Mixed media portrait of a man

Here is a portrait I drew of a young man. I used sharpie and markers. Then I gave a wash with a brush and water over it to give the marker a watercolor effect. I was going to do more but was interrupted and lost interest in the project. I use some black guesso on a liner brush to deepen the black of the Sharpie.

Portrait with mixed media. 

Mike Looks At His Accuser

I called this Mike Looks At His Accuser, because of the expression. My model only served as a point of departure and I used his condescending sneer more than his features or anything else.

I thought the deep narrowly placed eyes were interesting and gave him a distrustful look.

The picture was drawn in charcoal. At first I was going to do a minimal kind of thing but It got more developed than I wanted, but I am happy to have caught the expression.

Mike Looks At His Accuser,  Portrait In Charcoal

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Charcoal Sketch Of Man with a Hard Look About Him

It is not an exact representation of the actor Jeremy Renner but an attempt to capture his hard edge.

Charcoal drawing inspired by Jeremy Renner

This was a quick drawing in charcoal pencil. I didn't take the time to smooth out the lines and make it look soft since the emotion is cold and the expression is serious. I had only about 45 minutes to work on it.

I CHANGED MY MIND
I was going to leave a lot of places empty like a statement but there is a rare completeness in this man's face that speaks of an ideal of fulfilled manhood that it would be a misstatement to draw him as anything less. It is nice to find a face to draw that is truly manly.

DARK
I wanted the dark areas to be deep and somber but was afraid that too much black would overpower the picture. I was afraid the face would be too white by contrast, (I regret it is a little paler than what I was hoping for).

LIGHT
I thought about adding a little white charcoal to the highlights but decided it would make the picture too complicated.

If I had more time to work on it I would give more attention to the overall value of the face and make it a shade darker and deepen the shadows some; I would have worked on the eyes more since that was where the power of the expression is.

A Doodle, Man's Face, In Pencil.

Here is a little project I did when I was teaching some kids about drawing a basic face. It combines the characteristics of several resources.

Sketch of Face a doodle

It is not a project I am very pleased with but it has some good points.

I was trying to have his skin be pale and his hair platinum blond. It came out more cartoon than representational. I am not trying to draw a very real picture on purpose those who make pencil drawings that look like photographs are amazing but I wonder why bother and why not just take a photo. I want my drawings to look like drawings. I stop while they still look a little primitive.

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Minimalist Charcoal Portrait of Man,

I did this drawing to occupy myself for a few minutes. This is a banker.

Minimalist Portrait in Charcoal of a Business Man.

I like to do fast sketches to capture the character or mood of a scene. I started with a few pencil marks to outline and place the features and then turned to hb charcoal pencil and finish with a medium charcoal pencil. I enjoy the discovery of the face from the lighter pencils to the darker charcoals. It becomes a relationship where the picture is talking to me and telling me how to draw it and I am replying to the picture.

There were some errors but I didn't erase them, rather I worked them over and included the errors in the creative process.

The portrait was completed in about twenty minutes.


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I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

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Pencil and Charcoal Portrait of a Handsome Man

Pencil and Charcoal Portrait of a Man

Here is a little sketch I did in about an hour. I started out with an hb pencil then finished with a couple of charcoal pencils.

I used a blending stub to work the shadows and when the stub got dirty I used it to transfer the medium to the background.

My resource material showed a man with short hair going every way I tried to capture it with short choppy strokes.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

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Pencil Drawing, Man With a Crooked Smile

Pencil portrait of a man with a crooked smile. 

This is a sketch I did while waiting for my son at an appointment. It is a man with a crooked smile.

Pencil Drawing Of Man With Crooked Smile. 

I chose this project because the man had a long face and high forehead. I thought his light tones would be a fun challenge. I drew this with several pencils. I chose pencils for this since the man was so fair skinned and had white hair.

I began with a 2b pencil to get everything in place. I then went over it with an hb to get things more defined. For a while I alternated between these two pencils they are similar but have slight differences.

I used the blending stub to round out the face and work in the shadows. I reworked the picture with the pencils for a while and alternated between pencils and stubs.

The background was done with the stub and whatever the material was that had dirtied it from being used. This helps clean the stub for the face work.

The last ten percent was done with a 6b and an 8b pencil. I am always a little cautious with these pencils since they get very dark and make everything a black monochrome; they are really hard to control.

After I finished I took a paper towel and rubbed down the tone of the background to take away the rubbing marks.

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Charcoal Sketch Of Man With Silver Hair

This is a charcoal drawing of a man with silver hair. 

Charcoal Sketch of a Man With Silver Hair.

The first thing you notice about this charcoal portrait is the pale nature of the values. The man in my resource material was very fair and his hair was mostly silver.

I kept removing medium as I went along to try to be true to the subject. It was tempting to make the background and clothing very dark but if was afraid he would look ghostly by contrast. The challenge of a pale portrait is the slight values and the half values. I found that I did a lot of the work on the man's face with just the blending stub. I would shadow the background then use the dirty stub to work the shadows and contours of the face.

I did very little drawing- just around the major features like the eyes, mouth, ear and some of the hair everything else was rubbing the stub. What drawing I did was with a 2b pencil and a medium soft charcoal pencil, the only place I used the soft and darkest was the eyes, mouth and a few touches around the tie and ear.

The silver hair was first lightly sketched with a sharpened pencil then rubbed with the stub and finished with more fine lines with the sharpened pencil

A Quick Sketch in Charcoal of a Middle Aged Man

Charcoal Sketch of a middle aged man.

I did this sketch while waiting for my son to finish his guitar lesson. I only had a few minutes to work on it and I wanted to experiment with a style that was a little minimalist. I did the drawing in charcoal pencil.

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Quick Fifteen Minute Sketch of a Man's Face

Working quickly frees you up and forces you to edit where you choose the essentials and minimize the extra details

I drew this sketch while waiting for my son who was having a music lesson. I saw this face in a magazine and it was turned at an angle as he was looking out a window. I propped my sketchbook up on the steering wheel and drew it while holding my sketchbook steady with my knee.

Fifteen minute sketch of a man's face

I started with a 2b charcoal pencil by Generals and after a few hasty lines to place the features I changed to a Generals soft charcoal pencil. The finishing touches around the eyes and neck and a little background was with a Generals ex-soft pencil. When I got home I used a blending stub just on the side of the face and below the chin a little. A few touches with the blending stub brought out the cheeks. I wanted it to be minimalist in a way, so some of it looks a little overdone for me.

The total time spent was about fifteen minutes.

Quick sketch of a man's face. 

I am happy with the results, and will be doing more quick sketches.

(c) Adron

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

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Charcoal Pencil Sketch of Sir Lancelot of Camelot

Sir Lancelot of Camelot sketch in charcoal.

Charcoal Sketch of Sir Lancelot

This is Sir Lancelot of King Arthur and the knights of the round table. It is done in charcoal pencil. I used a 2b charcoal pencil so it was lighter than I would have liked. I was going for something minimal but the frame of the hair begged a more fuller portrait. I should have spent more time on it if I was working on a serious sketch but I was at my daughters music lesson and was just doing this as a doodle while waiting. I spent about 40 minutes on it.

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