My first ever self-portrait in pencil

I started  The Complete Online Drawing Certificate Course today and my first assignment was to create a self-portrait in pencil. The introductory course notes were very encouraging and put me at ease for the challenges ahead, and took me through how I should approach the learning experience and creating my art. I also learned some of the basics, such as learning the “Artists Language”, how to hold a pencil, set up my working area and so on. Unfortunately, as all of my possessions are still in storage, I didn’t actually have a mirror for this exercise so I set my up my webcam and used my laptop screen as a mirror instead. Although I’ve done some pencil drawings in the past this exercise was a lot harder than I had expected, but I was fairly pleased with the results considering that I hadn’t drawn a self-portrait in pencil before. I then sent off my self-portrait to Cindy, my course instructor at DrawPJ.com, and here is her feedback.

Click to enlarge

Unit One: Outline Drawing: Week One

Self Portrait

Feedback from Cindy

Hi Ian,

Congratulations on completing your ‘Pre-instruction drawing’. This is a fantastic result too. I can see that you already have quite a bit of drawing experience and this is an advanced level of drawing ability compared to many students who enrol with us.

Most people who come to us to learn how to draw are usually drawing at about a 12 year old child level of ability and we expect that because that’s where most adults leave off drawing. However, your skill level shows that you have been drawing quite a bit, but the exciting thing about this journey for you is that we will be able to take you to a brand new level of ability in such a short period of time.

I can see many skill gaps in your drawing skills here all of which will be mended over the duration of this course. The purpose of this exercise is not to critique your drawing at all, it is to create a record of your ability right now; when you first come to this art course ‘The Complete Online Drawing Certificate Course‘.

So well done here Ian, you are going to do absolutely fantastic in this course and I am really looking forward to walking this journey with you. Please file this image in a safe place so that at the end of unit four when you have studied all kinds of wonderful things you will be able to compare your ‘before’ and ‘after’ images.

Warm wishes,
Cindy

Coming up

Wow, that was very encouraging, and with feedback like that I can’t wait to get started on the next assignment tomorrow which will all be about exploring curves, copying a pattern, and it all sounds deceptively easy!  Find out by following me on my Drawing Journey to see how I get on 🙂