Faces From The Weekend, Faces #661-#664

Even though it was relatively quiet here, I wasn't feeling entirely well over the weekend. Instead of breaking into a bigger project in full "pastel mode", I stuck to just sketching out studies with pastel pencils. These pieces below are done with basically four pastel pencils, a blending stump, and a kneaded eraser. 

The first piece, in addition to the other materials, I also used some marker (the teal portion). I was looking at this piece from a placement/proximity point of view: using transparency to combine the two individuals so they seemed to flow together yet without diminishing any integrity to either face. It was also a study in drawing more mature faces.

This next one, below, took longer than the others. It didn't get overworked, but I kept revising her face more for capturing a certain expression than for structure. When you don't work from a model or photograph, the result that you are striving for is not right in front of you or always as obvious.

Lastly, as I was working on this one last night, I decided to throw in some features to make this fictitious man look more like a young Johnny Depp focusing from memory on the mouth, cheek bones, and jaw line to that end. While I don't usually try to make my faces resemble anyone in particular and tend to keep it more generic; I can definitely see not an exactness, but the likeness I was after in this case. In some ways I think this attempt from memory looks more like him than the portrait of him I did using a photograph. When I did the portrait of my sister, the same could be said that the painting looked more like her than the photo I worked from. If a person wonders "how that can be", I have one word to explain the discrepancy from a camera: distortions. Because I have covered that in another post, I won't blather about it here! But I will also add that perception also plays its part.

Although I have a busy week ahead, I am hoping to get a lot done creatively, too. Until next time, take care!