blog
Let's Get Your Creative Juices Flowing!!!
How to DRAW & SHADE Bangs on a WHIMSICAL Scandinavian Face with Copic Markers (Whimsical Women #7)23/11/2020 I haven't covered how to draw bangs on a whimsical face yet in this series, so today's the day! Scandinavian is my best guess at her ethnicity for now, but most importantly- she is giving us a reason to add a bangs drawing to our international mix of beauties. Whether you are intimidated with how to draw hair, or love drawing hair- today's drawing tutorial is FOR YOU! Grab a sheet of card stock or a paper you love using for copic marker art, a pencil, and let's sketch in our face drawing guidelines together! Isn't our model for today gorgeous? They all have been, haven't they?! We start this beauty out the same way we start every face - with some loose ovals to draw the head shape, followed by our whimsical face drawing guidelines. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you HAVE to download my FREE Face Drawing Guidelines Cheatsheet to help you out! I printed and laminated this because drawing proportions of the face are SO important. They also really are the same no matter what ethnicity you are drawing. It's a reference I've ALWAYS got on my art table. Click the button below and I'll send it straight to your email! This is such a great project because it can show us the VOLUME hair can have. Every hairstyle goes UP and OVER the top of the head. At this stage, I'm just roughing in the shapes I see with the bangs and the waves hanging down. As I sketch in the lines I'm seeing from the hair along the sides of her face, I make the face a bit more narrow as I go. When I get to the eyes and start fine tuning those, I notice her tear ducts are "barely there." Typically I see a long, lean tear duct, so this is an interesting difference. There's something new about every single face we have been drawing in this series! Another unusual observation about the angle of this photo is our model barely has any nostrils showing. She also has a nose ring though - which I kinda love! Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links, but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support! At this point I start erasing all my crazy guidelines with my favorite vanish eraser (because it NEVER eats up my paper). As I was erasing, I decided I wasn't happy with the position of her left eye, so I just started over there. Easy fix, right? NOT today!! So many of my students ask me how to draw the other eye after the first one has already been drawn. It's actually really hard to make them match when you draw them one at a time. I have SUCH an easier time teaching how to draw symmetrical eyes when I build them up at the same time! Oh well! It's good for you to SEE ME STRUGGLE because it shows you just how you can troubleshoot your way out of a pickle too, if you find yourself in one!! I'm a student myself, EVERY TIME I do one of these new drawings from scratch, and I honestly do learn something new each time I draw! HOT TIP: Because this particular model is so fair- you need to really go easy on the graphite while you're sketching because you can smear the graphite with your markers when you start shading. If you got a little heavy handed with your pencil and have darker lines at this point- the easy fix is to just work your eraser over your drawing lines lightly to pick some of that graphite up, without losing your lines completely. See below... The model in our art reference photo is wearing a turtleneck sweater, so I sketch that in as well, and drop my circle template in place to give me a hand with the irises. I add just a few more waves in for the outer shapes of her hair so I've got a little more to work with before I start coloring with my copic markers. Just as I've talked about in each of our Whimsical Women of the World drawing projects, it's SUPER important to have a game plan with your colors so you know where you're going when you start to shade. As you can see, I was scribbling some possibilities off to the side earlier! Remember, I don't care at ALL about what art supplies you use to do this project! I just hope you do it and have fun with the process. Use your watercolors, colored pencils- whatever you have! DO NOT feel the need to run out and try to collect the stash I've got. I don't care what art supplies you have. All I care about is what you can DO with your art supplies! Regardless of what art supply you're using, you want to step up your skin tones one shade at a time. Typically when I'm shading a Caucasian girl, I start my layering from the lightest shade and work my way darker. With other ethnicities that have darker skin, I often start dark and work my way lighter. I've discovered a great way for blending copic markers is to use the lightest shade (or even one shade lighter than your lightest skin tone) to shade in the opposite stroke direction from what you used initially. You can also use the "colorless blender" to achieve the same effect. When it's time to layering in the next shade of hair color, (I'm using the shade I used on the eyebrows), and just add half strokes from the root down, and also from the tip up. Leaving that "white space" exposed in the middle will give you a super cool highlighted look when we're done. This is one of my FAVORITE hair drawing techniques. If you haven't tried this before- you should! I think you'll love it. Be sure to watch the video so you see this technique in motion! Here's another closeup view of that hair drawing technique... As you'll see me demo in today's copic markers tutorial, I tend to use a sweeping motion while I shade because the brush nib on a copic marker really feel a LOT like a paintbrush. This is one of the big reasons I've invested in so many gorgeous shades of these alcohol markers! I couldn't afford copics for YEARS, so do not feel bad if these are out of your price range. There are a ton of copic marker alternatives out there that cost MUCH less. I love the skin tone markers set by Ohuhu. Those are great to try (and the 24 pack is MORE than enough!). I also have a lot of Spectrum Noir markers, and have tried ParKoo (these are totally the cheapest and really pretty juicy!!) No matter how you mix and match your alcohol markers - they will ALL play nicely together. You can mix your cheapies with a couple of expensive ones if you want. Just pick your poison and draw!! And MOST importantly...have FUN while you're doing it!! While you're working on the sweater for today's chick, just make sure you're paying attention to the directionality of the lines in the ribbing of her fabric. I added some white highlights and a few marks in blue colored pencil after I finished this section to provide a bit more depth. Colored pencil is a great way to add texture when you're shading with alcohol markers. I switch over to my pentel pocket brush to work on her eyelashes and dramatic eye makeup. I'm also an outliner- I LOVE the look of black outlines throughout to unify a piece. I used my thin, copic multiliner to add a few lines to the more delicate areas of her face in the lips, nose, and eyes. Then of course I have to pull out my white sharpie and white posca paint pens to add some beautiful highlights - like the eyeshine, and glossy lower lip. I used the same technique for her nose ring stud. You'll notice as I deepen the shading on her face, I never go to new areas in her face. I just rework tinier subsections of the areas that have already been shaded. I added a little more depth to her neck and back sections of her hair with one of my darker gray copics. I liked where this was going and continued adding a few shadow lines around the outer edges of her face and bangs. And after a few finishing touches with the pentel pocket brush and my white sharpie... She's done! I hope you love doing this as much as I did! PLEASE remember to post your work on social with the hashtag #WhimsicalWomen and remember I'm taking submissions for my upcoming book if you'd like to enter your interpretation of any of the Whimsical Women from my portrait drawing series, just head over to GET PUBLISHED, read through the submission requirements and go! Did you grab your whimsical face drawing guidelines cheatsheet? Here's that link again in case you need it to get started on today's free drawing lesson... Thanks for watching! I'll see ya back here next week!!
0 Comments
I hear ALL the time from my students at Awesome Art School about how challenging it can be for many of them, not only to draw hairstyles, but how to come up with fun hairstyle ideas to draw in the first place! Since we've been working on drawing and shading a profile face over the last couple of weeks on YouTube, I thought we'd spend some time drawing profile hairstyles to make this part a little easier! As you'll see in this hair drawing tutorial, one of my best tips for drawing hair (& to stay inspired!!) is to LOOK AT PHOTOS!!! When I was learning how to draw, I didn't like using photographs for my references because they made me feel pressured. I just wanted to learn how to do whimsical drawing, and not be bothered by all the details in a photo since I wasn't drawing realistically! Now I know there is SO MUCH you can learn from a photo that can inspire you while you're drawing!! To help you get you started, I made you a 4-page reference you can print out with 12 unique profile hairstyles. There is also space below each style to practice drawing the hairstyle above it. The first thing you need to remember about how to draw hair on a face from any angle, is that hair has volume. Hair will always extend out and above the head shape you've drawn - whether that head shape is an oval for a forward facing face, or a circle for a profile face. Even if the hairstyle you are drawing is a ponytail or braid that has been pulled back super tight, there will still be volume that extends above and outside of the head shape you've drawn. The next things that will help you with drawing hairstyles are to add in a neck and the profile face drawing guidelines. Then you will begin to see where the hair should naturally sit. Once your guidelines are in place, really look at the photo you're using as a reference for this drawing. Begin sketching your hairstyle at the root (see above), and extend your line back, away from the face - just as if you were brushing your own hair with a hairbrush. If you imagine your pencil as a hairbrush - it will help you draw your hairstyles realistically from root to tip. It can also be helpful to draw the outline shape of a hairstyle first - almost like you're drawing a helmet, then start adding in your detail, strand by strand. Feel free to draw right on top of the profile hairstyles PDF I'm giving out as a resource to accompany today's video - then see if you can recreate those same lines on the circle below. Using a photo as a reference point for drawing hair really eliminates the pressure of dreaming hairstyles up on your own from scratch (unless you want to). Find a photo of a style you like, then see if you can replicate it on your whimsical or realistic face drawings! Let me know in the comments section of today's video if you'd like a copy of my 4-page cheatsheet so you can draw along with me! HAVE FUN drawing your profile hairstyles!!! |
Karen CampbellFounder of Awesome Art School. Mixed Media Artist. Author of 19 Instructional Art Books! Whose work has appeared in...Archives
September 2024
Categories
All
|
"Karen is flipping hilarious and she's very real...I like the way she teaches in a way that really gives you confidence, whether you're a beginner or advanced there's always something new to learn!"
- Elizabeth W. |
What Fans Are SayingKaren, you are absolutely fabulous! You make me feel like I can draw anything. I have recently retired and finally have the time to do some of the art that I have loved since I was in school. I am really at the beginning of my art journey and I hope to learn as much as I can. Thank you for all you do. |
Contact ME |