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| 11/27/22 |
My nocturnes put me in the mood to make portraits on
black paper. I loved doing life drawing on Zoom this way when the model had
set up the lighting to be deliberately dramatic. With the portraits, I chose
reference photos (all again from Earthsworld) that were strongly lighted
on one side.
The last three pairs were the most intriguing experiments. In each
case, I first crosshatched the “positive” side of the portrait with ballpoint.
Waiting until the next day so that the same reference photo would be somewhat
fresh again, I then drew the “negative” side of the portrait on black paper. In
some cases I think I got a stronger resemblance in the negative drawing, but
the eyes always come out looking a bit creepy and empty because the dark pupils
are too small to look distinct. It’s a fascinating mind bender to try to “see”
only the lighted parts of the faces.
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| 11/28/22 |
With all of these, both positive and negative, I also tried
to be as minimal as possible: How little can I draw and still convey the essential
features and expression? |
| 12/3/22 |
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| 12/4/22 |
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| 12/4/22 |
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| 12/5/22 |
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| 12/5/22 |
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| 12/6/22 |
It is hard to choose if the portraits on regular paper or black paper are my favorite. Some of the ones on the black are really great! I like the idea of the negative image.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how each side, positive or negative, has different challenges!
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