Face Sketching

I recently picked up a new book by Jane Davenport called "Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces: A Mixed-Media Portrait Workshop."  I had to skim the entire book the day it arrived. She draws such beautiful, whimsical faces.

Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces by Jane Davenport 

Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces back

When I took my first art classes several years ago, my instructor talked my into trying portraits, kicking and screaming the whole way! But I found out that I really enjoy creating portraits. Since then, I have done portraits in oil and colored pencil, and for commissions. I did these working from photos. I find it harder to draw a face without something to look at and have been wanting to get better at drawing faces for some time now. So when I saw her book online, I just had to pre-order it and it arrived a couple days later!

I stayed up until the middle of the night dong several faces for her first exercise called "Drawing Happy". These are little, simple "Draw Happy" faces that she gives about 10 step-by-step instructions to complete. Following these instructions I made about a dozen "Draw Happy" faces, approximately 2" x 2" in pencil, 0.005 black Sakura micron pen, and white Uni-Ball Signo gel pen unless stated otherwise.

Face #1 

Face #2 - Also used 0.005 red and sepia Prismacolor pens.

Face #3

Face #4

Face #5

Face #6 - Also used 0.005 red Prismacolor pen

Face #7

Face *8

Face #9 

Face #10

Face #11

Face #12

As you can see, my faces improved the more I drew. I like the last 3 the best. I can see the point of Davenport's exercise - the more you draw, the better you become! With drawing small faces, I could draw several in a fairly short period of time. These aren't meant to be detailed, realistic faces - just small, simplistic representations.

I'm looking forward to continuing to do the exercises in Davenport's book. She goes into more details in drawing faces that look more realistic, yet whimsical and she uses a variety of media - including pencil, pens, colored pencils, pastels, acrylics, watercolors, inks, etc. to accomplish the various drawings. Fun, fun, fun!! I also want to use these in my art journaling.  I used one of Jane Davenport's face stencils in my December project as a design team member for Blue Twig Studio. I hope to be able to draw my own whimsical faces, in addition to using the stencils, for various mixed-media, quilting, or drawing projects in the future.


Keep creating!
Lynnita