Portrait drawing (take 2)

I took another class on portrait drawing to get some more people practice (who doesn't). The same instructor made the skills practice a little easier and the steps more concrete. I really focused on going light and taking my time--two things I need a ton of work on. 

We had two models for two weeks at a time--polar opposites: an older lumberjack and a young, hip woman. 

A few nights were a struggle but I was persistent and plowed through the "I don't wannas". Some hardcore hip-hop seemed to do the trick too. Something about Lil' Wayne yelling at you makes you want to push on.

Portrait class

I decided to step out of my comfort zone and take a class I would fear from start to finish--Drawing portraits with charcoal. I stink at drawing people so a few years ago I vowed to try my hardest to get better at it. Here is one of the very first people sketches I did:

May 16th 2011

From that point on I started to enjoy drawing people: in restaurants, waiting rooms, coffee shops, airports, airplanes, school meetings, you name it. So this class was not so much "sketching" as it was "drawing". So I grabbed my tools and dove in! 

All were made with a combo of: Conte a Paris; conte pencils, and charcoal all on fancy Canson gray toned paper. 

week 1

week 2

week 3