by Matt Philleo | May 25, 2016 | New Artwork
I just finished a new drawing last week, a pencil portrait sketch commissioned by a previous client. This drawing was to be given as a gift for his girlfriend, most likely a belated, but very special Mother’s Day gift.
It’s an 11 x 14, pencil on paper.
I took two different photos and combined them into one drawing. The girl on the bottom wasn’t shown in the original photo of the mother and her younger daughter, so I added that in from another photo.
The nice thing about a portrait drawing is that you can combine different photos together into one cohesive image. This is a great image of a beautiful mom with her two smiling children, and it was wonderful to be able to create this unique sketch for my client.
With this, I think of Mother’s Day that we just recently celebrated, and how amazing mothers are. All the pain they go through to bring a child into the world, the commitment to nurse and care for that child immediately after, and all the love they pour out into their children’s life day by day is nothing short of heroic.
Speaking of heroic, I remember several years ago, when my son was just months old, my wife and I were walking from a restaurant, and she was carrying him and some other stuff, too. (What was I doing? Probably nothing!) She tripped on a divot in the sidewalk and our son went flying out of her arms. Almost like a wide receiver stretching to catch a low pass, my wife adroitly reached out her hand just in time, cupping our baby’s head from what would have been the deadly impact of concrete. She still has a scar on her hand to this day, a testament to her instinctive, selfless sacrifice.
The only thing I could blurt out was, “Nice save.”
These days, a mother wears a lot of hats. Not only does she take care of the children and the home, but she also often has to work outside the home as well to make sure her childrens’ needs are met.
All of that and she still has to deal with her husband leaving his dirty socks on the floor. Mothers are amazing!
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by Matt Philleo | Apr 22, 2016 | How to Draw Instruction
People are one of the most challenging things for an artist to draw. To capture the unique appearance and personality of a person by using the right lines and shading takes patience and practice. Even as a professional portrait artist who loves his craft, sometimes after drawing dozens of faces a day at live events, it would be much easier to draw the tree behind the person sitting in front of me!
From childhood, we learn to draw people a certain way, an expected way. But it is not the most realistic way.
Far from it.
Here is a picture of how most of us learn to draw people.
“A Strange Face”, pen on paper, by Matt Philleo
Even if you are not an artist, I’m sure you can tell this isn’t a very good drawing. I can say that freely, because I’m the artist who did it!
Here we have the eyes, with extra long cartoony eyelashes at the top of the head, an inverted “L” for a nose, and a funky-looking mouth.
Probably the biggest mistake people make when trying to draw a face is putting the eyes at the top of the head. Actually eyes are somewhere in the middle.
Next, the nose is best drawn by observing the contours of the nostrils and the thickness of the nose bridge and drawing those lines instead.
Finally, the mouth, especially when smiling, needs the cheekbones and wrinkles, along with squinting eyes to give the appearance of actually smiling.
“A Better Face,” pen on paper, by Matt Philleo
Here is that same face, drawn with more lifelike proportions and shapes.
To draw realistically, you have to strive to draw what you see instead of what you think you see.
Your brain will play tricks on you.
It still does on me.
For example, I will find myself subconsciously smoothing out the shape of a crooked eyebrow, because smooth things are usually better. But if a person has a crooked eyebrow, it’s better not to try to be smarter than the photograph (or the person in front of you) or it won’t look right.
This takes practice, and a training of your eyes and mind to observe what you see in the three-dimensional world (or even two-dimensional rendition of the three dimensional world, a.k.a., the photograph) and transfer that onto paper. Although some people are more gifted with this ability and this skill comes more naturally, I think everyone that wants to learn how to draw can benefit from training in this way.
As an artist, your talent is not in your hands; it’s in your mind and soul.
I can become a better artist without even having to pick up a pencil or paintbrush.
How?
As I see people in various settings, with interesting expressions and lighting on their faces, I make a mental note and think of how that could be rendered on paper or canvas. When the time comes to draw or paint, my mind already has some visual material to to work with, and I have part of the technique already ironed out beforehand.
By the way, I will be teaching a drawing course at my studio at Artisan Forge Studios, where we start off at beginning level and move to more advanced techniques. Using your own photos as references, you will be able to create some portraits you can be proud of and show your friends and family at the end. The cost per two hour session is $40 and the class runs for five weeks, starting Monday April 25th, 6-8pm and going every Monday after that until May 23rd.
Here is a sketch I did of my brother and his family for Christmas. It took about 2-3 hours. Once you learn how to accurately draw proportions using line, you can get into shading and detail. That is something I plan to cover in another blog post.
Portrait of Mike Philleo and family, 11 x 14, pencil on paper by pencil portrait artist Matt Philleo
Meanwhile, if you like to draw or are interested in learning how people draw realistically, I hope these tips help you. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to know more about!
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by Matt Philleo | Sep 29, 2015 | New Artwork, Personal Inspiring Stories
My goal as an artist and, I feel, my calling in life, is to encourage people. So, when dealing with the subject of death, it’s easy to think of it in a morose, depressing way, but I would rather look at the positive side.
Just like the leaves changing colors and falling to the ground signals that autumn is here and winter is on it’s way, so also when someone dies, we are reminded of the brevity of life. We think again about our priorities and if we are doing the things that really matter. It’s so easy to chase after more stuff, more success, and happiness in all the wrong places. But the only thing we can take with us when we die is ourselves and those we love.
My neighbor, Stu, died about a month ago. I had just gotten to know him–he lived a couple blocks down, but would often walk by and then hang out my next-door neighbor’s house. He was the big, rough kind of a guy that could definitely hold his liquor, but had a softer side too.
We found that out when my wife had stopped by our neighbor’s house. Stu was sitting out in front, and he was introduced to my eight-year-old son, who has special needs. When my son found out Stu’s name, he said, “BEEF Stew!” That was the first association in his mind apparently. Stu just smiled and laughed.
Later on, I gave Stu a print of my drawing “Inscribed,” that has the hands of God with many names etched in. I was surprised that Stu really loved the drawing and was touched by it. He came by later that week and gave us a huge bag of frozen chicken and fish that he had caught, enough to feed a small army! We were really blessed by that generosity.
That was the last we saw Stu.
We found out Saturday morning that he had gone out motorcycle riding Friday night, missed a turn in the road, and that was it. He was gone.
I drew this sketch of him (11 x 14, pencil on paper), made prints of it, and had them given to his family at the funeral. My hope is that it would help ease their loss and be an encouragement to them.
“Stu,” 11 x 14, pencil on paper, by Matt Philleo, portrait artist
My neighbor’s untimely passing made me think again about how short life is. And how we need to treasure every moment we have. More than that, we have a promise from God that this death is not the end, but only the beginning. As Jesus said, “He who hears my word has eternal life, and will not come into judgment, but has crossed over from death to life.” And also, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.”
If we trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, paying the price of our sins with his shed blood, death, and resurrection, we do not need to fear death.
Rather, let it remind us to seize the day and life life to the full in the light of God’s presence. With that, we can tell others about what God did for us, how much He loves us, and wants us to be with Him and our loved ones forever.
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