Graphite portrait sketches 1984-92
Very often, when I first draw a friend, or can get close enough to a life model in the life room to do it, I start with a simple portrait sketch in graphite at near to life size. Quite often I do a pair of frontal and profile ‘mug shots’ like the photos police take of offenders. When I am happy with a pair of ‘mug shot’ drawings, then I usually go on to the more natural three quarter view. In the USA I usually did these on an 18” by 24” spiral bound pad of drawing paper, in England on an A2 pad of cartridge paper. Quite often this works for me straight away, but for other sitters I struggle to get the proportions of the face accurate and even after many trials I am not happy with the results. I usually take between 20 minutes and 40 minutes to do these drawings.