Pensive Woman — Graphite Portrait Study

I first chose the midline and bottom of the chin. From there I set up some lines and tried to keep it open. I used an F pencil.

I roughly organized a few major planers and concentrated on separating dark from light planes. F or HB pencil, don't remember.

Following the course, I established the darkest dark on the right in her hair. It acts as an anchor to compare the future tonal values against. My darkest pencil is a 4B Faber Castell 9000 (I love these, they don't break when you drop them, are very nice to sharpen and have good graphite).
Next, the second last darkest plane (under the chin). HB - B and no darker than 2B.

I established the highlight on the forehead and veiled the local value of the face. Major changes on the eyelids clarified the ears and mouth. I think the drawing was brought too far already in this stage to make future changes that came out of the structure drawings that follow below.

The structure drawing is made using my drawing as an example. I work with an F pencil. The difficulty here: Where to locate the verticals of the box. I tried all kinds of variations here: coinciding with the most forward location of the zygomatic bone? Including or excluding the optical right ear? And at the back: relating to the backplane of the head and ear, yes or no?
In this structure drawing I shifted the midline of the face in its place and here came to the conclusion that a lot more of the opt. left side of the nose is visible than in my last version of the drawing.
I established the VanderPoel schematic of the head and came to major major major corrections: the chin had to move further to the left. The optical right side of the face went through several metamorphoses (compare with the next picture).

So I made lots of changes here. Struggling with the optical right side plane of the head, I made big changes. I think from the ear down I love the changes.
From the ear upwards is a different story. (by the way: I overlooked the fact that her optical right ear needs to be shifted far more to the top. I discovered that even after finishing the full drawing). I took the change of direction of the opt. right eyebrow as a major guide to establishing the starting point of the opt. right side plane of the head (the hatched plane). At this stage, I was focussing on how much of this side plane is still visible from my point of view. What I didn't fully notice at this stage is that the opt. the right eyebrow was just too small. In my next correction round, I changed that. (see a later picture of that stage). Even at my final drawing I again went over that temple region, widened the eyebrow, and changed the plane that is running back towards the invisible side of the face.

I made changes in my drawing according to the things I found out through the structure drawing. I made major changes to the zygomatic bones, opt. right profile and right temple region.
Nose: Changed the opt. right side changed midline by putting it more to the right side. Created more 'left side' of the nose to make the whole head shift in the pose. I realized I was looking at Catherine (the model) from a different viewpoint than Dan so decided to use my viewpoint instead of echoing Dan's drawing. I made the optical left eye a bit smaller and changed the eyelids and the shadow of the eyelashes on her face. It must have been somewhere around here that I decided to use a screenshot to work from the same pose further in the process, as Catherine's pose is not a clear 3/4 view portrait pose.

In this stage, I started to focus on tonal values. The values of the side planes of the head are made darker as they recede in space. At the same time, we encounter strands of hair that are also dark.
I was struggling to find the exact location of the zygomatic bone where it turns from the front plane to the side plane. I needed this to establish the right values.
Worked a lot on the side plane of the face (left). Also found a nice way for the contour of the mandible (left).
A major mistake here: the optical right side temple region: the triangular plane that starts at the end of the brow and marks the side plane of the head is placed on the front plane of the head here. It took me a long time to realize this, I only saw it after I finished the drawing. I then corrected it.

Now I added the strand of hair to her forehead and immediately regretted this. It is far too guiding for the eye and gives a 'stiff' impression. I partly erased it but decided to take it as a challenge to leave it in and make it better somehow later. Struggling here to find the point on the Zygomatic bone where it changes to the frontplane.

Working further on the structure drawing the result after unit 3 of the course.
I made major changes to the location of the zygomatic bone corners, to the lines running from that point up and down the face.
I also studied the eye region, decided to get rid of the irises that were really a distraction and made new decisions about the size, the location of the corners of the eyes, and the connection with the zygomatic bones and to the nose.
Again in the nose study, I became more convinced about the pose and my viewpoint on Catherine.
I worked on the chin and ear region. (still didn't notice that the right ear needed more radical changes that would add to the pose better).

Next worked on the neck and shoulder region. I love the insight of deliberately moving one shoulder up for a more intriguing pose. (when not knowing anything about anatomy I think this will be very hard).
I fell back into my habit of giving too much attention to tiny details instead of a more impressionistic approach.
I loved to work on the blocks of the hair, I really had to think about how to approach this and had the most trouble in finding the location on top of the head in terms of 'more to the front, or more to the back'. When I look at it now I still believe the blocks should move further to the midway point of the head (so more to the front). But I wouldn't be able to change that again in my final regular portrait as all of that is covered in thick graphite. The differences here with my earlier structure drawing I found striking. I have learned sooooooo much through this structural approach! And gained much more 3-D insight.

Here I have worked on the neck and shoulder region and tried to stay out of overly detailing.

I was not satisfied with the way her hair is done at the optical right. After taking this picture started to change that.

This is a detail of the hair. I didn't do a lot with it, wanted to stay in the spirit of showing planes but her hair is so playful I decided to try this: with my pen eraser I made some suggestions for hair and I went over them with another layer of F. I also added some B4 to enhance the suggestion of the plane of the head tilting backward and disappearing underneath the pile of hair.

Again changed the shape of the skull on the optical right side and also indented her mandible.
I also made some changes to the ear I enlarged it a bit (compare to earlier pictures).

Again surprised by my lack of judgment: I made another major change to the right ear and the right side of the mandible. I kept feeling uneasy about it. Maybe my changes now took a bit away from the character of the portrait, but at least I have the feeling this is better (or is this me playing safe instead of taking an artistic adventure?). Love to hear your comments on this.
I decided to do a small experiment with the ear, I kept it lighter in value and vaguer in an attempt to suggest more distance. For this reason no clear outlines. I moved it up even more and hid the bottom part behind the cheek in an attempt to give a bit more suggestion of the right part of her face being turned away from the viewer.
Also changed something on the values below her nose. The planes there are a bit vaguer now, but more natural.
The mandible: I changed the curve and also left out the darker outline. Love to hear comments on that @danthompson.

Dan's Comments:

My apologies that I couldn't comment sooner! So much going on regarding teaching, organizing programs for the fall semesters, and getting work done...

First of all, the descriptions of your process, which I read with great interest, everyone who takes this course should also read. The way you describe your reactions and the manner you've thought through revisions to the beautiful drawing of Kathryn you've made is exactly what I have been hoping to state. So much of this practice is based upon an eye for design/beauty, along with a mind for navigating through space to get to that aesthetic result. The planes are a guide, but so are proportions. Much of what you describe reacting poorly to made me think of recommending that you acquire some casts that can hang in your home/apartment/workspace, and using a mirror to check your proportions. This is an effective way of pursuing the discipline in a life drawing situation.

Also, the evolution of your planar schematic is outstanding!

@danthompson:
Thank you Dan, I figured you were on a holiday, so no problem. (Domestika is patient!)
I have a question here. As you can see I was in doubt about where the forehead changes to the side plane. Is it at the end of the brow or at the highest point of the brow?

Dan's Comments:

Zygomatic Bone
The schematic lacks a very clear zygomatic prominence to separate the depth plane from the front/tapering front (see image, the light blue points, right side, are more fundamental and supportive than the green points, which are more like additional, subforms which are layered upon the zygomatic structure)

There is definitely an issue with the zygomatic form going back in space that you should devote further research to (I'm working on an entire course related to this type of thinking, where I use sculpture, anatomy, structure, and life drawing. The class will be released early next year by Studio Incamminati)

Marion: Dear Dan, Thanks for your supporting and encouraging feedback Dan! I will look into your suggestions! I thought it would be nice to include your comments here. I am looking forward to the new class you mentioned. I hope you will release it in a way that it can be done online as I live in the Netherlands.
@danthompson

Dan's Comments:
- The final drawing (see second image) should show more substance and volume in the zygomatic region (1)
- her right ear on our optical left side should be lifted (2)
- because of the perspective we have on Kathryn's head, the clavicle bone needs substance (3)
- the tones of the anterior superior (top front) of hair, along with the side territory of this region should reflect the impressive construction that your schematics indicated - cast heads are great for this (see third image, mainly to identify hair structure as an important topic to pursue)

Cheers,
Dan

@danthompson
- Right ear (opt. left): I imagined we cannot see the earlobe of her left ear as it is out of sight. For this I chose to do it like this. I will change it.
- Clavicle bones: Yes. I made a choice here to keep the focus on the faces therefore didn't work a lot on the clavicle bones. I will change it.
- Top front of her hair: Now that I see the drawing again I think the hair is too much in her face (forehead is not high enough.) Also I think this drawing is not clear enough about where the front planes change into the side planes of the forehead.

Dan's Comments

- the tones of the anterior superior (top front) of hair, along with the side territory of this region should reflect the impressive construction that your schematics indicated - cast heads are great for this (see third image, mainly to identify hair structure as an important topic to pursue)

@danthomposon:
A very impressive cast drawing Dan! Thank you for sharing this.

Marion de Jong

@danthompson
After Dan's comments on my structure and final drawing (see a few images back with the colored arrows and dots), I made more edits.
I took out my Bammes anatomy book (see following post) and changed the eyesockets. I tried to follow the edges of the eyesockets and tried to figure out the zygomatic bones. Again this caused a lot of changes on the optical right sight of the contour of the face. My changes also influenced adjacent areas like nose, mouth and chin. I also felt a need to add a bit of hatching although I think I was not totally consequent in doing so. But it helped me understand what was happening.
When I finished the structured drawing and integrated my findings into the real drawing, I suddenly saw something was wrong with the clavicles. It took me another hour to figure that out. I had both the front of the face and the front of the upper body pointing in one direction. (see thumbnail drawing at the top right). But now I realized this was not how Catherine was posing. (see the screenshot I used below). We can clearly see that her upper body is pointing in one direction and the front plane of her face is pointing in another direction. (they both have a different vanishing point). It took me 5 or 6 versions of the (bottom) thumbnail above to figure out what was happening.
So again I was back at the structure drawing and the real drawing. I shifted the pit of the neck about 2 cms (1 inch) to the right). This is the final result.

Source: the Complete Guide to Anatomy for Artists & Illustrators by Gottfried Bammes - ISBN 978-1-78221-358-1

This is the image that helped me figure out what was happening at the zygomatic. I am sure other anatomy books or online sources could provide similar info.
All of you artist friends: lots of success with your projects and I hope that my process helps you all!

I was so happy: a relative of mine was able to bring me two boxes of Hi-Uni pencils from New York. #2B and 4B. They were really a lot darker than my own pencils so this helped stretch the tonal scale a lot more.
I darkened the hair around the ears and also at the far top of the head. I reshaped and deepened the dot of hair on top of her head. I reshaped her frontal top of the forehead. Reshaped the temple region left and right. Darkened her pupils, brows, creases of eyelids, and openings in her nose. I broadened her mouth, enhanced the shading around her mouth, and darkened the neck area. I worked on her facial contour on the optical left side (also a lot more shading on her zygomatic bones. (totally amazing how much more value could be added with Hi-uni pencils).
Next moved her optical left neck contour and worked on the shadows of the straps.
Gave more definition to her shoulders and clavicles. (moved the clavicles 2 cms to the right (amazing such big edits in this stage of the drawing.
I am sure if I would spend another 2 hours on this drawing I would still find things that need adjustment. But, I now think I need to finish this project in order not to 'overplay my hand'.
@danthompson I hope to hear your comments.