2005-zine-elvis-1

I really like the way this version of Elvis turned out, but my timer was clicking down to the end of my drawing session and I was just plain feeling lazy about filling in the hair. You can get an idea of what I was heading for shape and volume wise with the hair by the directionality of the lines in the hair. Now note this: even if you draw sloppy, rough lines in the hair like I did here, you can always erase them, or lighten them (by a little erasing) or just plain cover them up under layers of pencil that would fill out the hair. In fact, a loose outline of all sorts of lines under a more refined working of the hair (like those fine and tedious - and time consuming - cross hatch jobs I use in a lot of pictures) adds immensely to texture.

Watercolor painters use all sorts of layers too: it makes for a much more interesting final product -- and underscores the fact that misplaced lines, erasures, and even smudges only add to the depth of a drawing. John Lovett is a watercolor painter; he doesn't do caricatures but check out his site and see what I mean about layers and texture: http://www.johnlovett.com/

Concerning shadows: Look at he lip, the upper lids of the eyes, the side of the nose and even the chin and see if you can't spot the cylindrical and almost spherical underlying primitive shape -- and it's light / shadow pattern at work. (See the Flash Lesson on Mouth and Lips too.)

Back to January first 2005 e-zine

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