THE FEARLESS PENCIL
LOWWSKI
A celebration of life for D'kori L. Smith
This is a celebration of life for D'kori! Always with us. Always On our minds.
This incredible work of Art is created in graphite on 16x20in Canson Illustration canvas. TJA invested over 30hrs into this honor. D'Kori's life is a great opportunity for us to celebrate his gift to us. We celebrate his life and honor him through this craft to keep his memory alive.
This drawing was a pleasure to create. Each stroke of the pencil was heart felt and intended to bring out the essence of his presence. TJA hope you enjoy this work and share with all your love ones and circles.
TJA ARTS CO is open for commissions. If you are in search for a professional Fine Artist to bring your portrait wishes to life, then please meet us the TJA home page or contact us through social media.
Creating this work begin on a sad note. It's hard to lose a child under any circumstances. When a child passes on before a parent, there is such a canyon size hole left in many lives, and a planet size whole with the parents.
Yet, it is an honor to use my talents to immortalize another love one for any family. I can only work to please the family and hope they cherish such a taking with all appreciation.
I take my art seriously, so when I hit the canvas....it's straight into a zone. I must capture the essence of the person in every portait. There is an unspoken command to do a great job. I feel that pressure and I embrace it.
Drawing is subjective, so, no matter what level of details go into the work..it is a subject of your vision combined with your emotion. It is a blank canvas or paper...and you must capture whatever vision must be organized into a work of art. This is what you have been commissioned to do....to realize a vision that is shared with others.
There must be order in how we create the art. Most of the order...is found in the chaos of creative. On the surface....it looks like dysfunction, aimless, unintelligle, but in all that...there is order.
Out of this creative chaos....came a portrait of the young man who is called Lowwski by his closest of friends.
A young man who was loved dearly by his family. His father describes him as warm, loyal, and funny. In his personality his family could feel his happiness and content. Lowwski, who is D'kori was down with fashion and making music. His smile and his eyes, his father says...will be missed.
His eyes...for sure are emblems for memory that standout about D'Kori. He has that cool: "I'm just chilling," appearance that you can't forget. I truly had fun drawing the personality of his eyes on a 16x20in scale. We will look back on his eyes, shortly.
Let's look at some creative process images of this portrait.
Image 1
Defining the shading areas
After the portrait proportions have been laid out on the art canvas, there comes the time for defining shade areas that create skin tone and contrast from other regions.
I start with a medium hard-grade pencil.
My standard pencil for the first shading stage is: STAEDTLER Mars Lumograph 5H
I use this SML-5H for as the priority pencil to begin shading all the areas where skin has positive presence in the image. I buy this pencil the most.
As you can see the begining areas where I shaded to start defining skin and dimensions of the face.
IMAGE 8
LOCKING IN LIGHTER VALUES
Creatives, who draw, typically start with darker shades to "block in" areas. This tactic secures that strongest of tonal contrast - but cuts down on how many layers of tone one can use for tonal range. In painting...this strategy will add more ranges. Weird but true.
I start with the lighter values because focusing on the skin of the subject, I deem to be more important than any other part. You may think the texture of the peripherals are demand more attention. I go with the skin as the priority. As I previously stated, I start with SML-5H to shade the whole drawing as one value, first. That's right...I actually, shade the WHOLE entire drawing in 5H or sometimes 6H, before I add any more gradients or block anything in. This is my "under drawing" in the same fashion that painters uses an under painting. I was taught the under painting during my development as an artist.
So, one day I decided to apply to all my drawings as well and just like magic....skin stands out more with this approach. That change set my drawings of people apart from other artists. They asked, and I told them...I do an under drawing first....then I start shading in gradients. I'm not claiming fame on it as an invention.....but I had not seen any other Artist try it....before I did.
After I have done my under drawing....I go back and work all the medium values before I go to darker values. Keep in mind, the reason for this tactice is for the element of skin to standout more than any other part of the drawing. This is my goal for every drawings. Skin is in!
IMAGE 15
SHADING BY AREA
In this image you can see most of one side being more completed than the other side. In the previous images you see sections of the drawing coming to life with lower values and tones - during the primary layers of shading.
Every part of the drawing is done by layers of shading....not full shading as one value (or tone). I stay away from using 2-3 values in a portrait drawing. Layers are necessary to depict skin and depth. This is the goal of portraiture...to reveal a human in blank space.
My goal is to use ALL 9 layers of the tonal scale. For you Artist out there....you know what and whom I am talking about. I typically stay in the first First Group 3 values, plus The 1st value of the medium group (6H-3H, plus 2HB or 2H) for all portrait drawings. Of course, this depends on the what graphite brand you use, because I am using the Staedtler brand for 97% of all drawings I do and I will add other models in has I need them in combination. If you want to know what I think about the best brands to use and how to use them....please, sign up for my upcoming posts at the end of this article.
WORK IN PROGRESS PHOTOS
WIP Images are part of the art world order. I share a few with you for your pleasure. Dont forget to share some of my work if you have a moment. Please leave a review of the finished piece and tell me what you think.
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Tim Jackson Arts is a top professional illustrator in the Nashville, TN professional illustrators directory on IllustratorsInk.com.
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