More Heather Sketches

Here are some more sketches of Heather, one of our regular life models at Visual Arts Brampton. These are from various sessions over the last couple of years.

Probably because of my interest in caricature and always wanting to obtain a likeness, oftentimes I will concentrate more on drawing the face than I really should in a session. Here's a traditional portrait I drew of Heather during a 30 minute pose.

This is a 10 minute study, so it's a lot less refined. Note the guidelines on her face in order to place the features fairly accurately. (This is something I stress a lot in my Character Design class to my students too!)

Again, I probably spent too much time on her face getting the likeness in this one, when in fact I should have perhaps checked the proportions on her body more closely before finishing. In hindsight, her head seems slightly too big relative to her body. I still like the drawing though.

At some point during the evening, I just can't help but revert back to my cartoonist inclinations and take a more caricatured approach to drawing the model. I love making a cute pose even cuter, looking for ways to idealize the form in order to get as much visual appeal as I can.

This drawing is one of my favourites of Heather. She had a different hairstyle that evening and the added texture and waviness was fun to draw. The lighting was quite dramatic, so I tried putting in some cool blue shadows along with the warm reds. This one may be destined to hang on my den wall sometime soon!

Again, both the dramatic lighting and Heather's pose inspired me to try something unique with this drawing. It suggested a look of cowering in fear, so I adapted her expression to play up the melodrama. The resulting image puts me in mind of the type of illustration you used to see on the covers of dimestore crime novels. I'm tempted to try doing a painted version of this sketch someday, where I can really simulate one of those old pulp fiction covers!