Joan of Arc has captured the imaginations of artists for centuries.
St. Joan of Arc lived in the 1400s and began having profound religious visitations before she became a teenager. She heard voices that implored her to go to France and drive out the English and Burgundians, who occupied the territories. These revelations ultimately lead her to trial and death for heresy. Her bravery for standing up to the powers that ruled during her time earned her sainthood and captured the imaginations of many artists. Because she lived in the time before photography, what she looked like exactly remains speculative---both a difficulty and a gift for the artist trying to recreate her.
Instructions
1. Look for reference photos of faces that you think capture St. Joan's essence; no real photos of her exist. When choosing the reference photo, you may want to select a photo that has the woman looking in an upward position as if she's looking to God, given Joan's historical context as a religious martyr.
2. Draw the basic shape of her face. Look carefully at the lines that make up the head. Try to replicate those lines---the way they curve and at the angles in which they curve. If you're unsure, practice with tracing paper over your picture. Allow your hand to get a feel for how the lines curve in the picture to form the outline of the face.
3. Make the "scaffolding" for the features. The face can be broken up into sectors with an imaginary line running vertically from the top of the skull down through the nose and chin. This line is intersected by horizontal lines. The first one is located about halfway down the face; it seems counter-intuitive, but this is where the eyes fall. It's also where the top of the ears are located. The next line is below the bottom of the ears, and it's also the line to measure where the tip of the nose goes. The line to form the mouth is about half the size of the one between the eyes and nose.
4. Block in the basic shapes of her features. Almost all things in nature can be broken into their most basic geometric elements. Eyes will basically be ovals, the nose a triangle and the mouth a diamond. You'll modify these features later, but blocking them in will give you an idea of placement.
5. Fill in the details with gesture drawing. Basically, gesture drawing is a form of scribbling that attempts to capture the lines of an object until it's been filled in. Draw the lines lightly as you go, because you'll be erasing the lines you don't need. Eventually, you'll be able to see her features starting to form among all the lines; these lines you'll emphasize later.
6. Erase the extra lines that resulted from the gesture scribbles.
7. Add shading. To do this, replicate the areas of light and dark on the photo. Hold your pencil on its side and gradually build up the lights and darks. Draw what you see, not what you think should be there; this is the most important concept in drawing realistic art.
