Drawing: Facial Parts in Black and White

Blending and Contrast

Examples in Lee Hammond's Big Book of Drawing of proper

and improper blending of tones

In my last post I showed my drawing of a sphere, displaying how a mix of blending and shading helped it appear more lifelike and less like it was on a two dimensional surface. All of that was supposed to better help me understand how to use those elements along with the use of lighting to be able to apply the same techniques to drawing faces. According to the book I'm reading: Lee Hammond's Big Book of Drawing, a key element of drawing faces ". . .has a lot to do with the "lighting" or contrasts." (Hammond 16). Those were useful tools for me to learn and try and add on to my artwork. While I drew some of the features of a face I had to keep in mind how I used contrast (how I portrayed the light areas showing up against the dark areas) to keep it looking well. Blending was also a really helpful technique to be able to help my drawing appear more realistic. Since blending requires smearing some of the shades together it's easier to use a tool that still gets the job done without leaving your fingertips all grey. The book I have refers to it as a tortillion which is simply a piece of paper rolled into a cone shape, that I myself use in all of my drawings.

A picture of a tortillion as shown in Lee Hammond's Big Book of Drawing.
Used to help with proper blending of the artwork

Drawing Features

Before heading straight into drawing the face I focused on certain features before eventually adding them all together. I first started with drawing a nose as seen on the right and I tried to apply a good use of shading. Like the creases closer to the nose had to be darker in contrast to the lighter shaded spots like the areas that continue away from the nose. I also tried to make it appear as if the lighting was hitting straight on the top of the nose which is why it is mostly left in a white circle.

Next I worked on drawing a mouth which in comparison to the nose was a lot more difficult to draw. What made it especially hard was the fact that it wasn't easy to blend the dark color of the lips to make it appear smooth and life like. Not that my drawing is exactly very realistic, but it's very easy to see, especially on the bottom lip it's easy to see how I tried to color it in because there are darker lines on the lips rather than it all being one smoothly blended shade.

My final drawing put into work what I had practiced with the previous two drawings. This drawing was an attempt to apply the techniques I had used from drawing the nose and the mouth separately to be able to create this piece of them together. This shows the benefits of thinking of drawings as one large puzzle with many different pieces. I feel this is a successful method because in comparison to the previous drawings this one shows a better mastery of both blending and lighting techniques. The tones are also blended gradually rather than unevenly.

Before I attempt any drawing I always use a grid for scale because it can make drawing a lot easier, and according to my book ". . .using a grid will help you simplify all of the basic shapes" (Hammond 24). Once you've got a basic outline using the grid, that's when you erase the grid lines and start filling in your drawing, already establishing a base for your artwork.

Closing

By the time I finished my third drawing I felt that I had gotten a pretty good grasp of how to work with blending and applying lighting and contrast to my artwork. However, there is always room for improvement and I want to know how can I blend the shades of my drawings to make them appear smoother like the surface of a face, rather than the jagged edges of drawing lines? What else can make my drawings appear life like in your eyes? I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments down below regardless of your expertise on the matter. Just letting me know what I should add more or less of is all very helpful critique. Thanks for reading! :)

Bibliography: Hammond, Lee. Lee Hammond's Big Book of Drawing. Cincinnati, OH: North Light, 2004. Print.