Conte Crayon Self Portrait: The Result Of Carefull Observation

[big keith]

This Piece was done for a grade 12 drawing course. Black and burnt sienna conte crayon on 18 x 24 cartridge paper.

Keith

http://fs7.deviantart.com/i/2005/173/d/5/crayon_self_portrait_by_big_keith.jpg

[Elwell]

The drawing of the face is very good.
There doesn't seem to be any pictorial or conceptual reason for using the two different colors.
The big sienna smeersh on the right is distracting.

[big keith]

Elwell,

Thank you for the critique; I think that you are right. Had I used the sienna throughout the rest of the drawing it would have unified it.

[Uziel]

Is the hair supposed to look like a wig?
It has so much volume upwards and they are marked by some hard lines.
If you had used the red for the whole background it would have been better.

[big keith]

Uziel,
The hair is supposed to be easily distinguished from my face. The sienna crayon was an expiriment which didn't turn out as well as I had hoped it would.
This is a drawing which I did earlier; for a grade 12 life drawing course. I feel that I was able to combine the two colors much more effectively in this study. Black and burnt sienna conte crayon on 18 x 24 rough newsprint. 40 minutes of drawing time spread over two 20 minute sittings.

http://fs7.deviantart.com/i/2005/176/9/5/profile_head_study_by_big_keith.jpg

[Uziel]

Don't mix the black and red too much. Use dark and bright red starting with the bright and than some dark. Black is for very dark shadows. When i look at your drawing it looks a bit like you couldn't chose between red or black to do the drawing.
you can use white crayon for highlights. Anatomy looks good.

Example:
http://www.gandynet.com/art/Masters/Holly_Banks/Images/Chris.jpg

[Gilead]

This is a really nice drawing. take a few minutes to finish the black chalk background so she doesn't have just a chunk of it sitting on her nose and on the top of her head. You could contain it to a small rectangular panel behind her face so it looks like a window behind her or something.

[big keith]

Uziel: Thank you for the advide, you have outlined a more tradional approach which I wasn't considering when I did this sketch.
Gilead: The black rectangles do flatten the sketch too much for my liking, but since it was intended as a sketch I would rather get the next drawing right than alter this one. That said, maybe I'll fix it up sometime in the future.