When it comes to "illustrators" like us drawing real people we divide into 2 groups - Realistic or Stylistic.
Realistic artists have a wonderful mind, able to absorb incredible detail and repeat it on the page, but Stylistic artists take all the core details that are most important and push them through a small hole in their head so you see how they see the world and you end up with something unique to them which is a real gem. Both approachs are valid and take great skill.... It's up to you which you prefer and which you do, but i'm a Stylistic artist and i draw how i see the world.
The topic for this weekends Sketch Saturday Group is Audrey Bitoni, drawing a real person is a fun excersize, it forces us to focus on more important details - pose - character - expression - detail - Below is an old Audrey Bitoni pinup i did a while back.
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| Audrey Bitoni |
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| Audrey Bitoni by Boo |
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| Jeanette Ardley |
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| Jeanette Ardly |
It's important to have a couple of different forms of referance because when a head tilts one way or another it can change the look of the face, a different pose shows hair differently and alters your perspective, but by looking at a few referance pictures you can begin to build up the correct look in your minds eye.
With Jeanette i looked at a few of her photos and took what i thought was important, her beutiful faceshape, those thick yummy eyebrows and peirceing eyes, she also has little lips that pout and those details had to be translated to the paper.... BUT i made the pose up myself.
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| Annette by Boo |
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| Annette |
Another example of taking the details and changing the pose. Stylistic artwork is about absorbing only the essential details, and then doing something thats totally you. I wanted to capture Annettes playful side, her cute outfit and i left the shading off her hair because i hope it would be coloured. Her glasses were important, her eyes had to communicate through or over them because they became a useful tool to express her playful nature.
Annette, Jeanette and Audrey all have different faceshapes, hair styles, lip shapes, and it's these and a combination of what your own style looks like that make the illustration/pinup come to life.
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| Kitty Lea by Boo |
I drew Kitty years ago...but this is a good example
how to build up the image. Have a pose in mind,
then lightly draw the egg/oval for the head and do a
stick frame pose beneath it, flowing from the neck.
Now lightly draw a line across the face where the eyes
will go, lightly sketch the hair in and then start the nose,
lipse, eyebrows and eyes in. Once the basics of your
face are there this will help you flesh out the body.
The body shape depends on the person your drawing,
but some cloths can help you get that pose you want,
see how i use the sleeves on the arms, this helped me
get the arms to go where i wanted and allowed me to
make the boobies look more eye-popping. Dont
forget the curves, girls are curvy, guys are curvy... but
girls are more curvy lol.
Learning to draw real people Stylistically is a fun experiance but it's also about self expression. You wont always get it right, often mine look wrong untill i get those eyes finished and the girl on paper starts to communicate with the viewer, but it's about leaping in. poses soon become easy and second nature and it's the face you have to concentrate on because THATS what will say if you got them right or not.
Number 1 rule - dont be afraid lol
Peace
Boo
(All Photos belong to their copyright holders, they were used without permission simply for education purposes and if this causes anyone offence just let me know and we can sort it out)
