ACFI Attempt 1

Hello Readers!

I am starting a new initiative! Amidst the uncertainties of the lockdown and the spread of pandemic, there is a lot of pressure to work in confinements, aimless search for jobs just to sustain, incoherent learning with online classes and many more. I am going through a rough patch right now, however, I am not mulling over my situation, rather I choose to improve myself.

It was my birthday on 18th of August, a new milestone. I received a lot of wishes and presents, all thanks to my well-wishers. As a birthday gift, I got an 'art-kit supply'. It is a small kit that contains various shades of pencils ranging from H (highlight) to B (bold) to charcoal pencils and several other essentials (like, soft eraser, kneaded eraser, blending stumps, utility knife and pencil extender holder). The person who sent me this simply thought that the kit would be very useful to me because I DRAW. I had to clarify.. pencil sketching is something that I have not tried for a long time. It was perhaps in my school that I was asked to submit a pencil sketch as part of the craft assignment. The image was not something I drew, rather I picked up an already outlined image and simply followed the different shades of black and grey. That was it! I have always improved my drawing skills by reference drawings (which were cartoons in the beginning and later many other designs became a part of my fascination like fountain pen fillings and vector designs). I love watching time lapse videos of pencil sketches, but I have always thought that it is too time consuming and difficult (especially if you are going to be self-taught), and so, I really have not tried my hand at portrait pencil sketches.

Now that I have got these wide variety of pencils as a present, I intend to explore this art category! As part of learning, I thought that it would be fun to discipline myself by drawing pencil portraits for 10 days, and see if there are any improvements in my sketches, also to see if I can identify my mistakes and rectify them. It is in this line of thought that I came up with "ACFI" [Art Challenge for Improvement]. I am sure that you have all heard of different art challenges that artists take up, these challenges last upto a month (like, 'Inktober') or there is a fixed number (like, 100 heads drawing). Well, to each artist, his/her own.. I have tailor-made this challenge for myself keeping in mind my other priorities and simultaneously balancing my urge to learn portrait pencil sketching.

Here is what I am going to do:

1. I am not going to be very rigid in finalising the 10th day! If I have begun on 19 August 2020, then the 10th day would be 28 August 2020 - I just want to draw portraits for 10 days, and I am willing to give myself a break of a day or two in-between if necessary. However, I wouldn't drag the challenge for long either.

2. I intend to write a blogpost with every portrait pencil sketch I make, and tell you what I felt and learned during the entire action of drawing. Again, I am not going to fixate on a routine of putting up a daily blogpost, but I will make sure that I post all the 10 portraits with my learning.

3. Suggestions for improving further and 'art-cheats' are welcome!

4. Because ACFI is a tailor-made challenge, I will possibly write on what I find is a new learning. So, if you are a beginner and want to follow my methods of practice, then you must know that I have been drawing for a long time now, I do have a grip over my art equipment. Don't hesitate to question me if there is something that you see in my sketches and want to work on it.

5. Lastly, I am doing this to improve my drawing skills and to have fun. So, no pressures.. Just encourage and support me.. also, draw with me and learn along... the more the merrier..

Love, Suh.

Having said all of that, I now present to you my first portrait pencil sketch.

 

 

Details:

1. This is a portrait of a dear friend who gifted me the art-kit supply!

2. Materials: Faber Castell [here and after, FC] Drawing Book, Classmate Mechanical Penpencil 0.7mm, Regular Pencil and Eraser, FC 2B, 4B and 6B, Blending with Tissue Paper, Etching with Fine Tip Parker Fountain Pen

3. Date: 19 August 2020; Time: Almost 2 Hours

4. Though the face is not accurately drawn, I am happy that there is some resemblance.. so, that's a good sign!

5. I realised that patience is something that you need to invest in pencil sketching (also in other artworks), that is, you cannot be in a hurry and expect an outstanding result.

6. I am fairly good with outlining, but the image doesn't look great because I still have to learn drawing the features in proportion. The mistake I did was that I wanted to finish the portrait and in that eagerness to see the final picture, I messed up with a lot of details.

7. Shading is fairly new to me, and I am slowly learning the nuances of it. No matter how many videos you watch on sketching, until you put your pencil to paper, you will not know what result it is going to offer. Controlling the pencil is important.

8. I went ahead and did the shoulder and shirt part, otherwise the head would look as if it were floating.

9. To smooth the shading, I used a soft tissue. But I realised that I used it very generously and that was not necessary. Also, if you look at the actual photo, the man has white beard, and in order to get white lines, I used a fine tip fountain pen to etch, but I still have to learn to get a control over this aspect.

10. The above mentioned points are something that I have identified as part of my journey of learning. Your suggestions too are most welcome!

HAPPY DRAWING!!!