First portrait re-visited.

Last month I posted a first attempt portrait from a picture reference. The picture was an image off of the internet and the printed out copy was poor quality and the original was digitally airbrushed pretty heavily... that made it an easy one to work with as some of the details are missing that would make a "realistic" drawing much more complicated.

I am starting a re-do using a different method and graphite instead of charcoal. I look at the original attempt and see all sorts of things that I could do differently to provide a more curved looking surface to better match a true facial profile.

Here is the beginning. This uses a 6H pencil to get the primary details in place, note that this one has two eyes.

Something looks wrong in the apparent angle but I am thinking that it will correct itself as I add layers.

Jeff.

More eyes...

I have been doing some more testing of various pencils to come up with the right combination of technique and material to determine which direction that I want to head in my drawing. I had a desire to stick with charcoal in it's various forms, and my previous eye posting was using mainly compressed charcoal pencils and stubs to blend the charcoal. I tried 2H to 6B compressed charcoal and found it easy enough to work with and I like the blending but, unless the image is large the detail is tough to impart.

I have resisted using straight graphite as it tends to be grey and shiny and the result is typically less contrast. The trade off is that more detail can be incorporated and the application of graphite is easier to control than charcoal without having to blend anything and this works for smaller images. I have a range of 6H down to 8B which gives me a fairly wide range of contrast, I can add some of the charcoal if I want a blacker highlight contrast, pupil of the eye for example.

Here is a graphite eye that I tested with:

I added a darker charcoal blend pencil for the pupil. Now the iris needed a bit more work, actually the whole eye is still incomplete but this was only a play test to see how it would work out. I was concerned about the coal sticking to the graphite but it seems to have adhered decently.

So, I have reworked one picture using charcoal a couple of ways and now I have started one with graphite. It's not as interesting doing the same face multiple times but it gives me a frame of reference for direct comparison as well as a familiarity that allows me to lay the face out quickly for this sort of experimentation.

I'll post my next attempt.

Jeff.

Irish Cream, more cream and less Irish...or Bailey's on a Budget

Two years and change ago I started drinking coffee more regularly than just a weekend cup here and there. It was Christmas and Kate and I were enjoying the Holiday week off and coffees in the morning. I would put a tablespoon of Bailey's in mine or would choose to just not have coffee otherwise.

Well, it stuck and I have had one or two cups a day since.

Now a tablespoon or two of Bailey's a day doesn't sound like much but that stuff is expensive enough to notice when it is used that regularly. So I decided to make my own, partly for some cost savings and partly for adjusting both the flavour and the alcohol content of my morning brew. So online I went to find a recipe... there are quite a few. I settled on one that had the simplest ingredient list and no eggs... I just figured that raw eggs would not last as long as just cream.

My doctored recipe:

500 ml whipping cream (longest due date, highest fat content means less needed to "colour" the coffee)
250 ml Irish Whiskey (this is about half what is called for, in the interest of keeping the alcohol and cost lower)
1 can of sweetened evaporated milk
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup (not milk mixes, real thick dark chocolate syrup)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Blend really well, but don't whip the cream. I use an immersion blender to keep the air out of the mix

The cream is doubled from other recipes I found and I use whipping cream (35%MF) instead of table cream (18%MF) so this keeps the consistency about the same. Just doubling the table cream would thin out the whole mix... off course half the whiskey also thickens it up a bit more too.

Alcohol content, once in the coffee is 0.1% or so by volume, I would probably get more just using mouthwash so I certainly don't worry about "drinking" in the morning.

Cost:
Bailey's at $15.00 for 375ml
My stuff at $5.35 for 375ml ($15.00 for a 1050ml batch)

So all in all I end up with a less expensive Irish Cream tailored specifically for my coffee consumption.

Jeff.