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Drawing an African Girl in a Turban step by step

Thank you for stopping by for another step-by-step tutorial on how I drew this African girl in a turban.  I am not a traditionalist when it comes to drawing. I don't use any fancy tools or grids, gosh I don't even use a pencil, actually using a pencil or eraser has become a hindrance instead of a help. I start and finish all of my work in pen and upside down. Most of us have read or should have Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain on their to-read list, well one of the most valuable lessons she teaches is flipping your work upside down. You trick your eyes into actually seeing what is in front of you and not what you think you see. Your mind is much better at picking up spatial changes, angles, and values much better when your mind doesn't label an object.  

As you see from the following example I keep my lines loose and flowing and I develop the overall shapes and form of my subject.  At this stage, I am not worried about the details just the of the composition on the page. 

After you have put in your overall shape you can start placing your models' features, Again, at this stage, I haven't yet flipped my piece right side up. Remember when working in ink, keep your lines loose and light, white gouache can only hide so much. 
By this stage, your overall composition and general placement of the features of your subject will be in. Now to start giving form to your features. 
First off, where is your light coming from. Mine is top, off-center right. I know it makes perfect sense to me too. 😀
Your head is just a simple spherical shape so we will start by rounding it off, then thinking my head sits forward from my neck, lets add in some darks to push our girls face to the forefront. Now, the eyes are set back in your head but not as far as your neck, so this will be more of a mid-tone area reserving the darkest darks for the cast shadows and irises, so they will always be darker than the rest of your features. Your nose is just a set of shapes, a pyramid, and some sphere-like shapes. Lips are a set of  bent rolls
Before we get too far along with her face, we need to set in some values in her clothing or we may run into trouble with the flow of the piece. I always lay on my darks first, the other values are easier to judge when you have the white of the paper and your darks in first. 
Into the home stretch. 
It is all about refining your shapes, texture (not much to worry about in this piece), and values.  

African Girl in Turban
Pen on Paper

Make sure you stop by www.eclecticstudio.ca for my available original works of art for sale.
 
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