Heads & Hands

One of two classes I took in Fall 2013. These were all done in charcoal and/or graphite.

week one:


A 10-minute drawing and two untimed. Ten minutes seemed so impossibly short back then! I remember scrambling just to get all the features down, nevermind get them accurate. Now after so many months of drawing 5-minute figures, ten is almost luxuriantly long. Still, I like the energy of the quick lines in these early timed drawings.


week two:


Two more 10-minute drawings, plus multiple stages of a couple others. Funny, I’ve only just now realized that all the models are facing the same way in these.


week three:


Five timed poses and one long one. Tricky angles on these faces. Always difficult to draw the relationships that are actually there instead of what my brain wants to tell me they should be.


weeks four through six:


Three weeks worth of hands. That third one is on toned paper, which I still haven’t quite got the hang of. Hands can be difficult to get right (fingernails especially for me) but I like drawing them.


A multi-week assignment we had to replicate a master painting. I chose one by J.C. Leyendecker:


I listened to a bunch of BBC radio versions of Rumpole of the Bailey while I did these, it was a very fitting soundtrack.


weeks seven through ten:


Face parts! Each of the whole head drawings relates to the particular part before it which we were studying that week. I think mouths were the hardest. The second-to-last drawing in this bunch is one of my favorites from this class.


week eleven:


Hair studies. Hair is fun.


week twelve:


Focal point studies and one on toned paper, which I still need lots more practice with.


week thirteen:


Don’t remember what we were focusing on this week, to be honest. Really like how that last drawing turned out though.


week fourteen:


An all-graphite study with no time limit. Actually I think I used a little charcoal to darken the hair, but yeah.


And our final for this class, a self-portrait spanning three weeks:


That’s it for this class! Next up, Clothed Figure Drawing 1.

3 thoughts on “Heads & Hands”

  1. These are great Chuck! I like the progressions and how each week is displayed 🙂 My favorites are your Leyndecker studies and the hair studies–I love drawing hair too!! Fantastic job on your self portrait. I love your hair!!

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