My son at 3 years old
The brief: Capture my son and his fantastical imagination as he grows up - using some of his own work.
3 years old.
A glimpse behind the scenes
Focal density
Once I have the outline in place I tend to focus on areas of the image that I find interesting, and that I know will help ‘lock’ the image in place. They tend to be eyes, mouth, and then other darker areas of density.
Textural range
At this point I’d never done knitted textures before, so I started to focus on the scarf to give the image some textural range. I found the thicker knitting to be particularly interesting to model, compared to the weave of the jacket.
New techniques
As I’ve done more of these drawings I find that my technique changes as I learn more. Drawing hair for example is sometimes easier to start with dark shading, and then either removing it with the eraser, or adding highlights with a white pencil to bring out the shine.
Original image - shot on a DSLR by my friend Bia Sampaio.
Referring to a printout of the photo.
