Quote:
Originally Posted by
emjay 
Ansley looked up from the sketchbook as Hadleigh spoke in order to give her his full attention. "Ah, I see," he nodded. He was more curious than anything. "Mirrors aren't the greatest, they do give some distortion," he agreed. "But it's still not a bad way to practice. I say any time you are practicing drawing or painting is time well spent," he added with a smile. "And you've done a pretty nice job with all of these." He was really glad to see that she had kept sketching over break.
Ansley closed her sketchbook and set it back on the table out of her way. "It does and it doesn't," he said with a shrug. "It is all good practice, but they have their differences. Drawing or painting from life will give you the best detail and sense of realism, but any means is great." He was just wondering more than anything else.
"Underpainting is very important when painting portraits. It will help give the people in the paintings some depth and help them not to appear flat." And they were meant to appear as life-like versions of themselves. There was not a lot of room for abstraction or wild variations when considering magical portraiture. "An underpainting establishes the values in the subject - the lights and darks and everything in between." He thought he had gone over value with her last term, but a review wouldn't hurt. "Underpainting is done with light to dark tones of brown, no matter the actual colors in the subject. Let's try an underpainting for the drawing you've created now." He waited to answer any questions she might have before she'd begin.
She had certainly learned that the mirror was indeed a bit harder to use while sketching. It probably wasn't going to be something she would try again or at least not to awhile.
"I noticed that a little especially whenever they moved, it made it hard to figure out where the lines where supposed to be." Which was another reason why she planned on getting more photos of them and trying again when she had a chance to see them in person. His compliment and praise on her work didn't go unnoticed as she smiled warmly in response.
"Thank you."
Fair enough. It made sense as well. The few sketches she had done while watching the creatures at the reserve had been interesting because she had to be quicker with her lines. You never knew when a creature would move changing how the sketch could turn out.
"So it's so of like in a sense allowing the portrait to appear 3D. While it's not that exactly it's similar since it isn't flat." Probably off on her wording or interpretation of it but she did understand what he was saying. The more realistic a portrait was the better in her opinion, it wasn't like you were really talking to a portrait then but the actual person. Since she didn't have any questions on what was being said Hady gave a nod of her head.
Ready to start with the underpainting part she picked up one of the brushes and dipped it into a very light brown paint. It was time to get started. The first few strokes of the brush were light and careful but after a few moments she got herself into a relaxed rhythm and the blending of her colors for the underpainting took place.