Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces

A Mixed-Media Portrait Workshop

Jane Davenport

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781592539864
• eBook ISBN: 9781627881678
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

Perfect for aspiring designers, Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces is an inspiring, mixed-media workbook on how to draw and paint beautiful, fashion illustration–style faces.

Author Jane Davenport is a beloved artist and international workshop instructor known by her thousands of students and fans for her over-the-top, enthusiastic, happy, and encouraging style. In Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces, Davenport guides you, step by step, through the foundations of drawing a face, developing successful features, creating skin tones, playing with bright colors, shading, highlighting, and much more as you learn to create amazing mixed-media portraits.

With this elegantly designed guidebook, you will quickly master a variety of techniques in a variety ofmediums, including:

• Pencil
• Marker
• Pen
• Watercolor
• Acrylic paint
• Ink
• Pastel
• Ephemera

Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces will have you dancing your way through the exercises. In no time at all, you will have a selection of beautifully faced portraits ready to view, display, or even sell to a fashion designer.

CHAPTER ONE
SUPPLIES me!

Use whatever drawing tools you have access to.

“When do I use what?” is a common question about art supplies, and it’s my intention to help you with those decisions throughout this book. But I have a confession to make first: I am an art supply junkie. I love art supplies so much I created an online workshop all about them and I opened an art supply store. No one knows better than I, that with all that amazing choices, deciding what to use can be overwhelming—let alone deciding how to use it.

Back to that question, “When to use what?” Well, the answer many artists give is “intuition.” But what is intuition? It’s the result of experience, experimentation, and practice. The important thing to realize is there are no wrong choices. There are no mistakes, no rules. Even when the result is an unexpected muddy mess, you have learned a valuable lesson about your materials.

Getting in touch with your supplies, and learning the things that make your heart sing, develops your artistic intuition. Whenever you play with your supplies, you are building your creative confidence.

I think it’s important to set your supplies free from the boxes they came in and, if possible, have them arranged around you where you create. That way you can unfetter your intuition and grab whatever color appeals to you at the time!

I always have my most trusted supplies nearby to lean on, but I like trying new things, rediscovering old favorites, and experimenting to discover new ways to use what I have. Sometimes I place an ignored art supply right in front of me to encourage its use. I am not curating an art supply museum—although it certainly would be fun! I want my stuff to be paint splattered, emptied, and taken to its limits.

I call my compulsion to arrange art supplies in color-wheel order “Rainbowitis.” My feeling is that the creative process is chaotic enough, so I like to surround myself with organized color while the art is happening. That way I can always (well, usually) find what I need.

In this chapter we take a closer look at the materials I use in my artwork.

SURFACES

Making art is a physical experience. So much inspiration comes from the way it actually feels to put our tools to a surface we like. I, for one, go crazy over great paper! So although this book’s exercises can be created on canvas, wood, panels, or the walls, I encourage you to consider dedicating a sketchbook to them.

ART JOURNAL

I am a huge fan of art journaling. This practice combines a sketchbook, notebook, diary, and scrapbook into a field book of your life. It is just for you, so anything goes! It’s so nourishing to create in something you can open, close, and carry with you. In most of my workshops I have my students working in journals because it removes so much pressure. Don’t like something you just drew? Just turn the page and work on something else.

Give yourself some room to create. The 8" x 11" (20.3 x 28 cm) Strathmore 500 Series Mixed-Media Hardbound art journal is my favorite commercially available sketchbook. Even better, you could make your own journal. For instance, I made a 11.5" x 13.5" (29.2 x 34.3 cm) journal to create all the lessons in this book.

My favorite paper is Fabriano Artistico Hot Press Watercolor in 140lb (300 gsm). It is robust, smooth enough for collage, loves all mediums, doesn’t buckle, and folds like a charm. A quick internet search will turn up great instructions on basic journal binding.

BRUSHES

I think this is a very personal choice for every artist. I prefer to use the following:

• synthetic bristles, as they have more bounce

• acrylic-handled brushes, as they have more weight in the handle and last longer

• angled brushes of all sizes to paint my details

• a waterbrush for fine details and lettering, as they are hollow and can be filled with ink

Take care of your brushes by not leaving them in water overnight. Instead, clean and dry them and put them away bristles up after each creative session. Every so often you can treat them to a soak in some brush cleaner and restorer.

LIFE IS SIMPLY TOO SHORT FOR CRAPPY PAPER.

GESSO

Gesso is pronounced Jess-oh and is used to prepare your surface for paint. I love working on a gessoed surface because of the way it feels under a pencil or brush. Gesso strengthens thin and porous paper. It is ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter One Supplies Me!
• Chapter Two Drawing the Basics
• Chapter Three Drawing the Details
• Trust the Mess
• Your Invitation!
• About the Author
• Resources
• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• Copyright