Gerry Bryceland and the ascent of a portrait painter? If you are going to try to execute a highly detailed self-portrait, the prep work you do before putting pencil to paper is very important. Art may be spontaneous and creative, but there are times when you have to take a more methodical approach. When your goal is to draw a highly detailed self-portrait, this is one of those times. Start out by getting your lighting set up. Good lighting can mean the difference between a boring looking portrait and a fantastic looking portrait. Try something different here, set up dynamic lighting that illuminates one half of your face and not the other. Or have a strong light source that comes from above that casts shadows under your nose and neck, and darkens your eyes. What you are going for is something out of the ordinary that will give your self-portrait a unique and exciting look.
Drawing the Eyes: At the middle of the center blue line, draw two almond-shaped eyes. Did you know? Human anatomy is quite amazing. The space between the two eyes can be measured with a ‘third eye’. This is the approximate separation between the two eyes, leaving a perfect space for where your nose will be placed! With this in mind, make sure that the space between your eyes isn’t too narrow nor too wide. Getting the eyes as right as you can is very important in portrait drawing. Now, let’s fill in the other details. In the middle of each eye, draw a big, dark circle and a smaller one at the center of it. These are your irises and pupils. Add the eyelids by drawing two curved lines on top of your eyes, use the shape of your already drawn eyes as a curving guide.
Gerry Bryceland‘s tricks about portret painting: The tones, colors and textures of the skin are all built up in thin layered glazes of paint applied over the flesh toned underpainting. Transparent glazes of burnt sienna (occasionally darkened with Prussian blue) and naphthol crimson are used for the darker tones and colors, while more opaque glazes of titanium white are used to create the highlights on the skin. The dark tones are applied with a burnt sienna glaze over the flesh colored underpainting. A variety of small brushstrokes, stippling and smudging is used to render the softly blended tones of the face.
Try to start your self-portrait with light, quick sketching lines. This will not only breathe life and create a sense of movement in your drawing, but it will also allow you to lay out a solid foundation before you start to render your drawing in with more details. If you decide that you want to draw a black and white self-portrait, you have your choice of many different materials you could use. Two of the most popular options are graphite and charcoal. Both have their advantages and can be used in similar ways, but they are definitely distinctive materials that will give you a different look for your finished drawing.
About Gerry Bryceland: I’m Gerard Bryceland an artist based in Maidstone Kent and regularly get commissioned to do work doing paintings and portraits of people and their families. I’ve always been an artist from my childhood, I loved drawing my friends and family initially just to mess around with my friends and had a lot of fun drawing them. But as i got older it really just became a business as my friends and their families would want me to do family portraits and that type of thing. With word of mouth word gets out and before you know it you know it I’m 35 and still doing the same thing.