zahraott22 | Genius Hour with Zahra

Week 1: Practicing Basic Henna Designs

For the first week I decided to practice simple henna designs since it had been at around a month since I last did henna. To practice, I used a regular cone and created my designs on paper. Bridal henna usually consists of these designs but put together, so this was a great way to practice….

Second Genius Hour Project

For the second genius hour project, I will be learning how to do bridal henna. As I already know how to basic henna designs, “bridal” henna will be challenging since it is much more complex and time-consuming than regular henna designs. I’ve been practicing henna since the age of eight, however, I only attempted bridal…

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think my genius hour project went well. This project helped me improve my art skills in portrait drawing and allowed me to explore new art mediums. Lots of effort went into this project since the portrait drawings took hours to create. One thing I could have improved on was to consistently blog, although…

Contacting A Specialist

I had originally reached out to a Edmonton-based artist, going by the name Pencil Art by Julie. Since I did not have much time I contacted her by email. However, there was no response.

Illustrating Parts of the Face Using Colour

This week I will be illustrating parts of the face using colour. This will be similar to week 3 but with coloured pencils. I have used crayola for the illustration below: I think the most well done illustration is the eye. This is because it seems the most realistic due to the shading and depth….

Illustrating Full Portrait (Charcoal)

This week I will be using the skills I have learned over the past 4 weeks to create this portrait. (The portrait is of Turkish actress Ozge Torer) To begin with, I used proportions and then built my way up by using shading and depth. Here is my portrait compared to the reference: After finshing…

Week 4: Realistic Half-Split Portrait -Part A

This week I have attempted to draw two realistic half-split portraits. To begin, I found a clear image out of a magzine and printed it in grayscale. Then, I cut the photo in half to allow me to draw the other side which is cut-off. My first half portrait is done in graphite and the…

Week 3: Illustrating Parts of the Face

Using the skills I have learned from shading, I will practice drawing parts of the face. Shading will play a huge role in these illustrations as shading creates the illusion of depth and volume. Each illustration will be created using charcoal. Here I have shown my illustrations: To me, the illustration of the nose was…

Week 2: Learning Shading & Depth

This week I will be learning the basics of shading and depth. I have slightly altered my plan as I will learn basic shading with graphite and then with charcoal. Shading and depth are what makes the illusion of structure and skin within a portrait. For example, to create the look of a cheekbone and…

My Plan

My genius hour project goal is to master hyperrealistic portrait drawing. There are twelve weeks until February to learn this skill, so here I have mapped my plan out: Week 1: Learn Proportions of the Face Week 2: Learning Shading & Depth Using Graphite Week 3: Using Shading Techniques to Illustarte Parts of the face…