Saturday 8 November 2014

Drawing Maleficent (Angelina Jolie)

The Walt Disney Pictures movie Maleficent is one of the latest Disney movies that I really enjoyed. Click here to learn more about this movie on IMDb. I think the story of this movie is a great twist to the old fairytale Cinderella when the witch is the bad guy and you never really know why. But in this movie you get to know her and even feel sympathy for her.
I think Angelina Jolie is a great actress and even if she is not my favourite I think she is giving this character full life.  


I made this drawing on ordinary sketch paper using lead pencils. I am not very fancy when it comes to lead pencils, I often use a bright pencil like B or F to do the contours at the first stages, fill them in with something in the middle like 2B or 3B to get the details and when I am done with that I get crazy with the black and use a 5B or 6B to color the real dark areas. When I started drawing many years ago I never dared to use the dark pencils because I was scared I would destroy the drawing I was happy with. That often resulted in pale motifs without the "wow-effect" - yes quite boring. Today I know that shadows and dark areas are the only true things that makes a drawing come to life! The goal I have with my drawings is to make the viewer feel invited to look at it more than just one time and I think I pulled it off quite good this time because of the shadows and her interesting eyes.


I almost always look at a real photo of the character I am drawing because I am not very good at seeing the person in my head. There are people who are amazing with the photograhic memory and I am deeply impressed with them, I can't understand how they do it. Anyway, I like using photographs because I get to really study the person's lines and characteristics in their faces. For instance, you look at a picture of Angelina Jolie and at first sight you think she must have a very straight and sharp nose or the lips and eyes have the same shape on both left and right side if you would divide her face in the middle. But no. There are many differences in her face and I if I had not payed attention to them I most definately would not had suceeded to make my drawing look like her. So my advice, if you would like any, is to look at the details and trust the differences you see, because if you just make assumptions without really looking you will fail with your work. I have made that mistake countless times.


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