Finished the self-portrait a few nights ago as I promised. Still far from perfect, but I'm really seeing improvement over the previous one I did in June. Even though visualizing the 3-dimensionality / volumes my skull and facial muscles made a huge difference, I ran into the same problems that my first portrait gave me: I tried drawing the face turned in a slight perspective, but as I kept added more detail, it eventually mutated into a direct front-view, distorting the proportions of the left side of my face (the right side from the viewers' POV).
Even though I would really like to try again, I feel like I should really hammer in my understanding into the rest of the human body. I really enjoy drawing faces and portraits (especially on the train) but it's beginning to feel like a crutch / paralysis since it's the thing I'm almost always drawing and it's the one piece of the human figure that I'm most comfortable and confident that I can (semi-)accurately portray.
I'm also behind on my still life drawings, which I will be another big focus for the upcoming week. I still feel behind on the portfolio.... But for now, it's off to build 2 more sacrums before class on Tuesday, one of which will be from memory again.
June 2011 August 2011