on the already gridded paper. I was very confused at first on where to begin because the reference pictures has a lot of details and I was not having full faith in myself.
I however decided to start drawing from the upper eyelid and that was the best call I could make. I did this for the whole of day 1 as I was still getting to know the paper. It felts crazy at first but I later began to understand the paper. So I was able to add details, shadows and lightings. This came out well and I was beginning to enjoy the experience.
I added those tiny highlights with the use of my tombow mono eraser.
I then moved to the lower right corner of the eye and then moved in to draw the pupil. This was so I would not drag charcoal or graphite to the clean parts. This was where it hot really tricky. The details in the pupil was intense and I racked my brain on how I'd do this.
So my method of shading and adding details to the pupil was
- first making the foundation shading with zero details.
- Adding the darkest shades to the foundation and also the darkest details
- lastly I added the highlights on the darks and normal foundation with my tombow mono eraser.
Lastly... I shade the eye bags... This came easy as I had already mastered the paper by the time I finished the pupil.. I followed the same process I used for the pupils on it.
I guess that method would be what I'd be using now.
Here's the final shot.
What have you been using your lockdown time to do? Remember to stay indoors, stay safe, wash your hands and breathe..