Painters Online

Drawing and painting people Start Art 5 33 www.painters-online.co.uk It’s all about SHAPE Michaelin Otis simplifies how to paint people in watercolour from a photograph, which will help you to see their features as shapes of colour ✎ T I P When you squint, small details are blurred, making it easier to see the large shapes W hen recreating a face, the shapes of light and dark are the most important thing for you to observe and consider. The shadow shapes make a drawing not only look like a believable person, but they also help capture a likeness of that person. In the photo of Ashriel, you can see three distinct values, or shades, of colour. They are dark, light and midtone. Sometimes it is easier to see Shadow and light Ashriel is a great subject to paint. You can clearly see the shapes of shadow and light in this photograph. The dark shape runs all the way from the forehead to the shoulder. The light shape runs from the forehead down the front of the face to the chest You will need… SURFACE Small piece of illustration board MARKERS • Black • grey OTHER No. 2 pencil 1 Make a quick sketch Draw Ashriel on a small piece of paper. Don’t worry about making this drawing perfect; a quick sketch is fine. When finished, outline the white shape you see in the photograph with the grey marker. The grey marker is easier to see than pencil lines 2 Colour in the subject With the grey marker, colour in all of Ashriel except for the outlined white shapes 3 Draw the black shapes Colour the darkest shapes you see with black. Notice how the completed value study resembles the photograph without any detail. The shapes create the likeness these shades of value in a black-and-white photograph. You can have a colour photograph reproduced in black and white or use your imagination to remove the colour. In this value study of Ashriel, use the white of the paper as the lightest light. The midtone will be grey and the dark will be black. Look at the photograph of Ashriel and squint your eyes so that all you can see are large shapes of colour. This helps you to see that the shapes in the photograph are all linked to each other. Notice that the white area seems to be one large shape that runs along the face from the neck. The black shapes are also (for the most part) linked. When shapes aren’t linked, you can use your imagination to link them. Try to have the dark and light shapes meet at the centre of interest. In this photograph, the centre of interest is around the eyes, the only area where the white and black shapes meet. Notice that in other areas of the value study, there are grey shapes in between the black-and-white shapes even though the photograph does not show grey. By adding grey there, the neck area becomes less important, allowing you to direct the viewer back to the centre of interest—the eyes. In this area, the blacks appear blacker than the others, and the whites appear whiter. This area will grab the viewer’s attention first. Demonstration 1