With this project I wanted to try drawing from a low quality reference to see how much impact it had on the final image, and to try and use an image where the light had not been adjusted specifically for a front lit portrait shot. The reason for using a low quality image was that if successful would widen the range of reference images I could use, and also by using a low-res image I was pushed to imagine more of the details while maintaining reference proportions. As I result I found the reference challenging to use but really enjoyable as I felt free from the focus of making it 'right'.
So as before I started out with the easy grid method.
The line for this was much rougher than with my other projects as the reference was not as clear. The HB pencil didn't scan too well here.
I started with the hair in the top left again to avoid smudging. Here I started with the hard pencils and worked towards the softer cores.
I then took the hair on the left side down to help frame the face. At this stage the hair was left with a lighter tone, in order to balance the tones later with reference to the rest of the image.
The hair the came in front of the leather strap was particularly difficult to see in the reference image and so I put that in place first to preserve the edge of some of the lighter tones that may have got lost with the surrounding darker shades.
I then added the to leather strap. Here again it has a light tone, as with the hair the darker tones will be added later in order to keep them balanced.
To frame the face I completed the hair on the right. In this scan the image looks really light.
There was a bit of a jump here as I needed to reboot the host to update my virtual kernel drivers to get the scanner back on line. The hair took a while to draw, but the face was much quicker. I first added the lower leather straps and more dark tone to the top strap. Then I added the eyes and upper face skin tones. The tone round the nose took a while and a lot of adjustment as the models nose was being pulled up, the shade was not falling as close to the nose as usual. This pull of the straps also had a big effect on the skin round the left eye, which I adjusted again later.
The details of the ball straps were fun and required strong contrast to help define them. The tone of the lips was very close to that of the skin on the face, so I made it a bit darker than the reference to help define it a little more. The models lips were being pulled out of shape a bit by the ball, and had a tone very similar to that of the ball so I needed again to add more definition here.
Again to help distinguish the ball from the lips I made the ball darker than the reference. The darker tones used on the ball also helped with the contrasting saliva highlights on the top. The lower lip was also difficult to see as it was partly obscured by the ball and lightened by the light reflected on the pooling saliva. I also made the left eye larger as the pulled skin round the eye was unclear.
To frame the face I then added the lower hair bunches and the shaded skin under the chin area. I added the hair on the left first, then the lower neck strap, the skin and then the hair on the right. This area of the reference was very unclear and I drew on other parts of the video as a guide.
Then I added the skin tones to the shoulder area and a little to the models back that was just in shot. I wasn't sure about adding the back, but in the end I felt it looked better.
The finally I darkened the tone of the skin and made the final scan.
I am pleased with the results of this and hope to use some more video references in the future.
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