The Watts Atelier Skill Building Challenge 9 – The Long Portrait – was actually not that far removed from Challenge 8 (Utilizing Custom Reference in Portraiture) insofar as it was a portrait drawing again only this time the image needed to be chosen from the array of imaged found within the head drawing phase lesson material.
Once again the image was to be built up over a period of 4 weeks, with specific stages to reach and submit at the end of each week. This format ensured that you would slow right down and take your time for each specific stage to fully explore and develop the skills at each level.
The submissions over the course of the challenge included:
Week One – Lay In
Week Two – Shadow Mapping
Week Three – Adding Mid-value & moving towards completed piece
Week Four – Completed Full Value rendering
The Skill Building Challenge format was tweaked slightly and as part of this, giving feedback to fellow challenge participants was a major component.
This was a brilliant idea as the level of interaction and growth of dialog within the forums saw huge gains in every bodies work over the course of the challenge.
