Our demonstrator was Rick Corbett. Rick demonstrated his hyper-realistic graphite pencil technique.
The meeting was held in the Guild Hall, First Congregational Church (middle side door), Sanborn Street, Reading, Wednesday September 11th, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
We have some photographs of the event in case you could not make it there in person.
Because Rick's technique for drawing is very precise and detailed, he demonstrated the drawing of a very small part of the demo work. Since he usually begins drawing the eye in a portrait, that is the part that he demonstrated.
We had a good turnout for Rick's Demo
Rick sharpens his pencils using a blade.
That allows him to create a long point on the pencil.
He wears magnifiers so that he can see the small details that he is creating.
In this photo you can see the long point on the pencil.
Rick uses tiny circles to put the graphite on the paper.
You can see the beginnings of the eye.
Here's a closeup.
Rick is working on a commission drawing a portrait of a customer's father.
The only reference he has is a small photo taken with an old Instamatic camera.
He scanned the photo, cropped out the photo of the subject,
and zoomed in on the photo on his tablet.
The photo was too pixelated to use in its original form,
so he passed it through an Artificial Intelligence program to enhance it.
The reference for this demo was a different photograph of a different subject.
Continuing to work on the eye, here is his progress.
Rick is defining the shadow under the eyelid.
Progress is slow using this technique, but definitely being done.
Closeup of the eye so far.
This is as far as Rick got during the two hour demonstration.
Another closeup.
Rick showing his reference photo alongside the drawing.
Rick is a 2020 graduate of the Academy of Realist Art in Boston Masters Program. Often skipping school, Rick spent hours upon hours studying the Old Masters at the local library. He would sit for hours, copying their works in pencil over and over and over again - Degas, Monet, Leonardo became his "friends and family", to him they were all he knew. It wasn't until he saw Albrecht Durer's illustration of a "Young Hare", it was at that moment, he knew he wanted to be a realistic artist.
You can see some of Rick's work at his website: https://corbettfineart.com/ You can also see more at his blog. https://rickcorbettart.blogspot.com/