A Forrest head, in charcoal
Forrest, Portrait of a woman (head and shoulders), undated. oil on canvas.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
edinphoto.org.uk · Scan via edinphoto.org.uk (Peter Stubbs). The painting is in the public domain (artist d. 1943).
A Forrest head, in charcoal
The portrait painter, studied as masses
Forrest exhibited as a portrait painter and this head-and-shoulders of a woman is the one portrait that survives in scan: soft light from the left, a pale face against a mid background, a dark coat. Not a landscape, but the method is the course's method: three values, lifted lights, no features until the end. Included because you asked for all of his work.
In pencilCharcoal or soft graphite as three values; features as the last four marks.
- Master
- Robert Smith Forrest
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 1.5 h
- You draw with
- willow charcoal or 4B graphite, kneaded eraser
Why this one
- Completes the Forrest body of work.
- A head as masses, the way Corot drew the Abbé.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood 4B 4B for the darks, on their sides for mass. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
- 2Willow charcoal, or until it arrives Pitt Matt 12B and 14B on their sides the matt grades are the closest graphite gets to willow. Slip sheet under the hand.
- 3Pitt Matt 14B, knife-sharpened stands in for the charcoal pencil: trunk, branch zig-zag, the one accent.
- 4Kneaded eraser (warm it) and the clean Mono Zero lift the lights out of the mass; the Mono Zero for sky holes and lit edges.
- 5Alpha sketchbook 9 x 6 draw at the book's size and keep the proportions; date the page.
In general, this study asks for
- Drawing pad or cheap newsprint
- Willow charcoal, medium
- Charcoal pencil
- Kneaded eraser
- Stump
- Workable fixative
Watch first
All videos →Shadow shapes as flat masses first. Shown on a portrait, but the principle is identical for a tree or a tower.
YouTube
The plan
3 stages · ~70 min- 1
Three values
10 minThumbnail: light face, mid ground, dark coat.
Checklist0 / 1 - 2
Masses
40 minSide of the stick for the background and coat. Face as lifted light with a stumped shadow side.
Checklist0 / 1 - 3
Four marks
20 minEyes as two marks, the mouth, the hair's edge. Stop. Fix. Box.
Checklist0 / 2
What it should look like
- A head that reads from three tones and four marks.
Where it goes wrong
- Rendering the face. Faces. Sphere in light. Four marks.
Log this session
Start the clock when you pick up the pencil. Stop it when you put it down. Log it. Every session counts toward the box.
Status
How did it go?
