How To Draw and Paint Drawgirl

7/28/2019 How To Draw and Paint Drawgirl

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How to Draw and Paint

Drawgirl

Step 1

It is fascinating that many artists and would-be artists have been attracted toDrawgirl, an animated gif, even though there are a great many excellent pastelportrait images floating around online. It has been around for years and has theattention of many posts on various art forums where people ask how the portraitwas done. I, myself, have even asked the question on an art forum, but no oneknew of any explanations of it, detailed or otherwise. I wanted any form of tutorialor how to draw or paint Drawgirl instructions. I even searched the Internet trying tolocate the original website or even the artist, but have been unsuccessful so far.Finding no help out there, I took it upon myself to just create my own How to draw

and paint Drawgirl tutorial with my own knowledge of how to draw and paintpastel portraits. I did so as if the painting was done in either soft or oil pastel. Thatis, I did so because it is obvious that the artist used a computer program with CorelPainter type software or ArtRage type shareware which emulates the process of theuser working with real pastels instead of the mouse/tablet combination orpen/tablet combination that the artist actually used. The software is an extremelymore advanced and glorified version of what can be found at my Practice Drawingwebpage.

Since I know in advance you will likewise want to know how the pastel portrait wasrendered, I have taken it upon myself to give a step-by-step tutorial of how Iimagine this unidentified artist created Drawgirl. Mind you, this is myinterpretation as to how the artist did it -- this is not how I create pastel portraits.So, here goes.
http://www.pastelportraitsecrets.com/drawing_tool.htmlhttp://www.pastelportraitsecrets.com/drawing_tool.html


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We begin this tutorial by explaining and illustrating the first of seventy-twodetailed steps of painting a pastel portrait of a painting entitled Drawgirl. Themodel is an unknown young woman. For the technique described in this step bystep tutorial lesson, try using either soft pastels or oil pastels. And, by the way,focus on the painting process and not on why it is called, "Drawgirl."

Using either soft vine charcoal, compressed charcoal, graphite pencil, carbonpencil, Conte' crayon, or pastel pencil, begin by drawing an accurate oval shapedsketch of Drawgirl's three-quarter turned head. As you become more experienced,you can skip drawing the complete oval, as can be seen, here. Note the carefulindication of the jaw line and bottom of the chin. Also, be aware that your ovaldrawing cuts in front of the ear and does not include the back of the head.

Carefully, split the oval in half (dividing top and bottom halves) by placing the eyeline at the correct angle. Likewise, construct the angle of the nose. This is still theinitial and tentative stage of the portrait, but, it is vital that you get as relativelyclose shape resemblance as possible. You do not want to have to try and makecorrections later on when you are too far gone and have to stop and start overfrom scratch. Your support, which is a fancy way of saying paper, can be either apastel sheet, velour paper, or a watercolor board. To give a little cushion to yourfeel as you are painting, stack a dozen or so sheets together if you choose to draw

on pastel paper.

Most art books and art teachers seem to start a portrait likeness by drawing anoval or egg shape. I prefer, however, to use the ball and plane methodindependently developed by Andrew Loomis and Ms. E. Grace Hanks during the1930's. I do that when I am copying from a photo or making up a person in mymind. On the other hand, when drawing from life, I find it much easier to draw theface, features and head from the inside out, as advocated by portrait artist, DanielGreene.

If you are pleased with your depiction of Drawgirl so far, then move on to the nextstep of marking the placement of the rest of the features and visible portion of herbody composed in the portrait in step 2.

The light strokes to be placed in steps 26 through 36 are in preparation for the skintone (which is darker) that will be carefully blended in later steps. And even though


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the rule in pastels is to paint the lights over dark, in this case, the process isreversed in that you paint dark over light. Actually, what you are really doing ispriming the board, the support. Think of it as an under painting of sorts. Idiscovered years ago, from watching a pastel portrait "how-to" video by masterpastellist John Solomon Sandridge , that if you want the highlights to appear crispand clear in the final result, you have to paint them first, then, paint the skin tonesover top of them, and finally paint the same highlights over top of that. This isespecially true when painting pastels on watercolor board. Even though the videodoes not explain the reasons behind actions (for example, the highlights trick), Ijust figured out most things by viewing it repeatedly for months. Later on, Idiscovered that the "trick" is a modified version of what is called "burnishing" or"superimposing" or "glazing." You will learn all about burnishing beginning in step26.

Besides, priming the board, this has the added benefit of keeping the face smoothlooking, as opposed to blotchy looking, when priming/blending. When blending, besure to do so from light to dark and in tiny squiggly, pig-tail like motions with yourpinky or paper stomp. I learned that technique when I was a child by watching theoriginal TV artist, Jon Gnagy, with his show, "Learn to Draw" when television was

relatively new and programs were still being broadcast in black & white back in the1950's. For example, use those motions, beginning under the eye from side to sidewhile gradually moving downward into the cheek area. Wipe your finger with acloth or a paper towel every stroke or two, or else you will place the darker colorinto the lighter area, which will be difficult to correct.

Before moving on to the next step, be advised that our site visitors would love tosee your rendition of Drawgirl or other pastel portrait of your choice showcasedhere. If you are an art instructor or art student, your work displayed here can evenbe part of an art class project. Just follow the directions at this link DrawgirlProject Assignment.

Step 2

We continue by sealing the oval over her head -- actually, we are indicating thehair of Drawgirl. The eye line and nose line angle were established in step 1, now,the placement of the rest of the features are roughly located. The bottom of thenose is about half way between the eye line and the bottom of the chin. The centerof the mouth is about 1/3 the distance between the bottom of the nose and thebottom of the chin. Even though not indicated in the drawing, you may find iteasier to place the bottom of the bottom lip (yes, you read that right - "bottom ofbottom" or "bottom of lower" lip) half way between the bottom of the nose and thebottom of the chin. Half is easier to define than one-third. If the model was posedin a front view, with her eye level (horizon line, if this was a landscape painting)perfectly horizontal, then, you could see both of her ears, and the top of her earswould be level with her eyebrows, and the bottom of her ears would be level with

the bottom of her nose. Since she is posed otherwise and with a tilt, then hervisible ear is shifted slightly upwards. The back of her head is still not indicated atthis stage.


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If this were a profile view, you would see that the back of her neck would traveldownward at an angle from a horizontal line level even with the bottom of her earand extending to the back of her head. Here, is shown more or less the sameplacement of the cylindrical shaped neck. You can see the follow-through of thecylinder with the ellipse drawn at the base of her cylinder shaped neck, likewise,with the cylindrical shape of the visible portions of her arms. The follow-throughellipse of one of her arms is clearly seen under her chin. Not only that, but itserves a secondary purpose of isolating the brightly lit area on her shoulder, whichwill be of significant use a few steps, later.

Now, on to the final drawing stage is where it really gets interesting in step 3.

Step 3

As stated in the previous step, it really gets interesting here. The back of the headis finally established and the planes of the face are delineated. The whole shape ofthe head is adjusted and the center line of the mouth changed, too. The majorinteresting things to observe is the flattened "X" mark centered between the eyes.Look around you at people and even look in the mirror and you will be amazed tosee similar x-shapes formed by the top of of the eyebrow of one eye criss-crossingwith the top of the upper eyelid of the other eye. On the other hand, if you open upand unflatten the X a bit, the eyebrows appear to criss-cross with the bottoms ofthe eyes, as is drawn in this step. You have your choice when drawing... eitherdraw the X by flattening it greatly to indicate the eyebrows/upper eyelidscombination, or open it up a bit to establish the eyebrows/bottom of eyesrelationship. Focus your attention or squint your eyes at this model and you canimagine both possibilities.


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The front plane of the face is separated from the side plane by the vertical linefrom the hair line down to the back of the eye, skipping the cheek and lightlycontinuing past the corner of her mouth. The flattened eyebrow/bottom of eye "X"has the eye cavity enclosed with the sideways "V" shape on the side plane of thehead. Finally, notice the cheek bone is indicated by a linear mark in front of the earand the shapes of her lips and nose is fashioned.

After all of that hard work, now you are going to destroy it with a tonal drawingbeginning in step 4.

Step 4

Instead of grabbing your glorified colored chalks and plastering so-called fleshcolors all over the face of Drawgirl, you are going to use a trick developed by theold masters in their oil paintings; that is, you are going to make a value, or tonal(black & white), under painting. If you have never thought of making a tonal underpainting for pastel portraits, before, you are in for a treat.

One of the challenges facing the pastel artist is the inability to achieve satisfyingdarks. That is why most people think of bright colors when they think of pastels. Tohelp overcome this limitation, a dark tonal under painting is advantageous.

In painting their oil paintings, the old masters would first decide if the paintingwould have 3, 4, 5 or whatever amount of values from dark to light. Specifically,they would deliberately limit themselves to 3 or 4 values, because 2 values or lesswould look too flat and 5 and more would be too confusing. For example, light,medium and dark plus highlight shades for a total of four tones. Squint your eyesat the model and see if you can do the same. Then, from your set of ten or moregray pastel sticks, select the four shades you observed and chose for the portraitby squinting and applying them to your painting as depicted in this drawing usingarty straight lines. Don't panic if your decision seems different from what is shownhere. For instance, the model's hair is blond, yet the tone in the drawing is verydark. Relax. The reason is because a bass black is needed to make the treble white(or blond) pop when the portrait is complete. Remember, the rule in pastel painting

is "light over dark." This also explains why a tonal under painting is so effective.


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After that is done, strategically smudge selected areas with your finger. But beforedoing so, carefully note the most minimal attempt at indicating the model's upperleft eyelid and eyeball at this stage. With that observation, you are now free tosmudge. Your tonal drawing continues in step 5.

Step 5

This is more of the same as was done in the previous step of Drawgirl, but,continued down to include the neck and bosom sections. Notice the light areas areleft untouched. Notice also, how the emphasizing of the lit area under her chin onher shoulder is isolated by outlining her collar bone with darker value linearstrokes from the set of grey pastels. Your tonal drawing continues still in step 6.


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Step 6

Just like the previous Drawgirl step, this is more of the same. At a quick glance,there does not appear to be too much difference between this step and theprevious one, however, upon closer inspection we note that most of the emptyareas on her shoulder are filled in with more straight arty strokes. These strokes inall of the tonal underpainting steps are conforming to the shape of the model. They

are deliberate and not haphazardly placed. Your tonal drawing continues still instep 7.

Step 7Continuing, we see that the focus is on softening the tonal strokes on the face tomore fully define the light, medium and dark masses. Smudge until you get thedesired result of keeping the darkest areas confined to the eye sockets as well asunder the nose and under the mouth.


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You can see that for the first time, both eyes are beginning to be formed. Work onthe midtone areas by blending under the hairline and alongside the contour of thecheek on the left side of the portrait painting. Keep the rest of the facial areas asbeing the lights. As you can see, three tonal areas of the face have just beendefined simply and cleverly. Your tonal drawing continues still in step 8.

Step 8Carefully observe the reference model and apply the same technique described instep 7, here. This time focus your attention on the visible ear and on the neckareas. We are still in the preliminary stages, so it does not have to be that exact,and since this is art and not science, the tonal values can be rendered closeenough and still be acceptable. Your tonal drawing continues still in step 9.

Step 9

As in previous Drawgirl smudge steps, be sure to stroke along the contours of hershape. Even though you are working on a support (pastel paper, for example),imagine you are actually stroking her real skin as you blend. This is clearly evidentin this detail view of her neck and shoulder areas.


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Step 10

One more step to go, after this one, in this smudging routine where we put it alltogether. For now, though, you can see that the imagined caressing of her form asyou smudge is paying off beautifully. Even though this underpainting, by definition,is in black and white, the three dimensionality, or depth perception, is becomingevident as her form appears to be solid. The head and body are connected in the

next and final tonal step.

Step 11

With this step, the underpainting is made ready for the "over painting" so to speak-- is made ready for the flesh colors. The tonal underpainting development is a skill

worth developing. Practicing it helps train the eye to recognize value changes andhelps to limit the tones to about four.

With this you have just completed the last step of the tonal drawing. Now, on towhat probably matters the most to you at this point... steps in the flesh-tonecoloring process.

Your coloring process begins in step 12.


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Step 12

Don't panic! Even though it looks like there is not much to see here, in actualitythere is plenty to be learned. Whereas I generally begin my coloring phase byturning a small piece of my chosen pastel stick on its side and plastering fleshcolor all over face, eyes, teeth and all, this artist starts by outlining and definingthe face boundaries. Notice the subtle introduction of the concept of lost & found

even at this early stage. And, what color is being used? How about a burnt-sienna?Well, maybe; but it is best to look through your Rembrandt Soft Pastel Portrait orFlesh Set on your palette and select the closest thing that looks like a combinationof light brown and pink. I go more into detail in my eBookyou just read (or skippedjust to get to these tutorials). The seeming lost & found technique wil l be shown tobe the beginning stage of arty straight line strokes just like what was depicted atthe start of the tonal phase.

This will become clearer in the next step.

Your coloring process continues in step 13.

Step 13

By now you should be admiring the ingenuity of this pastellist with his/her skill andmastery of this marvelous and unique technique. The color section is proceeding in

a similar manner as did the tonal section. The simple, but effective, straight lineapproach, followed by blending is shrewd.

Notice that whether tonal or color, the strokes are applied following the contours ofsubject - face planes, body planes, and so forth. The craftiness is in the ease,straightforward together with logic of application.


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Your coloring process continues stil l in step 14.

Step 14

The methodical nature of this color stage work-in-progress is becoming moreevident at this point - a further development of the previous one. Even the model'srounded neck is initially indicated by straight strokes. It is obvious that the artist isusing "manageable" short straight lines, as opposed to long, looping, unwieldy,cumbersome curved ones, because short straight lines are easier to fashion andcontrol. This pastellist seeks out effortless ways of drawing and painting of whatmany people feel to be a difficult subject... pastel portrait painting.

Guess what awaits us in the next step? HINT: It is not the supposed step of filling inthe empty spaces of her face with more color strokes, for those areas are partiallyreserved for the lights. Neither is it the presumed step of smudge blending.Puzzled? Are you ready to say, "Uncle" yet? Actually, the artist bypasses theobvious and begins to focus on what? The play-on-words keyword is "focus." Whatfocuses? Yes -- the eyes. The pastellist starts constructing the features. How? Withshort manageable straight lines, of course. Let's take a look.


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Step 15

As stated in Step 14, the artist now begins working on the features, specifically,one of the two eyes. Even though barely detectable, s/he uses a dark coloredpastel stick and begins drawing the eye in the shape of a parallelogram. If youdon't know what that is, then consult a geometry textbook. I can hear you now,saying, "In your eBook you say that this is 'art not science' yet you are telling us toperform a math function. Why are you doing this to us?" Relax; I was just "funnin'."All you have to do is just imitate what you see in the picture, that's all. Now, onwhat the pastellist does next.


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Step 16

We zoom in for a close up. With the rounding of the top of the eye outline, that so-called parallelogram looks more like an oval. That wasn't hard, now was it? Eventhough the term "oval" is also a geometry term, at least it is more recognizable

than the word, "parallelogram." In reality, though, the eye in the diagram is morelike a peculiarly shaped almond or football. Now, as in earlier select steps, yourwork in this phase will be softened and blurred almost beyond recognition in thenext step, only to re-emerge shortly thereafter in a different form.


Step 17

As foretold in the last step, the eye outline is more indistinct. What happened isthat the artist blended the whole side of the face, and with it, the eye was caughtup in the process. This is an instance where you can consider that you are "primingthe board" as master pastellist John Soloman Sandridge puts i t.


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In the next step you can see the reason it is "primed;" it is so that the re-establishment of the eye outline can become more evident, more visible and easierto work with.


Step 18

Now that the background coloring of a side of her face has been softened and thesupport (pastel paper) primed as a result, the reinforcement of the eye structurecan be further developed and emphasized. However, as it appears in the diagram,all those lines comprising the eye are confusing. That is because a few steps havebeen combined since they were each so simply rendered. So, let me break themdown for you.

First, construct the "flattened X" as explained in step 3. "Where is the X," you ask?Answer: It is in the mind of the pastellist. Let me explain... look carefully, and youcan see that half the X is there - the other half (that should be enclosing the innerportion of the distant eye) is omitted since the artist can envision that half. Sincethe top of the X locates the vicinity of the eyebrow and the bottom of the X locatesthe bottom of the eye, then, next, draw two long parallel lines to indicate the topand bottom of the eye. The bottom of the eye is already known by the placementof the X, and both the top & bottom of the eye are known by the parallelogram ofstep 15. That explains the two long lines. They are actually longer than what isgiven in the diagram, for they go around including the other eye as well as to cutthe head in half, topping to bottom.

Next, do likewise to limit the width (determined in step 16), but with small marksinstead of long lines. By the way, the overall eye cavity (football shaped areasurrounding the eyebrow/eye/temple section), was also initially defined in step 3along with the flattened X. Finally hint at the eyebrow, itself. Hopefully, by now

with this detailed explanation, all those lines comprising the eye should no longerbe confusing.



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Step 19

The basic difference between this step and the one before is that in this one theeyebrow has been extended, the shadow under the eyebrow has been indicatedand the outline of the iris is revealed for the first time. The eye is beginning to takeshape and she is starting to emerge from the haze - all because of the partialrendering of only one eye. As an experiment, try painting a portrait and saving the

eyes for last. Your painting will seem lifeless. On the other hand, even though thispastel portrait is still in its blended stage, the model is beginning to come alive.


Step 20

Now that the dimensions and shadow areas of the eye have been established, wecan start to get rid of the structural markings of everything involved inconstructing the eye cavity. While doing so, smudge the marks you put under theeyebrow that defined the shadow position situated under the eyebrow overhang.Later on in this pastel portrait tutorial, you will be doing the same thing with thelights. That is, you will put some squiggle lines where you want the lights to be,then smudge blend them to accurately define their placement. This same kind oftechnique is what is happening here with the shadow over the eye.


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Step 21

The so-called "white" of the eye is placed, leaving the iris the model's flesh tonecolor for now. It is not really white but one color off-white or a light gray. Sincethey have served their purpose, the act of smudge blending the construction linessurrounding the eye cavity effectively causes them to disappear as well as darkensthe area nicely. Finally, the pink shelf of the lower eyelid is smeared into place.The model's eyelashes are not rendered at this stage. And when you do depictthem in a later step, you will do so ever so sparingly for you do not want her to

look like she has spiders coming out of her eyes. More on that in due time. Yourcoloring process continues still in step 22.

Step 22

Here the artist is nearing the time where s/he will put in the actual eye color. Butfor now, the iris is colored over by a stark white. That being the case, then the


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white of the eye is truly seen to be darker by comparison. The forehead area isnow worked on with the pastellist being sure to keep the center section free for thelights to be added later. Your coloring process continues still in step 23.

Step 23

A couple of things are going on in this step. We will get to the obvious in amoment, but, getting back to the eye outline & eyelashes, there are certain tricksa portrait artist should always perform when constructing them. One trick is to onlyoutline the top eyelid. If any portion of the bottom eyelid is outlined, it should be a

small piece extending from the opposite corner of where the tear duct is located -in other words... stroke from the corner of the eye the farthest away from the nose.Since the tear duct is right by the nose, that means I am referring to the other end.Another always is how the eyelashes are depicted, if at all. That is, on the lowereyelid, stroke only a few longer lashes there and space them out by leaving gaps,then put a few shorter ones in between the longer ones by alternating the longerand the shorter. Make sure you stroke your eyelashes at varying angles. And havethe bulk of the lower lashes attached to the same little piece outlined on theopposite side to where the tear duct is located. Now, we will discuss the obvious,hinted at the top of this paragraph. And that is the brown-like strokes in the eyeshadow area. These are more squiggle lines which will be smude blended, later.Remember, earlier, I mentioned you will be painting squiggly marks, here andthere, throughout the coloring process of this pastel portrait. Each time, they will

be in preparation for the smudge blending of either the lights, or the middle tonesor the darks. You are right if you are thinking artists do not say squiggly lines orsquiggly marks - for the technical term for it is scumbling.



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Step 24

This step shows the results of what was instituted in the previous step. You noticethat the smudge blending has been accomplished and the eyelashes have beentemporarily eliminated. What is new is that the eye color has been depicted. Butthat is not the only thing that is new. In the previous step I mentioned a few"musts" or what I called "always." This step showcases another, and that is thatthe shadow on the top of the eyeball has been defined. Because the top eyelidoverhangs the eyeball a wee bit, it casts a shadow on the eyeball itself. As a result,you indicate it in your portraits whether you actually see them or not. That is why Icalled these things "musts" and "always." With these "tips," (a better term thanmust and always), it is not a case of "painting what you see" but rather it is morelike "painting what you know." The same goes for the tear duct - a tip: you mustalways place a spot of color there which is either pink related or taken from thelight skinned flesh color family. Don't hurt your head looking for the pink tear ductin this image, for it is not there.



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Step 25

The sole focus of this step of painting Drawgirl is to perfect the eye. The rim of thebottom eyelid is outlined and the lower lashes re-established, but with shorter,more subtle strokes than was the first attempt a couple of steps ago. Meanwhile,the upper lashes are rendered as two dark masses fanning left and right, asopposed to individual strokes. The dark masses are barely visible in this stage butwill be made manifest in the next step. However, the most noticeable thing aboutthis step is the iris.

There were two spotlights aimed at the model when this portrait was rendered. Themain light was above and to the right of her and the secondary light was below andto her left. How do I know? Just look at the bright dots prominent on her eyeball.The upper bigger one is the result of the main light. Since it is bigger and on theupper left of her iris from our perspective, then that means that the spotlight wasbrighter and to her upper right from her perspective. Likewise, the smaller spot isseen as being to the lower right from our perspective. Being smaller, means that itwas not as bright as the main light, and being seen on the lower right from ourviewpoint, means the light was to the lower left of her as she posed. The eye is aclear ball, so when light strikes it at one point, it must exit at another. In this case,the main light leaves at the bottom near the center. That is why the artist did not

smear the dark eye color smoothly across the bottom of the iris. Instead, s/he leftgaps which correspond to where the light exited. There is no pupil shown at thistime.



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Step 26

With the rendering of the eye being basically complete from the previous step ofDrawgirl, the pastellist returns to painting the skin on her face in this step. S/hedoes so by taking a small piece of a pastel stick and laying it on its side andmaking horizontal and vertical strokes under her eye. The Rembrandt soft pastelstick used here is one of the light oxide red sticks (maybe 339.8, 339.9 or339.10) I mentioned in my eBook you read (or bypassed) just before you beganthese tutorials. That color is also painted on the upper eyelid to enhance the uppereyelashes as discussed in the previous step. It enhances them by contrasting thebrightness of light oxide red with the dark color of the lashes. The dark colorcould be either caput mortuum red, burnt umber, mars violet, whatever -- likeI said in my eBook, this is "art not science" ladies and gentlemen. Finally, the samelight color is cross-hatched by stroking vertical and horizontal lines down thelength of her nose. This is in anticipation of later identifying and unifying them asthe light streak down the center of her nose. Now, I would just stop here and moveon to the next step, however, for your sake, I will continue for I am sure you arewondering why the artist is using an off-white color instead of a flesh color. Well,wonder no more. As a matter of fact, what I am about to explain will make thisstep, step 26, just about the most important step in the whole pastel portrait

painting process because the information is so valuable and useful. I know when Idiscovered this I was overjoyed and filled with glee. In the art of painting withcolored pencils (as opposed to pastel pencils), there is a technique called"burnishing" which has many definitions. One deals with the filling up of the toothof the paper with color by pressing harder and harder with your chosen pencil color(alternating light and dark colors for each successive layer) until the surface of thepaper becomes very smooth. This gives the painting a photographic type of look.And even though practically the same definition of burnishing, I am using theanalogy of making color "sandwiches" so to speak, with the color white being themayo or mayonnaise. And with that colored pencil trick, I am applying it to thispastel portrait painting. First, the skin color is layered down (the bottom slice ofbread), then it is covered with light oxide red (to create a mayonnaise sandwich)and finally the top slice of bread is slapped on (the final layer of skin tone) to

complete the sandwich. This gives the finished portrait a polished porcelain type oflook. The earlier steps were the "bottom slice of bread" steps, this particular step(step 26) is the "mayo step", and the "top slice of bread" will be laid down in


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subsequent steps. Cute trick, don't you think? I hope you are hungry, I hope youare famished, for we are going to prepare and pile up a thick, layer by layer"Dagwood" type sandwich later on while doing her hair -- unloosen your belts andhave your heartburn medicine handy. This burnishing, this creating of colorsandwiches, can also be referred to as superimposing or glazing. By the way, theartist is very observant and detailed in executing this step of painting Drawgirl --just look at the beginnings of "crows feet" around the corner of her eye. Of course,for vanities sake, the artist will later smooth them out and eliminate them for goodfor we all know women don't wrinkle. Wink. Your coloring process continues still instep 27.

Step 27

After the complexity of the previous step, we give our brains a rest and relax bycompleting the work already begun on the eye in an earlier step. A dark pupil isaccurately placed and a faint white highlight is dabbed on it in the proper locaton.This is generally found at a point where the pupil and the iris meet - either at the10 o'clock position or the two o'clock position. Here it is the former. After thosethings are done, the the upper and lower eyelashes are carefully stroked into placefollowing the procedure explained elsewhere. The tear duct is isolated and paintedwith the same color as was used for the rim of the lower eyelid. Your coloringprocess continues still in step 28.


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Step 28

The finishing touches are executed on the eye by smoothing out the shadowsunder the eyebrow and under the lower eyelid. Finally, the light under the eyebrowis blended from the center of it by fanning out in the left and right directions. And,yes, this is where the pastellist got rid of her crows feet. Your coloring processcontinues still in step 29.

Step 29

Most portrait artists work on both eyes at the same time, but not this artist. Thatbeing the case, s/he now re-establishes the construction lines for the remainingeye, for the nose and for the muzzle area. Whereas, the construction lines for themouth are ignored for now, on the other hand, boundaries are suggested for the

positioning of the muzzle. Your coloring process continues still in step 30.


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Step 30

The construction lines are further defined and (just as before with the other eye)the visible portion of the eyeball is painted an off-white color. This includes the irisand the pupil, too. Since some light areas on the skin are to be emphasized, moresquiggly lines are established. Let me be more accurate in my terminology. Earlier,I used the correct term for "sandwich" painting by telling you it is called,"burnishing" when it comes to colored pencil painting. Since I did that, I might aswell continue giving you the proper nomenclature in this instance.

Specificifically, in past steps as well as in this one, I teach the principle of drawingand painting so-called "squiggly lines." Actually, the correct term for that is"scumbling" when doing colored pencil paintings. With pastels, scumbling has acompletely different meaning. That is, it refers to what you do when applying thesecond layer - which is to ever-so-gently pass over the first layer of color with yourpastel stick turned on its side. The effect is fascinating. And if you are at allfamiliar with forms of painting using other media, such as oil painting, then you arecorrect if you conclude that the term has other meanings also. However, for futurereference, on these pages when I use the term "scumbling" I am using the coloredpencil definition despite the fact that this is a tutorial about pastel portraitpainting.



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Step 31

Since you have done this once, maybe you can figure out what to do now. You arecorrect, after having outlined the visible eye in the previous step, as well asoutlined the iris and suggested the shadow on the eyeball cast from the uppereyelid (also done in the previous step), it is now time to paint the iris. This time,the artist does not completely fill the iris with color, rather, he covers a little bitmore than the pupil area.



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Step 32

Here, the pupil is set and the highlight accurately placed. What I was saying aboutthe placement of the highlight while the first eye was being rendered is betterillustrated with this step. You can clearly see that the highlight is at the 10:00o'clock juncture of the iris and the pupil. So, what do we do next? Do we burnish?Do we figuratively make our mayonnaise sandwich? Let's take a look.


Step 33

The answer to the question we posed in step 32 is yes, we do burnish, we do makeour mayonnaise sandwich. But, first, we have to scumble. And, where do weprecisely determine where to place our squiggly, or more accurately, scribblemarks? We refer to the model, squint if we have to, and place out bright strokes onthe lightest parts of the face. In this case, it is the center of the forehead, abovethe eyebrow, along the upper cheeks, down the corner of the nose and in the areabetween the bottom of the nose and the top of the upper lip. Your coloring processcontinues still in step 34.


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Step 34

The second stage of burnishing is finalized when the area is completely smudgeblended as shown in this demonstration figure. Now, where do we go from here?Do we slap on the covering piece of bread of our mayo sandwich? Do we do morework on the eye? Or, do we fly off in another direction, altogether? Your coloringprocess continues still in step 35.

Step 35

We continue this tutorial of Drawgirl by explaining and illustrating the thirty-fifthstep of this pastel portrait painting.

Our zooming in on the eye is a dead give-a-way as to which was the correct

question to ask among those suggested in the previous step. The rim of the lowerlid is established, the shadow cast on the eyeball from the upper eyelid is finalizedand the upper and lower eyelashes are carefully delineated.


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Step 36

This thirty-sixth step of the Drawgirl tutorial marks the half-way point of ourinstruction concerning its construction.

Now, it is beginning to get interesting, again. We have worked on the eyes, thenwe completed the nose and now we will finally start on the mouth. The only featurewe have ignored, so far, is that of the ears. The boundaries for the muzzle are re-defined and the outline of the mouth is drawn and colored. One of my favoriteRembrandt soft pastel colors in the red family is carmine. And, it cannot be morefitting than right here, because like I said in my eBook, I call carmine a "lipstickcolor." A second slice of bread, her flesh color, is applied over the light oxide redmayo layer. As I said, elsewhere, her flesh color is a mixture of brown & pink.However, for now you can get away with various shades of either burnt sienna orgold ochre -- art not science, boys & girls. What you pick to be her flesh color is ajudgement call; select whatever looks like what you want. Art is a case of "closeenough is good enough." The color is not the definitive thing you are after; rather itis the correct value you are seeking. You can get away with selecting the wrong

color, but you cannot get away with choosing the wrong value or shade.



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Step 37

In its previous state the mayo sandwich was open faced. It is now turned into aregular closed sandwich by having the top skin color bread slice placed in variouslocations all over her face. A color in the yellow family such as yellow ochre isused for the highlight spanning most of her bottom lip. A Rembrandt soft pastelcolor (either caput mortuum red or mars violet) is used for the shadow underher bottom lip. A similar color is used on her nose. Caput mortuum red is one ofthose colors that pastellists seem to like very well... maybe it is the funny namethat makes it inviting.



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Step 38

Some serious smudge blending has been done practically all over her face andanother layer is scumbled from her cheek to her chin. Your coloring processcontinues still in step 39.

Step 39

Since the face is coming together so nicely at this stage, the artist basically finetunes and fiddles with the details. The scumbling which was begun in the previousstep is completed in this one. Along her jaw line it is evident that some reflectedlight is being considered and placed. Whether it remains there will be determinedin subsequent steps.



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Step 40

The focus of this step is on the mouth area. A close-up reveals the highlight on herbottom lip has been softened and two lights, one above her upper lip and the otheron her chin, are carefully developed. Notice a darker shade of flesh color has beenskillfully placed around the light already there under one of her nostrils. Keep youreye on that same area for the artist has begun work on the septum (the areabetween the nose and the mouth). Your coloring process continues still in step 41.

Step 41

The light areas that were constructed around the mouth in the previous step arenow carefully blended so as to make sure the center of those light areas remain


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bright. It looks as though the mouth is now basically finished. Is it? Your coloringprocess continues still in step 42.

Step 42

Now that the eyes and mouth seem to be complete, the only features remainingunfinished are the nose and the visible ear. Saving the ears for later, we return tothe central feature of the face... the nose. There you will see that a bright line(light oxide red) is drawn down the center of the nose. Do you know why? Your

coloring process continues still in step 43.

Step 43Do you think that the answer to the question posed in the previous step is that thebright stroke is partially blended along the side of her nose? If you think that, you


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have been fooled by the smaller bright stroke shown in the current step. Actually,they are two different events. Whereas, the bright stroke from the previous stephas been completely blended, on the other hand, the bright stroke depicted in thecurrent step is new. Now, what do you think will be done with the newest brightstroke? Your coloring process continues still in step 44.

Step 44

What did happen to the bright stroke near the tip of her nose? Was it likewise

partially blended like its longer counterpart in step 43? Do you think you werefooled like you were the last time? Never fear, this time you were correct. With theaddition of the completely blended bright spot near the tip of her nose, her nosereally seems to project because (as explained in my eBook) light colors comeforward and dark colors recede. So, we have done the eyes, the mouth and nowthe nose. Where do you think we go from here? Her visible ear perhaps? Let's takea look. Your coloring process continues still in step 45.


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Step 45

Gotcha! Foiled again. We are not moving on to painting her visible ear, whichseems to be the next logical thing to do. Rather, we are reverting to working on themouth once more, which you mistakingly thought was finished. To make it moresolid, the artist decides that the mouth needs at least four values. Right here, youcan see the subtle beginnings of a shadow tone on both lips. Your coloring process

continues still in step 46.

Step 46

The artist further defines the shadow tones on both lips by emphasizing andextending it on her bottom lip. By now, you can clearly see how solid looking hermouth has become as compared to the way it looked just two short steps ago. Andeven though it looked very good then, now it looks really spectacular despite thefact that the pastellist is not quite through with rendering the mouth. The artistneeds just one more step... maybe.


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Step 47

Like I said earlier when discussing this model's "crow's feet" around her eyesbefore the artist eliminated them, this pastellist is very observant. S/he could havestopped working on her mouth in the previous step and nobody would havenoticed, however, the artist chose to fine tune the rendering of the lips by addingthe small indents or cracks on them. So much so, in fact that she appears to almost

need some chapstick or vaseline or medicated lipstick to heal the cracks. Does thedegree of realism of her lips equal the degree of realism of her other features? Yousaw how much energy it took to work on the eyes and now the same thing justhappened with the lips. With the completion of this step, it looks as though theartist has finally finished all of the model's features except for the rendering of hervisible ear.

Step 48

Now that the major features are done, the pastellist proceeds to work on the minorone, the model's visible ear. While s/he is at it, the artist also roughly draws theshape of her hair-do and scumbles in her neck shadow. The painter does this witheither a piece of hard pastel or a sharpened pastel pencil using any reasonabledark color.


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Step 49

The artist carefully draws the shapes of the shadows within the ear and fil ls themin with an even middle tone.

Step 50

Besides the sketch of the model's hair-do being adjusted, notice that the artistblended the shadows under her neck by making sure that the darkest part of herneck shadow remains directly under her head, that is, closest to her jaw line. But,the most time was spent in rendering four values of color depicted in her visible


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ear. In all the features, the eyes, the nose, the mouth and finally the visible ear,the pastellist spent a great deal of effort and energy in capturing each of them.

Step 51

Now that the pastellist has completed the facial features, s/he once again focuseson the neck. Compared to the model's finished portrait, you can see that the artistis working on the shadows in the throat area by tightly scumbling a shadow tone.

Step 52

This is a good time for the artist to place skin tones on her shoulder and bosomarea. S/he does so with the usual short straight strokes generally following themodel's contours.


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Step 53

The body flesh tone is smoothed out in this step. The shadow tone is placed on hershoulder blade area as well as on her shoulder, itself. The shadow on her neck isalso smoothed over and a flesh tone stroke is placed at the bright area of her"neck bone."

Step 54

And all this time we thought this was a soft pastel portrait of a young maiden. Now,we see that she is really an old woman. Oops! Maybe she isn't old after all for by


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now you noticed that she is not really sporting gray hair. What the pastellist hasdone, was to lay down the first of many "hair" steps in creating this thick Dagwoodsandwich burnishing meal that I forewarned you was coming. However, the portraitartist does not start with a slice of bread (her flesh color), rather s/he begins withthe mayonnaise. But why did the pastel artist start with such a lifeless color?Simple. The model has blonde hair, and blonde is a light color. So, to make surethe final result remains a light enough blonde color for her hair, this burnishing,this superimposing; this glazing step begins with her appearing to have gray hair.By the way, notice that the gray hair was applied using straight strokes and in onedirection. Notice also that the bone areas which protrude, or which can be seenjust underneath her skin surface, are hinted at with reference strokes. These willbe clarified and emphasized later. And yes, the artist gives the model some clothesfor she is a lady, not a tramp, for goodness sakes.

Step 55

For this and the following two steps, the artist shifts from continuing with theburnishing hair treatment process to focusing on the lights on the model's skin.Sometimes scumbling, sometimes massing in, the pastellist locates and establishesthe placement of the lighter portions of her skin. The lights will be blended in thenext step.


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Step 56

Here we see that the scumbled lights from the previous step have been blended innicely. That having been done, the artist scumbles darks on her right breast areaand carefully draws in the darks on her neck in her throat area and on her rightshoulder. And, just like the lights were blended after they were scumbled from theprevious step, these newly defined darks will be blended in the next step, step 57.

Step 57As just mentioned, the shadow areas scumbled in the previous step have beenthoroughly blended here. That having been complete, the only area remainingunfinished is her hair.


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Step 58

The burnishing technique of rendering the model's hair, which began in step 54, isfinally continued here after the artist made a detour in order to complete the restof the portrait except the hair. The pastellist no doubt realized that only threemore brief steps were needed for her skin to be done. Now that the portrait isbasically over, the artist begins the final stages by continuing the burnishing

technique applied to the model's hair. Recall I said that burnishing is thealternating of light and dark colored layers. Realizing that, you will notice that thisstep is two steps in one. First, the light color layer, yellow, is laid down, andsecond, a dark color layer is laid over that. Now, what is that dark color? Youprobably wonder why I am asking such a silly question, because obviously green isthat dark color for that is what you see on the painting. However, that raises evenanother question... why green? Remember in my eBook I wrote about the use ofcool colors (which includes the use of green) and how to accidentally create green?With that hint, you know what really happened in this current burnishing step.That's right, green was accidentally manufactured in her hair. The artist paintedher hair white in step 54, then in this current step s/he painted it a light color,lemon yellow (Rembrandt soft pastel 201.5), followed by a dark color, black,resulting in the green you clearly see. Can you guess what color will be next in thisburnishing process? Whatever it is, you know it will be a light color.

Step 59

After having explained that painting green in the model's hair in the previous stepwas no fiasco, we now answer the question I posed as to what light color thepastellist used for the next layer in the burnishing process. But before I answerthat, this is a good time to stop and compare this artist's technique of painting hairto mine. Whereas this artist creates hair by burnishing, I, on the other hand, utilizea different method. Instead of alternating light and dark layers, I alternate lightand dark patches. That is, I lay a short piece of a dark pastel stick on its side andpaint a tiny swath with it, then I lay a short piece of a light pastel stick on its sideand do likewise, resulting in light and dark checker board style patches. SometimesI can get away with omitting the light color patch. Then I ever so lightly and every

so gently "comb the hair" with my pinky. In no time at all, almost instantly, hair isrealistically rendered.


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This "checker board" patchwork style is what I noticed comic book artists usedwhen I was a child growing up during the "Golden Age or Silver Age of ComicBooks" in the 1950's & 1960's. Specifically, I marvelled (we will get to MarvelComics in a second) at the exquisite work done by at least one artist for DC Comicsas he drew individuals and other super hero comic stable of characters. At thetime, I did not know his name for in those days artists generally were not givencredit. However, from doing my own research, I believe the Superman artist I likedthe best was either Curt Swan or Wayne Boring (the Superman artist for the1950s), I'm not sure which. Two more artists at the time were Al Plastino and KurtSchaffenberger.

Anyway, DC Comics has released some old comic book archives which showcase a greatmany of these works. There are so many re-releases it is hard for me to recommend onlyone for you. But, if I had to choose, I would select Superman in the Sixties. If you wantedmore than one, then I would also recommend both Supeman in the Seventies and Supermanin the Fifties. Other good ones include Superman: The Action Comics - Archives Vol. 1-4series, World's Finest Comics Archives Vol. 1-4 series, Superman: Man of TomorrowArchives Vol. 1-2 and more.

Since I had become an adult, I had long since stopped buying comic books by the seventies.

However, I did used to peek at the comic book shelves at regular grocery stores. I do notsee that happening today, for now you have to deliberately go to a comic book store. As Iwas saying, the last time I took a peek was around 1971 where I spied one which causedme to do a double-take. It was an issue where Lois Lane became a Black woman for one dayand she feared Superman would not love her because of it. Being a Black man, myself, thatissue really caught my attention ("do a double-take," like I said). Still, I did not buy it oreven read it at the store, for I felt ashamed at being a grown man reading comic books inpublic. You can find that story and good artwork in the previously mentioned Supeman inthe Seventies.

Today, when you buy comic books, you do not have to do research in order to find thename of the artist you like, for everybody connected with it is listed in the credits. I used toadmire how my favorite talented DC Comics artists, Curt Swan and Wayne Boring, wouldrender hair so eloquently and simply of their characters such as Superman, Lois Lane,Wonder Woman and the rest of the casts in the various stories. The hair was merelychecker board black & blue... black for the dark color and powder blue for the light color. Atquick glances the hair looked so real, but studying them I saw that they were just checkerboard black & blue. This is contrasted to the Marvel Comics characters such as Spidermanand so forth.

My brothers & I never, ever, bought any Marvel comics (after we discovered them in the1960's) for we thought them to be so inferior as to only cause us to scan their pages whileshopping for quality DC Comics action hero productions. For us, there was DC Comics andthen there was everbody else. To us, DC Comics was that superior as far as Super heros go.Otherwise, it was Disney Comics. I mention that because here it is decades later andSpiderman and company are on practically an equal footing as Superman and Batman.What a difference a few decades make.

Even though my favorite Superman illustrators were Curt Swan and Wayne Boring, the mostdecorated, famous & popular Superman artist is the reigning champion, the prolific AlexRoss, who actively pumps out quality work after quality work. At least during the timeperiod I am writing this tutorial (Christmas holidays, 2005) he is still illustrating. He isprobably so admired because he does his superhero artwork as if they were oil paintingsinstead of regular comic book renderings. He draws/paints for DC Comics as well as forMarvel Comics. You can see samples of his work with both publishers in the graphic novelKingdom Come featuring Superman & company from DC Comics and the graphic novelEarth X featuring Spiderman & Company from Marvel Comics. To me, Kingdom Come hasthe better artwork of the two graphic novels. By the way, they are called "graphic novels"because the stories are written as if they were novels and they are illustrated as if theywere comic books. Even so, as good as Alex Ross is, I still prefer the Andrew Loomisinfluenced artwork of both Curt Swan and Wayne Boring. That is, they draw as if theystudied figure drawing from Andrew Loomis, an illustrator I mention time and time again onthis, my pastel portrait secrets website.

Now to answer the question of the moment, what light color does the artist ofDrawgirl use in this step of burnishing the model's hair? The answer is that the


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pastellist covers the so-called "green" with Rembrandt soft pastel color - yellowochre 227.5.

Step 60

We are almost there; we have only a couple of more layers to go before we arethrough. From now on, instead of massing in colors for the burnishing layers, thepastellist fine-tunes the hair by drawing individual light and dark hair strands. Thisis also something most artists avoid, that is, they avoid actually drawing andpainting individual hairs just as they avoid painting indvidual leaves on trees orindividual bricks on houses and buildings. Most artists merely suggest things, notactually render them in detail. Impressionists, for example give the "impression" ofsomething by ignoring the minute details. They go after "the big picture." Anyway,look at the top left corner of the portrait, and you can see the beginnings ofindividual blond strands of hair placed by the artist.


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Step 61

In the previous step the artist began stroking in the model's individual hair strandsin the direction she combed this particular hair style in the upper left corner of theportrait. Now, you see that the pastellist has moved on to the right and is nowabout two-thirds the way done with this phase of rendering her hair. Can you guesswhat's in store for the next step?

Step 62

Did you guess the answer to the question I posed in the previous step? In step 60the sweep began, then in step 61 the sweep quickly spread to the right and


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included most of her hair, and finally in this current step, step 62, all the individualhairs of the model's head have been carefully crafted and constructed in thedirection she combed her hair.

However, even with all that work, it still does not really look like hair. It looks likewhat it is... individual strokes carved, or scratched, onto the pastel paper. How doyou think the artist will rectify the situation and make the hair more realisticlooking?

Step 63Whew! The artist managed to make the model's hair more believable by massing inbroad white strokes here and there and there and here, and selectively softeningthe whole hair surface. The emphasis, the thicker strokes, are on the right side ofher hair (from our vantage point) because the light is shinning from the left. Thatconcept will become more evident in the following steps. This concludes the first ofthree phases using the exact same steps but repeated with different colors.

First, there was this white phase just finished. Can you guess what the other twoare? Well, since light and dark color layers have to alternate in the burnishingtechnique, and since the first phase was a light phase, then, next has to be a darkphase. What color will the pastellist use? Again, using logic, since this phase used

white, then the next phase will probably use black. And, how about the final phase?What color will that be? Hmmmm! Since she is a blond, maybe the last phase willbe... a yellow phase. HEL-L-O-O-O!!! You analyzed correctly. Now claim a cookie asyour prize. Or would you prefer a gold star? I just laid out the rest of the pastelportrait painting process for you, so, now all you have to do is just follow along towatch the last two phases repeat the first phase step-by-step.


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Step 64

This is the first step (of a four-step process) of the second phase of duplicatingsteps utilizing different colors. As explained in the previous step, the final twophases will be detailed step-by-step, even though you know the process and canprobably figure them out for yourself. Since the first step of the first phase was todraw individual strands of hair from the upper left corner of the portrait, then, wewill do the same in this step... except the color black will be used. And, as before,the strands are drawn in the same direction as her hair is combed.


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Step 65

The second step of the second phase is accomplished here. And, just as before, thesweep of individually drawn hair strands continues from the left of the portrait tocover most of her hair in this step.

Step 66

In this third step of phase two, the sweep has enveloped the whole visible hairstructure. So, what will be the fourth and final step of phase two? That's right; it isthe massing in of our chosen dark color, black.

Step 67This should be the final step of phase two. This is where the massing in of her hairshould be combined with the softening of it. However, the artist has to make some


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adjustments before proceeding to the softening part of this stage. Can you guesswhat at least one adjustment is? Hint: The pastellist needs to take care of the smalltuft of hair below her visible ear.

Step 68

The pastellist completes the last step of phase two, and as mentioned in phaseone, the back of her head was emphasized by the massing in of the black hairstrands over the rest of the visible portion of her hair area in the last step. In thisstep a partial softening has taken place over about half of her visible hair. In case

you were wondering, her hair is darkest in the back not only because it is partedthere, but also because the light is coming from our left, as mentioned earlier. It ismore evident here, since black is used. In phase one, white was used and as aresult, unless you knew what the artist was doing, the emphasis of her hair on theright (from our vantage point) would have made no sense.


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Step 69

Phase two is finally finished in this step with the softening of the rest of her hairwhich was begun in the previous step. The first step of the final phase begins next.

Step 70

We are now on the home stretch, we are almost through. We will be finished withour tutorial with the explanation of this final phase. Since the artist had to makesome adjustments in constructing phase two, it took one step longer than it shouldand wound up being five steps. So, to compensate, this phase is reduced to threesteps instead of four. As a result, step one of this blonde phase is actually twosteps in one. In this step notice that the yellow strands have already swept toabout three-fourths of her visible hair, which is really the second step. Even so, thefirst step can be readily envisioned.


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Step 71

Step 2 (really step 3) of this blonde phase is completed with the massing in of herblonde hair strands over the rest of the visible portion of her hair area. There isone more step to go and this tutorial will be complete. And just what is that step?Precisely what is left to do?

Step 72

Yes, the final step of phase three, as well as of the whole tutorial, is the softeningof her hair one last time. As you can see, the supposed complex rendering ofDrawgirl is reduced to simple bite-sized steps practically anyone studying this


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tutorial can accomplish with ease. As compared to tutorials found in most artmagazines, art books, art videos and so forth, our tutorial details seventy-twosteps, not the five or ten found on other similar tutorials. Notice that the talentedpastellist did not attempt to render a background at all, so that saved a few steps.Notice also the blow-up of the artist's signature and website reference I included.This serves not only to give credit but to also show you the source if you canindeed decipher it from the zoomed in close-up.

Through the years, I have talked to art students and read about their difficulties inthe art forums I subscribe to. They seem to concur that the instructors and fellowclassmates generally hold back information. In my eBook I mentioned my similarexperience in viewing pastel portrait videos and in reading art books. There arealways huge gaps in knowledge from what is given to what should be learned. Thisis why it has taken me years of trial & error to discover things that should havebeen available from the beginning. This is why I say in my eBook that in somecases maybe the teachers don't know the answers themselves. As a result, I lay itall out on these pages just for you. I explain everything I know about the craft andgive credit to where I learned what. And I am doing this all for free... for now, thatis. If people wind up not contributing on my Gift Donations page when they feel mywebsite has value and merit, I just may repackage the freely given information onthis website and sell it instead. I hope I will not have to resort to doing that. People

are not born knowing things, so, when they acquire knowledge, why do they act asif they have some special link to the heavenlies that rewards them and only them?As a spirit-begotten child of God I try to spread the knowledge I have gained forfree.

Enjoy.

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How To Draw and Paint Drawgirl