Monday 8 April 2013

Doodled Hair


I often get asked how to draw faces, and sadly there is no quick way, it takes a lot of practice. But this does not mean you have to create faceless art, here is a simple but very effective way to create a doodle portrait without having to draw the face. 
First grab some magazines and look for medium sized faces..


Select the one you like and cut out just the face, only the skin and ear if it is showing...no hair, no clothes.. Glue to a piece of smooth card. The piece I used is 160gsm. Use a pencil at first to sketch in some clothes and hair, they do not have to be like the original...Go wild, invent a fabulous new hairstyle...be a fashion designer and give her some great clothes. 



Now take your markers and colour in the shapes. What you are creating at this point is just a background, so it does not need to be super neat, or even well blended.  I used 3 pinks for the clothing, 3 blues and 3 turquoises for the hair. Always work in 3's, a light,mid and dark tone of the same hue. 



You can see I outlined the magazine area, on the side near the hair I used a thicker line, and on the outer side of the face I used a narrow line. You really don't want a thick black outline on that side of the face. I also took a blue-grey and outlines the whole image, and then using black I added a border to the edge of the card. 




The ideal pens to use for the outlines, and for the later doodling are the LETRASET FINELINERS

I started my doodling, varying the thickness of pen, from a 0.1mm right up to the 0.7mm, this gives me delicate areas and thicker darker areas. 



Think about  the area you are filling in, for clothing try and think of patterns that will make the area look like fabric. For the hair try and find curvy, round patterns.... unless of course you give your model spikey hair in which case use straight lines in your doodles.



For the background I used a very simple cross hatching pattern. Once that was done, there was too much white still showing so I added the grey circles into the background. 



Here is the finished piece, an easy doodled portrait, and no tricky faces to draw..




GIVEAWAY TIME

I have a pack of the brand new LIMITED EDITION PROMARKERS to give away..


That is 12 yummy new colours plus a blender pen...

To be in with a chance of winning  you need to 

 add your name to the following linky list. 
only names in this linky list will be entered. 




23 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for the chance and your art is brillant and what great advice for those struggling with drawing a face :)

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  2. This is wonderful! I really like your style. Thanks for the chance to win.

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  3. You inspired me with your hair doodles. Spectacular shading and movement. Thanks for the chance to win. xoxo

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  4. Aloha Darcy...it seems like you had so much FABulous FUN creating this doodle portrait...it's so relaxing doodling swirls & curls...I haven't entered but just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed sharing your creative bliss.

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  5. Love this lots! Fabulous inspiration! Thank you for sharing... I am off to see what faces I can find now!

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  6. Wow this is fab, gorgeous result with all that lovely doodling.
    Thanks for the chance to win too
    Claire xx

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  7. Brilliant idea Darcy, I will be trying this out soon. Thanks for the chance to win the markers too. xxx

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  8. Glorious as usual!

    Love it!

    C xxx

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  9. Wow. All that crosshatching - and then the hair - it's gorgeous.

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  10. This is such a creative project, love that it added such color and a great space to doodle! :) hugs, Kimberly

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  11. Your art is so fun. I love the detailed crosshatching as a back ground effect.

    webster@harbornet.com

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  12. Wow, what a fun giveaway!!! These new markers would be such a great tool in journaling and drawing!! How fun!!

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  13. I clicked on the Letraset blog link, but it didn't go anywhere. Is it broken? Can you give me the url so I can go there?

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    1. Sorry the letraset blog has mysteriously gone down today, the powers that be do know about it and they are working to try and fix it. As soon as the blog is back up that link should work fine. The problem has only occurred overnight, it was fine yesterday.

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  14. You are just awesome Darcykins!!!!...even your doodles are works of art :D XXX

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  15. Hi Darcy! I have never seen your blog before, I have to say this was pretty fun with the magazine ad and making it your own artwork! I love the hair and the look of this blog a great deal!! I look forward to learning more!!

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  16. This was sooooo cool...


    HUgs, Kaia

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  17. Oh Darcy that's fabulous, might give this a go over the weekend!

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  18. That's fantastic Darcy, TFS!
    Lovely to meet you during your demo on PaperArtsy at Ally Pally yesterday, you did great!
    Alison x

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  19. Fantastic tutorial Darcy...was great to meet you at AP yesterday!!

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  20. This is totally amazing Darcy! Michelle x

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  21. Thank you for sharing this lesson idea! I am a new art teacher for high school and college age international students. I need lesson ideas that done cost too much. And websites for art lesson ideas. Crafts, too, so long as they don’t cost too much. Can you send me any suggestions! I would be so grateful!

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