Help/Critique with Likeness, Shading
3yr
@tikhon
I started drawing recently and am attempting a pencil drawing from a photograph, however am struggling with getting a likeness as well as am a bit unsure of how to handle the shading.
I was trying to find some private instruction through the Proko website, however one of the admins responded to my request saying they didn't know of any private lessons available and suggested posting in a forum for help.
Thanks.
I will like to suggest you to that when you are drawing outline of the reference , you should try to draw it slowly and accuarately. Just don't be disturb by the failure and keep practicing because that is the key for progress
Likeness shouldn't be the main focus when you just started drawing portraits though. Knowing all the basics of facial structure and the lighting is much more important than likeness, because likeness will come naturally after you've spent good amount of time in learning all those basic stuff.
Anyway, what kind of private instructors are you looking for? I probably can help you with that!
Asked for help
Hey Guys. This is a full graphite portrait. I feel like I managed to get the likeness pretty well in the block in (after several attempts!) but then lost it a bit in the final render. The strange thing was that after doing a much more complete drawing, but before going to full render, I traced the photo and overlayed it on my drawing and everything matched up almost perfectly, so the differences were, at that point, extremely subtle. I unfortunately didn't take a picture of that part. Any thoughts on how and why I went off track would be really appreciated.
I was using Tombow Mono 100 Pencils (4H - 2B) on Canson Mi Tientes paper if anyone is interested. This was a birthday present for a friend.
Hi Ben. Is there any particular reason you think you went off track?
I found the shading you used in the face is very similar to the reference. However, I could recommend checking out how Stan shades faces, beginning with a general egg-like shading, and seeing if that approach helps interpret the photo. The other thing is that the photo appears to have a slight dithering effect that makes some shadows have edges that might look too harsh if they are copied too literally. Perhaps use some creative license for this case and make them a bit softer? Hope this is helpful.
here I've done a draw-over with those suggestions included. I also slightly adjusted the right side of the head to help define the eye socket and forehead. I have softened transitions in the hairline, and cheek, and moved the hairline in and down, and some other small adjustments. you could try downloading the image and then in layers in Photoshop flicking between the two versions and maybe that would help? Good luck!
Put your drawing on top of your reference in your favorite software to spot the small errors that can totally destroy likeness. Do this not until you have done your very best to find this through construction and measuring, and a good night of sleep. Try to find out what went wrong, and how you can avoid your own personal pitfalls next time.
