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9 February 2001
(picture at bottom)
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Your Every Other Week Caricature: Ani DiFranco
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How-doo all!
Today I did something a little different. Since we've been on a "hair" thing as
of late, I thought to myself why not continue today with a focus on, well - hair?
So, since our lucky subject Ms. Ani DiFranco has one heck of a doo, I thought you'd all benefit from a simplified step-by-step on how the hair was pulled
together in this drawing.
Ms. DiFranco is something of a cult hero these days - with her "Righteous
Babe" Record Company and her hard core "Do It Yourself" attitude, I
salute this young woman. She's just turned 30 this past Fall and what a life
she's carved for herself. I also know there's at least a dozen of you "Renais
sance" men and women who play/write/perform your own music as well
as draw Steve B. in London and Becky in LA to name a couple of you.
You guys remind me of Ms. DiFranco and her "go for it" attitude - you
inspire me! So this is for you. Check out the links below for Ani's story
as well as for pictures. (See if I've done my job -)
So today, this isn't a caricature - it's a realistic portrait with a progressive filling
in of the hair. (We'll get to the caricature part of the show in two weeks.)
Ok. Here's the low down. (see below for the illustration)
Picture 1
This is the realistic drawing. No hair. Just a study of her face in pencil.
Picture 2
Here, the outline of her "Medusa" doo is roughly drawn in. All I've drawn in
is a rough outline of rasta locks, er, dread locks actually. Note the simple,
random shapes I've started with. Nothing fancy. The overall shape of hair
is pretty plain though.
Picture 3
This step shows the filling in of each area with horizontal hatch marks.
If you look close you can see I started with a pretty unsteady hand - I
was trying to avoid smearing the pencil (that's one drawback with pencil
- it smears very easily, but it's very rich). I try to place a sheet of paper
between my hand and the drawing so I avoid that problem. Also note I
started hatching on the right side of the paper - I'm left handed so I like to
see what I'm hatching.
Picture 4
Close up of the early stages of hatching. Note how the hatches are used
as something of a fill for each section. No need to fill the whole hair shapes
up with stuff either - it's important you pay attention to which way the light is
coming from, identify the highlights, then leave those areas free of color.
Picture 5
Filling in the hair shapes with more hatches. All that was done here
was this I just started adding layers of hatches - but hatches at different
angles. I started with horizontal hatches, then on to diagonal, then groups
of vertical hatches. I tried to keep in mind which direction the hair grain was
headed and then tried to match that grain with the major weight of hatches.
Picture 6
Here, the hair's not done but it's pretty well finished off in this first stage.
I see I gave her something of a receding hairline right down the middle of
the top of her head; and the gap between the hear and her face got a little
wide on the left side of the picture (her right). On the up side, the highlights
have been sustained in the hair - in fact I'm very pleased with the overall
effect of the hair - it's very organic looking to me. And it's all made with
nothing more than simple cross-hatches - just lots and lots of layers.
If you look close you might also make out some random scribbles in the
hair. Such is the random nature of hair - why not the lines we draw? Besides
it's fun! (I find it very easy to get too perfectionist - so I end up with very stiff
drawings - if i ever get them done. So cut loose from time to time!)
Some DiFranco Links
About Ani DiFranco AniDiFranco.org1.url
Welcome to AniDifranco.org2.url
http//corbis.altavista.com/referrals/av_image_details.asp?linkid=
2623&imageid=11498503
Don't forget about the Alta Vista Image finder - just go to the Alta Vista link and
click on "images". Type in "Ani DiFranco" when you get there.
http//www.altavista.com/
Next Issue we'll caricature this drawing and look at what and why I caricatured
them. Until then, keep on drawing - and all you folks with multiple "irons in the
fire" don't forget to do your drawings!! (just 15 to 20 minutes a session three to four
times a week will keep you connected to your drawing and keep you progressing.)
Warmly,
Jeff
Jeffrey O. Kasbohm
Executive Director
http//www.YouCanDraw.com
C\ani difranco\scans\1ani_x_6_web_ready.jpg; 
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