Portrait Drawing Lessons:
The Profile Portrait in
Sanguine Conte - Page 2

Portrait Drawing Lessons: The Profile - 6

The forms are progressed, yet still vaguely articulated, by painting out with a kneaded eraser. This is a painterly process that is akin to underpainting. Traditionally for underpainting in oil Raw Umber or Yellow Ochre is loosely brushed or rubbed on and then the lights rubbed out with a rag or with a clean brush. This is a subtractive approach (lifting out). You want to keep things loose yet still reasonably accurate.

Sharpening the Koh-I-Noor crayon to a point with sandpaper I sketch in the basic facial features and the ear. The soft crayon is a bit tricky to sharpen, it crumbles easily so don’t expect to get a razor sharp point.

In the 7/8’s profile view the inner canthus (corner) of the eye plumbs back of the nair of the nose. Using a plumb line (a thin weighted string) held up to and aligned with the inner canthus will go a long way towards illuminating the vertical placement of the eye, nose and node of the mouth.

In this close-up view you can see how I have kept my linear work quite simple – only the most pertinent information is required. The far eye is articulated within its proscribed area with only three lines: the crease of the eye-lid and its ‘lip’. To turn the eye quickly, which is what is happening in this profile, use a straight line to indicate the eyeball (the sclera and iris, the cornea is clear and should not be inferred).
Portrait Drawing Lessons: The Profile - 7
Portrait Drawing Lessons: The Profile - 8

Building tone is an additive / subtractive process of applying pigment and manipulating it. (Painting Alla Prima, however, is applying pigment and leaving it alone.) Using the side of a small piece of Koh-I-Noor crayon I block-in the upper facial arena. Use only as much pigment as you need. Perhaps even less so. Too much pigment and your drawing could spiral out of control.

The reason I have only blocked-in the upper face is simply to maintain control of the pigment. If you’re feeling overly adventurous you could block in the entire face, or head even, but then there is a significant likelihood that your adventure would come to an ill end. Quickly.

With my little finger – ‘pastry fingers’ that are cold and dry work best – I stump down the pigment carving out the form with both a sculptural and painterly approach. This is not just a smearing about but a careful observation and feel of both the dark pattern and underlying forms of bone and muscle. For the tighter areas where my little finger is simply too large I use a large paper stump – be wary though of stumping in too hard. The contè should always be luminous not dark and dead.

And once again I paint and sculpt out the forms with my kneaded eraser and re-articulate the eyes and browline. With each successive approach the drawing becomes more and more accurate and 3-dimensional. This is an asymptotic approach which is a mathematical and philosophical term but describes this method succinctly.

Portrait Drawing Lessons: The Profile - 9

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