KellyC has inspired me. (REVISITED)
 

First of all, I am really, really reticent to post anything of mine. I'm a painfully shy fellow when it comes to certain things and my artwork, what little there is, happens to fall in that verboten category.

I'm not a serious artist, which to me means I don't 'do' art for money. I've always been a closet doodler who uses his 'talent' mostly for violating copyright by reproducing the works of the Pokemon and Disney universes for nieces, nephews and assorted cousins.

A couple of years ago, I started studying form and light quasi-seriously, but was easily irritated at my lack of progress and....well, other things came up. I've decided to give serious drawing another try and I'd like the TFP's help.

Still with me?

I ran across a thread here started by KellyC where art was posted and criticism was wanted. I thought this was a wonderful idea and certainly a relatively easy way to tap into the TFP collective and maybe glean some 'learnin' off all the fantastic artists that breeze through here everyday.

I'd like you tell me what I did wrong with this one. I drew this at work the other day when a snotty girl studying caught my attention. I 'borrowed' her face. The hair I kind of made up on the fly, so, if it looks a bit off that's why. The shading on the face isn't great and bear in mind there's a bit of water damage to the bottom left hand corner (A careless co-worker set her water cup on it when she came in).

I'm most pleased with her left eye. That's right, just the 'left' eye. The right is out of whack a bit and seems to be looking at something else. Eyes are always a big problem for me, but her left eye...well, like I said, I'm most pleased.

wow, thats some right eye she has. lol. i would say this is a good rough start. from here i would focus on shading techniques and softening up some of the hard lines you have delineating facial features. remember, nothing is actually "defined" on the body, rather it just all runs into something else.

Judging from the way you draw, I'm guessing you draw it pretty quick right? Also, the lines are heavy and rugged, you want it to be smooth and thin. I suggest you use another pencil instead of a regular # 2 pencil.

Start out by drawing everything as light as possible. This way if you mess up, you can erase it easily without smearing or leaving marks. Do this until you are satisfied with the drawing then gradually make it darker.

Any way, that's my $ 0.02, I'm not a pro, I'm still learning but that's my method of drawing so you might wanna take it with a grain of salt.

Edit: sweet! I inspired someone :thumbsup: :D

I love those eyes, individually. But you're right, they don't quite go together. But the detail and shape of each eye individually looks really good. And as for the sharp lines, I like them, but I'm more of a cartoon inspired guy and I've never been good at the realism thing. But if you're going for realism, yeah, use different pencils and smooth the shafdows out. Or just try to style it up a bit so that it's not realism and not cartoonish.

Yeah, it was pretty quick. To be honest, I really wasn't going to keep it at all. It started out as an eye and moved on from there. So, yeah, it's on cheap ass printer paper and drawn with a sturdy #2. :lol:

You know what the funny thing is..Well, to me at least. They looked absolutely fine when I was working on them. I didn't notice they were all wonky until I put it up here.


Thanks for the input. :)

I would fall in the critic/eunuch class, so take it as you will... the only thing I noticed in particular was the perspective on her face. If you're going for a realistic look, it seems that her facial shape is a bit squooshed - but then again, I didn't see the model, either.
Either way... don't be too hard on yourself - millions of people like myself can't do half of that!

I like her terse expression!

However, as I'm sure you know, the nose needs to be appropriately shaded, or else it looks very 2-D. Also, maybe even out the darkness between each eye!

The best thing to do when you are drawing is not sketch. When you sketch, it gives the lines a hard, jagged feel to them. Try letting your hand flow while drawing your portrait. She is a woman, after all, and should have a moving flow to her.

Also, don't "colour in" the shadowing. It looks completely unreal. Try using the side of your pencil to shade in nicely. Also, I noticed with the earrings that they are side by side. In real life, that wouldn't occur. Instead, one should be a little higher than the other, I would say.

And, as a beginner, you don't have to get different pencils. Trust me, I have many "realistic" drawings that I have done that turned out very beautiful- and I used a mechanical pencil or a #2.

I musy say, though, I love her mouth.

Yeah, like I said the hair was completely imagined (she left before I could get a good look), so, It does look a bit 'squooshed.'

Thankyouverymuch :)

Okay. Soften lines, shade better...watch the perspective.

I've got a little list going of all the excellent suggestions. Now to incorporate them...

Another thing: Her hair is very stiff. Try breaking the hairs up, so it doesn't look like blocks.

Definately work on the basic aspects of light and shadow. Since you were just using a random person for a subject, you obviously don't have an actual photo or model to work from, so getting these aspects down is a lot harder. Also getting a real set of pencils will help as well.

When doing portraits, it's best to start with what a teacher of mine called a "vector head." This is a way of getting the eyes nose, mouth and all other aspects of the head in porportion, all based on placement compared to an idealistic "perfect" head.. From there, the individual's slight variations from this perfect head can be made, while keeping the aspects close to what we know are "normal." If I ever get a chance I'll dig up my old student work and do a mini-tutorial on drawing the human head.