Experimental Drawing Lesson - Cubist Portrait Drawing

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This drawing will be created from direct observation and your mind's eye.

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Working from direct observation, you will draw a portrait of your model from three vantage points. Start with an overall full-face view and block in the big geometric shapes marking where the features will be positioned (see Figure 1). Next, move around your model so that you now have a three-quarter view of the head. Draw the three-quarter view features where the full-face features would normally be (Figure 2). Next, move to a profile view and draw in some additional features in profile where they would appear in full-face view (Figure 3). As the cubist portrait takes form, you can begin to render in some of the values of the features (Figure 4). At this point, you can begin adding stylized detailed drawing from your mind's eye to create interest (Figure 5). You will continue to build the drawing by switching back and forth between drawing from direct observation and the mind's eye, continually balancing the composition by adding value rendering, line, and decorative detail (Figures 6 through 8).

 

Materials: HB to 6B graphite woodless pencils and graphite sticks, 18 x 24 quality drawing paper.