How to Draw and Paint Facial Features Part 2

It's all about the eyes and mixing flesh tones this week.

This a project I'm doing with the oil painting class I teach on Tuesday mornings at Forstall Art Center in Birmingham, AL. We are doing small studies of each facial feature. Eventually we will do a complete portrait with the skills gained by studying the features individually. Here's Part 1 in which I drew the eye.

In the last post, the painting was at this stage.  My disclaimer here is that this is just what I do. There are many different methods out there but this is what I have developed over the years. It works for me.

I am constantly trying new things but for now this is my go-to starting place. I develop 4 basic flesh tones. Having a method helps me and seems to help my students.

Toga Night at Drawing Group

The first Tuesday of every month we have a clothed model at drawing group. We have 20 minutes worth of gesture poses and a one hour long pose.

Tuesday's Toga, 12x9, oil on panel

It is a good idea to attend a costume night for several reasons. We get practice drawing all that pesky fabric and one night of the month it's pretty easy to find a model.

 It's the X's Drawing Group held at Forstall Art Center in Birmingham, AL. We meet Tuesdays, 7-9pm.

Here's one I did of my daughter-in-law, Amy Strickland, when she was gracious enough to model for the group. Amy is actually a writer not a rock star and she has the best costumes around.

The Pink Guitar, 12x8,  oil on canvas paper

Renaissance Amy, 12x9, oil on oil primed linen

And my personal favorite of her.

"Tuesday Night Blues", 12x9,  oil on panel

How to Draw and Paint Facial Features - Part 1

It's all in the eyes.

I'm doing a series with the oil painting class that I teach at Forstall Art Center, in Birmingham, AL. We will be doing small studies of each feature of the face and then putting it all together at the end with a full portrait.

I printed out two good reference photos of eyes to share with my class. They will have the option of which one to paint. (Thanks Jeanine for the in progress shots!)

Is it fair to make your class paint images of your favorite models, even if those models happen to share the same DNA? I submit that it is. Moving on.

We talked a bit about the structure of the eye as in this except from Andrew Loomis' book. 

Since every artist needs to work on their drawing skills we are doing a full value study in charcoal or pencil. I started off in pencil and quickly switched to charcoal after figuring out that my students could see charcoal marks better. 

I started off the drawing with a block in, taking care to measure placement on the page, checking angles and proportions. This sketch is larger than life just for fun.

Next I added shadow shapes and worked on cross contour hatching. I think aobut the lines I'm making the same way I do the eventual brush strokes. Use directional strokes to describe form.

This is what I finished in class. It could definitely use more work. Read below drawing tips to help resolve any work.