Thursday 23 February 2012

Day 22 - JKPP - Drew Ferrie

Yesterday I decided to have a go at drawing Drew Ferrie from the photographs he posted on Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr. The four as a group I thought made a really strong composition, so that's what I did. First stage was a very quick pencil drawing - just the rough shapes, much less detailed than with the penguins. Last month I wouldn't have even bothered with that, but the challenge has shown me that a little bit of pre-planning goes a long way - not least in giving me more confidence at the ink stage.
Next comes the white. Why I do this first, rather than last, I have no idea - should maybe try it in reverse sometime soon. At both stages so far I debated stopping - which to me is a sign of things going the right way. But it was the strength of the lights and darks that grabbed me from the photographs (kudos to Drew - they are fantastic to work from) so I continued onto the next stage.
So the last stage was floating in the darks. I should have chosen a smaller brush, I think, but never mind. And I shouldn't have accidentally crumpled the paper on its way to the scanner. Oh dear. Hopefully time will flatten it out a little . . . As normal with me, the final image doesn't quite match up to what I had planned. But I think it does work, and I hope Drew likes it!

2 comments:

  1. Excellent Jane! Love the fact that you used all four images, it works really well. I must say that you've caught the likeness impressively well especially in the second one. Really good. Love it!

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  2. Thanks, Drew (or is it Andrew? which do you prefer?). Presume your not coming up for the opening? It would be great to compare the drawing with the real thing!

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