Before and After Learning to Draw (Part 1) - Portrait Sketch

After learning that Matter has a #paintinginterest group , I was also itching to write some articles about learning to draw.

When I was a child, I loved to doodle everywhere. As long as there is a pen, anywhere can be my picture book - the wall at home, countless books and workbooks, palms and thighs, and I don't know why I just don't draw on the picture book. . I don't even have the impression that when I was a child, I ever owned a picture book outside of school, probably because I didn't ask my mother! Anyway, I don't need it. The whole wall of the house is my small world of graffiti.

Once on a trip, my aunt saw that I was drawing and painting on my thigh again, and she said to my mother, "She likes painting so much, why not let her learn to paint?" Turning his head to look at Auntie, he returned to his own painting world as if nothing had happened. I don't care if I go to class or not, and I don't have a strong desire to learn to paint. Anyway, I'm happy to paint.

Later, when I really took the first painting class in my life (the school ones don't count), it was already a matter of college. I've always been in love with portrait sketches - the thing that attracts me the most is that you can "go anywhere with one stroke"; I even think that if you have the skills, you can "draw" anything by burying it in the sand. When I was in middle school, I started to buy picture books and practice on my own, mainly painting people. The picture on the left was painted along with the cover of a certain book. It was the best painting at that time! (It’s really ugly. If I hadn’t written this article, it probably wouldn’t have “appeared” in my whole life~laugh~) After learning to draw with my teacher, every time I saw this painting, it made me laugh. ', now it seems unsightly! Whether it is paintings or texts, every time I look at old works, I have this "unsightly" feeling; but from a good perspective, it must be because I have improved in some skills that I "despise" the past so much. those works! In this sense, it is a good thing! After all, people need progress! (Well, it seems to be far away~laugh~) Let's talk about the above painting! The one on the right is the first portrait sketch after learning to paint. Great contrast, right? This is the power of the teacher! (I will write another article about the teacher when I have the opportunity later. The opportunity to learn painting with him is also very interesting.)

Generally speaking, people who learn to paint will start with the basic skills: scale, perspective, geometric sketch, facial features plaster sketch, statue sketch, and then probably take some flowers, plants, fruits and other things to practice, in short, before painting portraits, It seems to be the first to pass five levels and cut six generals—ah! A whole bunch of boring exercises. I don't always get excited about things I'm not interested in. So I told the teacher clearly in the first lesson: "I want to learn portrait sketching." The teacher asked me to show him the work first, so I didn't have to guess, I would definitely bring the one in the upper left corner - after all, it is It was the "best" at that time~laugh~ The teacher looked at it, was silent for a few seconds, and forgot whether he had said anything (I didn't know what the sky was like at the time~laughs) Anyway, in the first lesson, he asked me to draw a dead object first. He taught me a lot of proportions and shading theories, and after class, I sat next to him and watched him paint (the teacher is a professional painter); it seems that in the second/third class, he has already started to paint the picture on the right. (I am really grateful that the teacher agreed to my willful request at that time, and taught me with extra effort.)

The teacher is very patient while explaining and testing by hand. Of course, in the middle of the encounter, "I can't draw well", the teacher will try to help me revise a small part, let me compare it, and then complete the rest by myself. share. With my skill at the time, I drew a class just from the draft. I also know that it is mission impossible to complete one class, after all, I have skipped a lot of steps! This painting took me several classes, and I painted and painted at home in between, and I don't know how many hours it took to complete it. In short, the only goal at the time was to paint this painting well, and nothing else. I studied portraits with great determination! The steps have been stolen, and I still can't draw well, how can I do it?

In this case, it takes several hours to draw a sketch each time, but each time there is obvious progress, with such encouragement, it is worth it no matter how hard it is to draw! Also because of this experience of "severely skipping grades" in learning to draw, this has become a habit for me to learn new things later - I always pick the part I am interested in to learn first, and those basic skills will gradually be learned. Yes, it is good to strengthen the practice in a certain area only if necessary; on the contrary, if you wear a bunch of boring and uninteresting topics to wear your interest and patience at the beginning, you may not have the ability to learn the part you want to learn and give up in the end.

These pictures are the exercises that I spent a lot of time and completed point by point.

Later, I felt that I still needed to strengthen the parts of "theoretical study" and "basic skills", so I tried painting a statue again.

Afterwards, I met a charcoal painting teacher who could complete a portrait in 10 minutes. His skill is really extraordinary, which made me very amazed! So I learned charcoal painting with this teacher for a short period of time.

Well, let’s talk about portrait painting first! Let’s talk about other types of paintings later!