Honest Abe Drawing

The drawing above shows a portrait of an elderly man, limited to the head. Drawn on a 16 x 12 inch black paper, simply white chalk was the medium used. Because of this, the piece lacks any color. There isn’t any distinguishable contour lines. Some can be vaguely seen on the hair and forehead. Changes in value was incorporated to give the image form and depth. Areas such as the tip of the nose and top of the eyebrows have highlights. Parts such as the bottom of the hair, the eyes, the right cheek, and the background remain black.

Seeing as the paper is black and the chalk is white, drawing the picture was done differently than the traditional way with the use of graphite. The figure was vaguely formed from light, undistinguishable strokes on a four part grid. Detailing of the hair, lowlights, and highlights were then added afterward. The direction in which the strokes were done also play an important part in establishing the face’s form. In order to emphasize which part of the face is closer to the foreground, highlights were added. Areas such as the eyes and right cheek were kept untouched to create the illusion of a shadow casted on the face, giving the drawing that intense, somber mood.

The drawing above of late President Abraham Lincoln does cast a certain serious tone to the portrait. Recreating the statue of Honest Abe with the use of black paper and chalk certainly was an interesting method, despite it’s somewhat unconventionality. I think that was the purpose of the project, experimenting in drawing in a ‘backwards’ sort of way. When doing drawings, one usually pays attention to the outlines and the borders. But by limiting one’s self to a white chalk and outright line drawing, one must observe the subject in a completely different method. That in itself teaches a person to look and observe in a different perspective instead of limiting one’s self to the method that is most used.

Overall, I think that this project turned out well. It wasn’t my first time drawing in reverse. While figuring out the dark and light regions didn’t pose any difficulty, attempting to draw Lincoln accurately with no prior sketch was a bit challenging. While I’ve never had a hard time with drawing human portraits, initial sketching was usually done to get my hand moving and setting up a vague outline. But seeing as I was not allowed to do that, I had to exercise some restraint seeing as my hand usually runs on autopilot blindly, sometimes moving faster than my eye is. I think that this drawing was a good exercise in patience and self-control.