Veronica Colvin

Portrait Life Drawing

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During the last couple of months, I’ve had a number of models pose for me at my studio and I’ve created a range of tonal / value portrait sketches from the sessions. Each portrait sketch is a result of a one day model sitting – drawn from life.

Most of these sketches were created with raw umber or chrome black, rubbed into a polyester canvas. It works and looks similar to charcoal sketches. I quite enjoy working this way when time is limited, as I’m able to get a lot done in a one day session – specially when the drawing and value / tonal range is more important to get correct, rather than a quick splash of paint and colour.

I also use raw umber or chrome black paint to sketch the original drawing – as it easily rubs off with a kneaded eraser. Once I’m happy with the drawing, I then proceed to tonally construct the portrait with the oil paint.

You can see larger versions of these drawing in my Digital / Traditional Drawings Gallery.

Left to right:

  • Carl – Chrome Black oil sketch
  • Olivia – Raw Umber oil sketch
  • Shane – Charcoal sketch
  • Benedicta – Raw Umber oil sketch

Shane – Charcoal Tonal Study

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Shane is a local life model in Sydney. He’s also an artist and filmmaker. I recently had him in the studio posing for myself and another painter. On the day I did a small colour study of him. As I took a reference shot of his pose, and really liked his spectacles and how they reflected the light, I decided to do a quick charcoal tonal study. Below is the result.

The paper I used is Canson “C” a grain – which has a slightly grained texture that allows one to quickly achieve subtle effects of depth as well as shading between shadow and light. I do like the texture the paper provides, though in photography it does come across as slightly more grainy than it is.