Hey everybody, my name is John Knowles and I'll be your art instructor today on In the
Studio.
Today our lesson is going to be on drawing the human face.
If you're like me, you love to draw people.
Everyone's face tells a story and everyone really seems to have trouble drawing faces.
Well today we're going to look at a little girl who has a really colorful sweater and
some really cute makeup on her face and ribbons in her hair.
And notice the light source, it's a one side light source.
So what we're going to do is we're going to spend about 10 to 15 minutes on a quick sketch
looking at proportion, we're going to look at likeness, and also being careful to follow
the light source with the highlights and the shadows.
Once we finish our 15 minute sketch, then we'll go into the computer where we'll scan
it in Photoshop and we'll use this really cool program called Fractal Design Painter
to add 2D digital paint to it.
Now I use a tablet and a stylus, I don't use a mouse when I do digital painting.
So today I'll show you that as well and we'll add color, highlights, we'll add textures
to her sweater, this will be a great class.
So come on, let's get busy.
Let's talk about the tools we'll be using for this project.
The pencil I'll be using is a graphic pencil, it's a 2B lead which means it's a soft lead
and it's great for sketching.
I have a paper stump which is really good for blending tones and keeping your fingers
clean and also I always use a kneaded eraser which is easy to form to a point and pull
out little highlights and get rid of your mistakes.
Now let's discuss our model for the day.
Our subject matter is this cute little girl who has a lot of color on her face.
The reds, the greens, the yellows, all kind of beautiful primary colors, also the deep
skin tones that we have.
Now notice the proportions of the face, that the eyes are in the middle of the head from
the top of the head to the chin and from the eye to the chin you find the nose line and
in between the nose and the chin you'll find the lip line.
Now these are just basic fundamental standards that you can use as measurements but everyone
has their own real set of measurements but these are just good standards.
Now let's just go ahead and lay out a quick sketch on the paper.
I'll be drawing the negative space here as well as positive space.
The negative space being the shape of the background behind the little girl.
So let's go ahead and get started.
I'm going to draw the negative space as a single shape.
I don't think of it as the side of a girl's head.
I just look at it as a shape by itself.
Now do the same thing on the other side here.
This is also a negative space and again I don't think of it as hair or shoulder, I think
of it just as a shape.
Now I don't want to add too much detail because we're going to paint on top of this later
so I'm drawing rather quickly and sketching fast, keeping it fairly loose.
And I'm going to refine the lines a little bit just to make them clear and clean.
There we go.
Let's get on the inside of the figure here with the clothing lines.
Now the outside lines are called contour lines but I'm also going to add some of these little
inside lines here on the ribbons and side of the face, that type of thing.
Okay add these little beads here.
That's our basic layout.
It took a matter of maybe a minute and a half so keep in mind again you are going to paint
this so you're going to paint over your pencil marks.
So don't get super detailed right now, just go ahead and lay it all out like I'm doing
here.
I'm just going to block out some tone here in the hairs, in the ear, just to kind of
set that as a solid shape and I want to keep in mind that there is a light source here.
Notice the light is coming from the left, casting shadow on the right side and putting
highlights on the left side of her face.
Let's start with the dark area and draw those dark areas as shapes as well.
I look at shadows as nothing but solid shapes.
That helps to define the features, the nose, the mouth if I draw accurate shadows.
Notice I'm drawing very lightly.
I'm not drawing very hard lines because I'm not sure it's accurate yet so I want to just
draw very lightly and quickly so I can make corrections with very little problem.
Again on the eyes, I use positive and negative space again on the sides of the iris which
is the colored area.
I look at how much white space is on one side and how much white space is on the other.
That's using positive and negative space.
Okay on the nose, I draw just the shadows.
I don't think of it as an actual nose, I just think of it as a group of shapes.
Be careful to look at the distances between them.
There we go.
The nose is a three-dimensional object so it is going to cast shadow.
It's poking out of the face and shadow will give it that sense of three-dimensionality
that you need.
I also pay attention to the muscles in the face.
She's using muscles to smile and so I'm sketching in the lips keeping that in mind.
I'm going to add the other eyebrow here in the eye and again I'm sketching, I'm not drawing
at this point.
I'm doing a quick loose sketch and I want you to practice your loose sketching, it's
very important.
Remember again, one more time I'll tell you, this is to be painted.
So when I do these loose shading lines, it may look a little messy and a little too quick
but remember this is just allowing me to locate the shadow areas when I start painting in
the skin tones.
I think it's looking pretty good so far.
I'll use this eye here, block that in, let's get the other eye laid out, a little more
shadow, I just love drawing, isn't it nice, it's just so much fun.
I'm going to block out the area where the face makeup is.
She is really cute, I'm enjoying this.
Okay that took about seven minutes so I didn't spend forever on this thing and I don't want
you to either.
Let's move on.
Okay now that we're through with our quick sketch, let's take the sketch into the computer
by digitizing it or scanning it, then we'll go into fractal painter and add some really
cool color effects.
So come on let's go to the digital area over here and I already have my scanning software
up on the screen.
Okay we've scanned the image into the computer, it's time to do some digital painting.
On my color selector I can slide around the circle to the skin tone areas, the orange
reddish area, then I'll slide my slider, my color selector to the brown areas, dark brown
because I want to start with her left side shadow areas.
I'm going to very quickly block in some dark tones.
Blocking in means just doing a very basic layout and quickly laying the tones in.
Notice how fast this is, it's so much faster than watercolor, acrylic or oils or anything
like that.
Now on the computer you can create dark tones and light tones and intermediary tones so
fast, then you can correct it by hitting undo, that's wonderful.
I've only been working seconds and notice that I've already got the entire shaded area
blocked out.
Now I'm going to make sure that I look at the subject matter and be very observant.
Depending on one side I have the dark tones, and on the left side I have the middle tones
and highlight areas.
Let's go back to the drawing and find some lighter tones, then I'm going to slide the
value higher and lightly lay in the medium to light skin tones.
Keep in mind the light source, which is coming from the left, and it dictates where the highlights
are and the shadows are.
When you do a portrait or cartooning or caricatures, having a light source adds a lot to your artwork.
It adds depth, realism, and the shadows and the highlights define the structure.
So be careful to look at your light source.
Now I have her basic face blocked out, I'm going to go to the hair next, it's a very
dark black and I'm just going to go ahead and block that out as well, quickly.
There now look at that drawing so far, this is my first step.
I have blocked out the basic dark areas, a lot in the shadows, I've come over to the
other side and found my highlight areas and the dark hair.
Now I can go to the sweater and lay in those tones.
You know first I want to detail more of the face, let's just go to the lip area.
I'm going to zoom in a little bit here with my magnifying glass, there we go, that's nice.
You can see such detail and I'm going to get a little bit darker with my color and a small
brush so I can do detail lines and I'm going to fill in the contours of her lips.
Notice I'm being very careful with the contours and I'm going to lay in a darker hue or tone
to the top lip and I'll tell you why, the top lip doesn't get as much light as the bottom
lip, generally speaking, unless you have light from underneath.
So I usually make my top lip a little darker and then I'm going to rough in my bottom lip
area leaving a light side on the left side area, there we go, let's make my brush a little
more solid.
I'm going to refine the shape with a darker tone and she has like a little smirk on her
lips, she has really nice full lips, she's making a little smirk that adds a lot of character
to who she is.
Try to find those little character traits, this is so much fun, I love doing this.
There we go, just knocking some tone there, that's looking good.
You get a sense of a highlight and darks and lights, of course I will paint the correct
tones for the highlights but right now we're going to go ahead and start working on the
nose a little bit.
Let's form the structure of the nose by drawing in the shadow areas, the nose is three dimensional
so just like in pencil we're going to find the shadow areas, block them out and allow
the shadows to define the structure, that is so important guys, that shadows define
the structure.
Now I'm going to look at the muscles in the lips again and the mouth and try to find the
areas that give her that little smirk, that little half smile, a little mischievous smile.
Now let's pick a dark tone that was in the shadow area of her face and continue to block
in the nose, she's got a beautiful nose and it's catching highlights, middle tones, dark
areas and if you struggle with your noses just try to break it down, look at each individual
shadow, each individual shape and take your time and just trust your eyes.
I'm going to take some more of this tone here and refine around the eyes, definitely hit
the shadow area of the nose, a little darker than that, yeah that's better, I don't have
a whole lot of time so I'm going to have to paint pretty quickly.
Now if I hit a certain key on my keyboard it selects a tone for me and I can blend them
very fast, very quickly so you have a blend of dark and light and it's starting to get
a little bit of a lightness there for the time that we've spent, I'm pretty happy with
it but now let's zoom in and do a little detail work, make it look a little more finished
here and her eyes are very dark brown, they're almost black so let's go ahead and get bold
with it, fill in the entire iris with a dark dark tone, dark brown.
Pure black will go into the pupil just like that and the pupil is a perfect circle as
well as the iris being a perfect circle and a little lighter brown for a highlight on
the iris catching some light and then add a little bit of a highlight, not white it's
all white but it's going to be opposite the light area of the iris and now I'm going to
go pure white, a small dot and that makes the whole eye sparkle, it gives the eye that
wet look that it needs, it pops it out.
You know you got to have the dark lashes too because the contrast between dark and light
makes your artwork look so much more realistic, so much more powerful.
Then refine the iris a little bit, digital painting is so much fun, if you've ever painted
with oils and acrylics you just don't want to go back once you use a tablet and fractal
painter it is so quick, look at that eye, see how realistic that is?
Let's go to the other one, I'm probably taking a little too much time on this because I could
spend you know hours on this painting but we want to just get the gist of digital painting
for you today, give you an idea of the procedure, let's go again with our pupil, let's go jet
black with it and pop that light brown on the side of the pupil and then under highlight,
small brush, bright white, pow, look at that highlight, it's fast, it's fun, it's cool.
Don't forget tones and a variety of tones, lights and darks, they all have to work together
to give you a sense of light and this painting already has a very strong sense of light because
I wasn't afraid to use darks, middle tones and highlights, I'm just going to quickly
rough the rest of this out here, individual strokes on the eyebrows because they are hairs.
Let's add some shadow area to the corner of her eye and the eyelid, eyes are usually set
back in the head so you do want to put some shadow around the eyes so that the white areas
of the eyes will really pop using your contrast.
Let's pop the nose a little bit just like we did the eye, little highlight there, makes
the nose come out from the face, wow I'm loving that, it's looking wonderful, we've only spent
a few minutes on this portrait and already I'm getting a strong lightness, intense look
in this little girl.
Now I'm going to leave the face now and go to the sweater, here's why, I want to develop
the whole drawing evenly and I've developed the face to a certain point, let's go to the
rest of the drawing and build that to that point and then we'll go back to the background.
So the sweater, I'm going to use a chalk, I have chalk and if I choose that it highlights
in red and lets me know that I'm using chalk and I can pick a paper texture, the paper
texture allows me to give the artwork the feel of depth, texture and a sense of weaving
in the actual sweater, so I'm going to lay in a very dark red as a background because
I'm going to pull brighter highlights on top of it, it's like an under painting, it's obviously
too dark but you'll see when I add the lighter colors it'll make them pop a lot better.
Let's go straight to the red, I'll show you what I'm talking about here, I love these
paper textures, they're very effective.
See how powerful that is, it's bright, brilliant, fast, lay this in here, again remember we
have a light source hitting this sweater so we want to really hit this left side pretty
hard, let's go to the green area, the little green area on top of the sweater, little touch
over here, a little shadow area so I'm going to use a little darker green for that and
you know we need some yellow too, yellow will really make this thing come together, nice
variety of tones, there's even some yellow in the shaded area, some more green, beautiful
sweater so far, I'm really happy with it, very quick, chalk tool is very very powerful,
I'm going to produce an outside tone to make her face pop off the background, the outside
tone happens to be a bluish green like a aqua, I'm going to back off from the drawing, use
the airbrush so I can get a large spray and make it very soft, a lower opacity, wow I'm
really liking that, for a quick painting quick sketch it's working real well for me, a little
dark to make the gradation more dramatic, let's zoom in a little bit and there we have
a very rough painting of the subject matter, let's do the facial makeup on the side here,
before I do that I want to finalize the tones on the face and really make this thing work
as a portrait okay, so I go to my airbrush, go to my dark skin tones again and let's refine
some of these edges that may have been blended together during the sweater, let's define
her face, just like that, I'm still not going too slow, I'm working quickly, you can always
go back and clean things up, let's start doing some of these beads here in her necklace,
they're very colorful, so it's pretty easy just to slide around the color selector slider
and pick these tones real fast, you know I have a nine-year-old little girl who loves
necklaces and jewelry, so I have to make sure that I'm doing it correctly, she'll critique
me, oh that looks good, love that color, just quick little circular motions, not a big deal,
looks good enough, let's go back to some detail now on the face and in the hair, let's work
on the ear and there's lots of shadow in the ear, now that is on the left side but the
hair is blocking the light and don't be afraid to make it dark, you want that contrast so
go ahead and get dark with it, don't be afraid, be very bold with your color, you got to have
a lot of shadow to make the lights really come out, shadow is contrast to light, dark
light, dark light, you must have contrast, now still adding some contrast by doing these
dark eyelashes, eyebrows, add some more skin tones, just kind of blend these things together,
I'm really loving this painting, let's go to the makeup on her face okay, I'm going
to go to the yellow first, she has a huge yellow circle around her eye, so again I'm
going to use chocolate paper that make the paper look more like a skin, a roughness of
skin, let's go ahead and lay this in here now, a little bigger brush there, there we
go, that yellow just pops, that is so great, I love Freckle Painter, it's a blast to use,
it's fast, the colors are beautiful, I really encourage you to explore this software, you
will love it, once you work with it one time you'll be totally addicted, all right let's
get this colored around here, just amazing color, just denning into her face right here,
I want it to be a little darker, let's pick the other colors in the makeup area, a little
red here and there, there we go, red there, a little red down here, let's pick blue now
and add the blue to the forehead, just kind of around the periphery of the yellow circle
and she also has white makeup on here, wow what a colorful painting, more yellow, her
eye is like a sun bursting with colorful rays of light and one more time I'm going to go
to the skin tone so I can add just little final touches of detail and go to her hair
and clean that up, I have some background overspray in her hair, I need to zoom in on
that I think and get a little tighter with it, so let me get my magnifying glass, now
that's better, now I can really get some detail in there, she has stray hairs here and there,
it's not perfect, yeah that adds a lot more realism, it also breaks up that hard edge,
again, keep messing with this ear, it's not exactly what I want yet, definitely got some
darks to it, yeah that's looking a lot better and I want to add those ribbons as well but
let me finalize a few things here, now look at the textures that I used in Fractal Painter
using the chalk and the paper, it's incredible, let's go ahead and add these ribbons now,
nothing super detailed, just lay them in quickly, let's do the yellow one and there's a red
that are kind of pinkish, let's do the red, there we go, well there she is, she's a little
loose but wow, it has a lot of energy, isn't painting in Fractal Painter cool, I mean did
you not really like that, every time I get on the program I just have so much fun exploring
the tools and messing with the paper texture, it's really fun, you can do some incredible
work with it in such a short amount of time, speaking of time, we're out of time, so I
hope you had a great time here at the studio with me, I hope to see you again, come back
and visit me, there's a lot of other art projects that I intend to bring to you through the
program and I think that you won't want to miss them because they're full of great information
and great activities and I hope to see you on the next episode of In the Studio, hey
dudes don't forget to visit my website, it's www.flybynightprod.com, our refrigerator,
come here, this used to be my office but it got totally cannibalized to build that set
out there, so you know I'm not really that important here, just come and just rip my
office apart, now we always do this every Monday to see what it looks like from the
weekend, oh some old red lobster, what else we got in here, oh a muffletta from Leonardo's
Italian, it's very good, I don't let this get out, and this is my prize possession,
this is some beef soup that's been here since oh not 6 months ago, I'm not opening it up.