Incomplete a Drawing with David Tenorio
"When you do a drawing that is too laborious, you don't give your audience anything to participate in. You told them the entire story. Instead, give them something to finish."
Much like a filmmaker, a portrait artist should direct the viewer's eye. One way to do this, says artist David Tenorio, is by establishing focal points through what you choose to shade and what you choose to leave blank.
"If you can't make that decision and you shade everywhere," he says, "then your viewer is going to look everywhere."
An uncommonly articulate illustrator, David explains why you might want to embrace a style of sketchy incompleteness in your drawings.
"You want to give your audience a chance to participate," he says. "If you keep it loose, their brain will complete the drawing. When you do a drawing that is too laborious, you don't give them anything to participate in. You told them the entire story. Instead, give them something to participate in, give them something to finish."
In this lesson (71 mins), David shares his full process of sketching a face in profile using ballpoint pen.
He demonstrates the ball-and-jaw method for drawing the structure of the head...
...and how he shades in delicate, uni-directional "washes" that are reminiscent of watercolor.
Ready to incomplete a drawing with David? Let's get started!
