One of the pics that started me off

This is the picture that effectively encouraged me to launch the site www.pencil-pictures.co.uk a few months back. This is a picture of my little girl when she was about 4 years old. I can date it by the fact that her first adult tooth was showing!

I happened to find the photograph whilst looking for something else and thought it was really sweet, and on a whim decided to put pencil to paper to see if I could capture her likeness. Whilst not perfect, I was not displeased with the result, and she is definitely recogniseable from the picture. The mouth is a little bit too dark and a little bit crooked, and one of these days I might go back and change it (though I doubt it). However the shape of the face is just right. She used to have lovely cute baby cheeks (alas now sadly gone) as shown here.

The hardest part was the hair. I had not drawn hair for many years and so tried to draw the individual strands - big mistake! So then I tried to divide the hair into different shaded areas and draw the strands on top. This approach has served me well since, but for this protrait I was just getting my bearings. I have not changed it because I think it is a good idea to compare old pictures with new ones to see if I have improved. Thankfully I usually have (though not always!) so it's a confidence booster - I'd encourage any other budding artists to do the same.

I plan to draw her again one of these days.

Charlie Chaplin without disguise

I am not ashamed to say that this is a totally unrecognisable portrait of a very famous person. I have shown it to a few people and no one has had the remotest idea who it is. One of my colleagues thought it was Lewis Hamilton!

Well I have put his name in the title, and you can also see the description over at pencil-pictures.co.uk, so no prizes for guessing the identity of Mr Charles Chaplin, the British silent comedy actor who made it big in Hollywood. I chose this picture of the great man because once upon I time I used to organise a picture quiz, and this was always a favourite because it was such an unfamiliar view. Strange to think that the image of a man is defined by a false toothbrush moustache and hat but there you go.

The portrait stuck in my mind because every time I looked at it I was surprised that such an apparently happy-go-lucky comedian could have such intense eyes. This is what I tried to capture when I drew this and I think the eyes have come out well.

The biggest challenge came from that crazy hairstyle! Apparently back in the 1920s, wavy hair with a centre parting was all the rage. For this I looked at the picture with screwed up eyes and simply drew the light and dark patches on the portrait, then afterwards added finer lines to show hair and its general direction. The wavy bit on the right-hand side took a while, but I took some liberties and made it reflect rather more light than in the photo.

The suit in the photo was almost entirely in darkness so I made it up. This is something that some artists, myself included, have a weakness for. It's all very well to draw what we see, but trying to imagine what something looks like is an extra-special skill! The suit on this picture is quite weak, but I am hoping that I drew the eyes well enough that on one notices!

The long-lost son of Humphrey Bogart?

Today I am writing about a commission I received from the gentleman pictured, who has agreed to let me write about his picture for this blog. As soon as I saw the photo, I thought I had discovered a relative of Humphrey Bogart! Take a look at those eyes and those lips... but apparently any resemblance is purely coincidental (or so he tells me).

This was a great picture to draw, and not only because of the distinctive eyes, nose and mouth (the royal flush of an interesting face!). The light falls almost exclusively on the left side of the face, meaning that almost no shading was required there. On the other hand (or cheek) the right side is completely in shadow. Obviously being a pencil drawing, a good contrast is essential so I deliberately darkened that side whilst letting the white colour of the paper do the work of the highlights on the other side. The result was very satisfactory.

The other intersting point about this picture, which makes it different from anything I have done recently (click here to see the gallery) is the very short hair and beard. For this I shaded the area to the required darkness level then used a retractable pencil with a B lead to draw the very short hairs. I think the results are effective but please leave any comments below.

The subject was pleased with the result, so much so that he says he is taking it to the Louvre...

Speed drawing!

This weekend I tried filming myself drawing Elvis. I speeded up the video and the results can be seen at pencil-pictures.co.uk, or at Youtube or here:


Enjoy!

Robin Wells portrait

This was a picture I was really looking forward to. This gentleman is Robin Wells, a musician/composer/conductor. He is the leader of the Farnham and Bourne Choral Society, of which I am a member, and he has a marvellously expressive face, full of character, as one would expect of a choirmaster. I obtained a photograph of him after the 2010 Easter concert and recently set about drawing him in pencil.

The first thing to note was the glasses. Unlike Groucho Marx's, Robin's glasses are quite real, and therefore bend the light from his eyes. It was a real challenge to draw the image behind the glass as it appeared and not succumb to the temptation of drawing what I thought it should look like!

Then there were the eyes themselves. Robin's eyes are quite dark, so I decided to exercise a little artistic licence and make them sparkle a little. I prefer this effect, but it's not for everyone. Comments on this are appreciated (and don't spare my feelings if you don't like it...). I did something similar with the teeth.

When I showed the portrait to Robin (who has no idea I was drawing it) his first reaction was 'Am I really that wrinkly?!'. Well the answer is yes and no. All the wrinkles in the picture are faithful to the original, but I must admit I made then far darker than they really are. I feel they stand out more this way and bring the face to life. Again, comments welcome on this. Apart from this Robin seemed happy with the portrait so here it is for all to see.

It is also on display at pencil-pictures.co.uk

Welcome to the Pencil-Pictures.co.uk Blog!

Hi,

This is the welcome message to the Pencil-Pictures.co.uk blog.

This blog is, first and foremost, a shameless promotion of my website www.pencil-pictures.co.uk. I hope you will enjoy the posts enough to want to click on the link and see my pictures, and then, even better to buy them!

I will also attempt to share some hints and tips about drawing faces. Of course I would welcome corrections, comments, arguments, etc so please comment.

My latest pencil picture is taken from a famous portrait of Groucho Marx. 

Let me know what you think!