Close-Up Figure Sketches

In another Figure Design class today, I did some close up figure sketches where I needed to draw live models in medium shot framed tightly in the paper, with detail of their expression and faces shown. The time given for each sketches is around 6 - 8 minutes and I used compressed charcoal on newsprint paper as usual with a bit of charcoal pencil as touch-ups.

Najah was the easiest to draw because of her optimal position for me to get the best view and she did not have much dark color on her so I can show more shadow on her.

This sketches of Anis is one I like the most. Why? Because I managed to perfectly capture her expression and details of her face. Anis is my classmate and I met her everyday which make easier for me to draw her details from memory in addiction to live drawing. Anis's face also was perfect to show some highlight because she stroke her hair all the way back, leaving her face opened for some light to be reflected on her.

Izzah wore a bit darker theme outfit and I am actually have trouble to see in the dark and also to focus into dark things. Izzah's scarf was dark blue and it made the difficulty rose when I tried to observe her face's details.

Haris also have much black on him but Haris is someone I always met so his face's details are in my memory. I love the black outfit on him because I could experiment some highlight technique on his shirt by using eraser.

I used charcoal pencil on this one because I wanted to experiment the best way of drawing details. It helped but charcoal is more suitable for speed sketches because it gives you more masses and bold line so that you do not have to waste time when drawing the bases.

Close up figure sketches activity is a bit different than any other figure sketches before because I need to spend more time to observe the details and expression instead of quickly capture the pose to show the action or figure in given time. It helps me to understand better about expression, shadow and highlight. For the record, I like to render shadow and highlight on sketches.