I drew the same woman's jaw eleven times yesterday and I could not tell you which one is right
Not a study exactly. More like I got stuck on the line from her ear down to the chin and kept thinking the next sheet would fix it. Eleven sheets of grey Canson, all of them on the floor around my chair now, and my thumb is so black it looks bruised.
The annoying part is that I can see the problem in every one of them. Too soft in the corner. Then too sharp and she looks like a different person. Number seven is closest but I overworked the shadow under the jaw and now it sits flat. I know it is flat. I still cannot make my hand do the other thing.
I read once that you should stop while it is going well, and I try, but with faces I never know when that is until two hours later when it is too late. Pastel does not let you take it back either. Once the tooth of the paper is full, that is that.
Anyway. Does anyone else end up with a pile like this, or do you all stop at three and go make tea. I would honestly like to know what the stopping point feels like from the inside.
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the eleven-sheets thing is the actual work tho. i did a version of this with a hand a while back and somewhere around sheet eight i stopped drawing the hand and started drawing my own idea of the hand, which is when it goes to shit. number seven being closest and also overworked is the tell. you can see the problem in all of them because you stopped looking at her at some point and started looking at the previous sheet. put them all face down and do one from the model only, no reference to the pile. it'll be worse and it'll be more right.
The "drawing sheet five instead of her" thing is real and it happens faster than people admit. I tell students this and they don't believe me until it bites them.
One thing I'd add though. Face down and one from the model is good, but the model has to still be there. If she's gone home you'll just draw your memory of the sheet pile with a different hand, and that's the same trap wearing a hat. The other thing worth trying, and it feels stupid: turn the paper. Draw the jaw upside down. Kills the name of the thing and you start seeing the shape instead. Old trick, works more often than it should.
The hat is a good image and I am stealing it.
But you are right about the model being gone, and I did not want to hear it. She left at four. Everything after that was me drawing the pile. I kept telling myself I was remembering her face, and I was remembering sheets.
The upside down thing I have heard and never done, because it sounds like one of those tips that only works for the person who invented it. Fine. I will try it and report back, probably with twelve more sheets on the floor.
"started drawing my own idea of the hand", yes, that is exactly it and I did not have words for it. Somewhere around sheet six I was drawing sheet five, not her. Number seven is closest and also the most worked over which should tell me everything.
I did what you said. Face down, all of them, one sheet, no pile. It is worse. The corner is still too soft and her chin is a little long. But it is her, and I could not have got there by fixing number seven. So, thank you, and also I am slightly annoyed at how right you are about the tell 🙂