For this task we were asked to look at people in the flesh, whether that was in person, in a magazine, on TV, or in other places, and study their individual features. I really enjoyed drawing these different areas of the face. This is something I have always struggled with – drawing the human face, so I was interested to see what I was able to produce when faced with a study focused solely on the different parts that make up the whole face.

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I focused on this in ballpoint pen. I experimented at some point with a pencil, but hated it, so went over it with the pen. I found the pencil dull and didn’t depict the tone as vividly as I wanted, whereas, it was very easy to build up tone and texture with the pen and I found it so satisfying and really effective.

I think my strong features here are the sketches of eyes and mouths. I focused on a few of the children that I work with for a couple of these studies. I loved it. I enjoyed drawing people that I was familiar with, instead of an image online, and was able to alter my viewpoint if and when I needed to, and practice sketching the same facial feature from a different vantage point.

I have learnt that a strong and considerate use of tone is crucial to the depiction of facial features and supports the structure and shape of the feature hugely. Without tone, these sketches would be weak and unimpressive, but with the tone, I think they’re pretty striking, even if I do say so myself. I’ve really impressed and shocked myself and I can see massive improvement from where I was at the start of this area of the course.

My weakest area (or, the areas that need further work, should I say) is the chin/neck area. This always seems to look a little ‘off’, or lacks the realism that the other features have. I can’t quite work out what it is. Maybe it’s just that it’s an area that is less interesting to me, or the angles that I have chosen were a little tricky, but I’m keen to work on the chin area. I’ve proved to myself that I can quickly adapt and improve, so I know it’s possible!

Here we have my first ever attempt at a self portrait. I think I’ve done a fairly good job.

I’m satisfied with the outcome of this sketch and think that I’ve done really well to depict the facial shape, range of tone along the surface of the face, and I’m also really pleased with the eyes. I like the ‘sketchy’ appearance of it.

I think I went a little too far with the shading on the nose. I didn’t want to make the nose too ‘piggy’ and I went a bit overboard with the shading. I’ve noticed now that I’ve done this in one of the study sketches too, but I’m not too worried because this is my first time sketching these things and it’s all a learning curve!

A good starting point for facial portraits, I think.

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