Composition in Portrait. Colour Aesthetics and Drawing Techniques

During this week I was away, so I did not manage to use life figures in the studio that the class provided. Instead, I beg for my sister to be my life model. During this week's task. I have to produce two observational studies of a model – one in cold, and one in warm colours.

Process - Cold colour

I start my sketch with light pencil because colour pencils are much harder to erase and I do not what to make mistakes I can not undo.

After sketching with a pencil (only shapes and main details), I draw over details with cold colour. Erasing the pencil after this process.

I added weight lines and basic shading. Her shirt is already blue which is easy for me to colour them in before using other cold colours to it.

I use purple and cream for her skin to control the colour tone and keep the picture in the cold colour scheme. Because her hair is a gradient of black to blonde, instead of yellow, I use light blue as the colour of the hair.

I finalize the picture with other cold colour such as shades of blue, purple, and white.

Final Piece

Process - Warm Colour

As for the warm colour picture, I make her pose in a different pose and start off with a light sketch of the

Because purple is both in warm and cold colour scheme, I use purple to line the sketch this time in hope I can achieve the same effect as the cold pallet drawing.

I sketch the rest of the figure with colour pencil and erase pencil guidelines

I started with the skin colour because her skin has a lot warmer tones it is easier for me to just colour what I see in front of me.

However, I think I used too much of an original colour than the cold colour pallet which caused the aesthetic to be different and in the end, I was not sure how to add more red to set the same aesthetic for these two pictures.

Final Piece

Overall, I am very proud of how the drawing turned out. My concept for this task is I will use the cold pallet on a softer pose to indicate that the picture is cool and cute while the warm colour pallet expressed the happiness that radiates from the model.