- Indian Rope Trick: Update #2
- 24 January 05
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- 4 Comments
Well me luvlies (said with a Cockney accent for no good reason), when we last left you we were about a fifth of the way through the drawing.
Since then progress has been slow, we've been having a semi-sustained heat wave here (a week of 40 degrees celsius = 100+ fahrenheit = too hot to concentrate on drawing), which naturally coincided with a week's recreation leave I had taken. So the best intentions were spoiled by the weather. Nonetheless, drawing has been going on, albeit slowly, and the snake charmer is as good as finished (well everything to the left of the rope). By way of background, I used a number of photo references to assist in drawing the Indian snake charmer. There is a fair degree of detail in this part of the drawing, so in the main only pencils were used, ranging from B to 6B.
I like to have a lot going on (in terms of detail) in my drawings, the rationale being that I like people to not only view the end product on face value, but also look deeper and analyse any narrative and the detail of the various individual elements of the drawing......however, this can be a headache for me in getting timely completion of a drawing.
Turban
The snake charmer's turban was the natural starting point as we continue drawing down the left hand side of the paper. This was quite a challenge, trying to get the folds of the turban correct, as well as the minor pattern within the turban cloth, as well as the jewelled adornment at the front of the turban. The folds were lightly marked-up with a B pencil, and then filled in firstly with a 2B or 3B as appropriate, darker (softer) pencils were used for the blacker areas. Once filled in, the trusty torchon was used to blend and soften. The minor stripes within the turban's cloth were added for effect and to give a better feeling of curvature to the folds of the turban - and I think they act as a nice counterpoint to the "straight" fold lines of the stage curtain. The jewelled adornment and feathers were predominantly drawn with the torchon, except the dark jewel which was done with 6B and 8B pencils. Extremely sharp HB, B and 2B pencils are also required for getting the details and lines as crisp as possible. For my own amusement I like to put cryptic visual historical references in my drawings which in a small way pays homage to the subject matter, and places it in a different context - in this case the turban is it, being a good likeness to the one worn by the magician, "Alexander". Although not fully complete, the result of all this toil (2.5 hours) ends up looking like this:
Face
More headaches here!!! The face had to be just right, in terms of skin tone, angle of the head, the expression on the face (not too distant, not too sombre, somewhat sympathetic, yet at the same time displaying a degree of concentration), and what a viewer would expect a snake charmer to look like.
I began with the broad outline of the head, lightly marked-up the distinguishing facial features, and then commenced with eyes. I like to work on the eyes and the bridge of the nose first and then gradually radiate out from there. In this case, there was a lot of fiddling with the eyes, especially proportioning them with respect to the inclined head. I'd have to say that after about an hour of tinkering I felt comfortable with this part of the face. I then filled in the skin tone on the balance of the face, using a 2B pencil, rubbed this in with a rag, and for certain lighter areas just a heavily soiled torchon (used with a soft touch). The kneadable eraser was also used to lighten relevant parts of the skin. The puffed cheek full of air gives some realism to the face and complements the curves of the flute/pipe. The beard and moustache was virtually left white, with only very light torchon shading used, and then for the hair/bristles/whiskers some highlights were added by a HB pencil using short strokes to provide texture (or more accurately the perception of a lush full beard). All up the there was about 4 to 5 hours work in completing the face, and I'm happy with the overall result.
Hands and flute
Next step was outlining the flute and positioning the hands. Again because of the inclined angle, care was taken with respect to getting the perspective of the flute correct. In this case I used an ellipse template (a plastic sheet with various sized and shaped cut out ellipses) to guide me. The curvature was achieved by shading appropriately.
The hands are critical to this element of the drawing - if they are incorrectly positioned or look askew then the rest of the snake charmer will lack authenticity. I began on the snake charmer's right hand, starting from the top of the hand and fingers and then moving outward to the wrist. I used a graphite soiled rag to provide the initial skin tone, adding more tone with a B and 2B and then blending it in with a torchon. I wasn't happy with the initial result and had to resort to the kneadable eraser to lighten various areas to give a more natural effect. The fingers were then retouched with some darker pencils to give a better effect to the underside of the fingers. The fingernails were filled in with a torchon and the cuticles just left white. A similar procedure was followed when rendering the other hand. Another 3 hours later and we end up with this.
Clothes
This was probably the "easiest" part of the snake charmer to complete. I decided on a "white" shirt, as it would provide contrast to the snake charmer's complexion and thereby reinforcing his skin tone. Likewise, the white shirt breaks up the dark background of the stage curtain, and better focuses the eye on this part of the picture. The shirt was rendered using a torchon, with darker areas/shading being added with B and 2B pencils. The fold lines here are critical as they will convey the shape of the body underneath, so care needs to be taken where the folds are located - sometimes I'll get out a real shirt and shape it as per the picture and use it for reference...or indeed act as a model myself and take a digital snap to draw off (don't worry no kinky cross-dressing goes on).
Underneath the shirt we have the charmer's loose robes/pants - I wanted these to be darker than the shirt, so a 3B pencil was used, with the usual blending and highlighting techniques used to render this area. The darker robes here will also be useful in contrasting with wooden boards of the stage floor (once I get around to putting them in). By accident more so than design, this part of the charmer's ensemble has turned out looking quite silky - so I'm pleased (is he really ever pleased I hear you ask?).
Mercifully, I don't have to draw all of the snake charmer as the "snake" basket will obscure a fair chunk of his lower body. Yep, after a further couple of hours, I've hit the wall!!! Time for a break.
Wait there's more!
Stay tuned, the next episode will cover the basket, and in response to some queries regarding rubbing a photo montage of rendering the stage curtain.
Farewell, me luvlies and I leave with you the snake charmer thus far (note to self: must stop indulging in Illustration Friday and try and get this drawing finished!).
comments
Although I have only come in half way through this conversation, I found your exposition very interesting, Detlef.
I attended a presentation during a staff day at school last year in which the presenter suggested that we all learn (read that as ‘observe our world’) at some place on a continuum between what she termed ‘forests’ and ‘trees’. What she meant was that some of us see more detail in our world while others are big picture people. I would say that you are an extreme ‘tree’ person who is very in tune with the detail. I wish that I were not such a ‘forest’ as I envy your skill and covert your talent
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Posted by Robyn on 25.01.05 at 07.08pm
Robyn, you’ll be pleased to know that in my day job I am a forest person. Ahhh, the wonderful world of industry policy development is all about big picture stuff. It seems my tree persona only comes out when I draw (and punt).
Posted by Detlef on 26.01.05 at 04.12pm
Just wanted to say I really like your work. In a world full of people seeking instant gratification (myself included), it’s nice to see someone taking their time and really studying their craft.
Amanda (via Everyday Matters group)
Posted by Amanda on 27.01.05 at 07.28am
Ok, another wow. Sorry for the repetition. I do like your style. It’s almost as if your drawing was pushing the white area off the paper - just sweeping it away. It would make a fun animation. When I see the final piece, I’ll see a slideshow of these drawings in my mind. It really makes you appreciate all the work that goes into this.
Posted by Janey on 25.03.05 at 12.49pm