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Portrait Drawings Started
1yr
Jake
I'm doing Proko's Portrait course, trying to go in open minded with no assumptions but it's proving tricky. So far I have just covered the videos on the Loomis method. Are the drawing exercises meant to be done of random heads (minus features) from your imagination, say, just a featureless head pointing in random directions? That might be where I am going wrong. I think I find the size/shape of the chin tricky as well. I know my drawings aren't great, they'll need repetition. I would just appreciate being told anything glaringly obvious, with respect to the course that I am following. Lastly, is it ok if I keep updating this thread as I progress through the course?
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Jake
1yr
Asked for help
Simplifying animals into shapes
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
Second lesson, draw some fruit. Old shading habits die hard. Was meant to keep it boxy with no smooth transitions. Hand waivered a bit.
Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Jake, nice work! I think the first one is especially good, with its more accurate drawing. I'll do my best to help you further :) Keep in mind that Stan will probably touch on the things I mention further down the course, so don't stress over it 😎 - When drawing keep a vertical and a horizontal line in mind. The vertical line parallel with the vertical edge of the paper and the horizontal line parallel with the horizontal edge of the paper. Having a clear idea of what is true horizontal and what is true vertical can help with the accuracy of the drawing. In the third drawing the pear looks like it's tilting the right --> the vertical relationships has not been captured accurately. In the second value scale, the shape of the squares changes. Try to make the size of the squares consistent and edges truly horizontal and vertical. It might sound overkill, but it's good practice for capturing the more complex shapes of nature. - I would encourage you to do another value scale. The steps look pretty good (you might want to darken the mid value and the second to darkest value. The value scale leans a bit to the light side). The main thing I notice is an uneveness withing each square. In your next one, try to make the values more even. This can take some extra time, but it's a great way to build value control skills. When shading a drawing, a change in value comunicates something, such as a change in form. If the value changes in the wrong place the form might not read the way you intended it to. When doing the value scale I would recommend making the lines for the squares light, so that the edge is created by the filled in values instead (you'll get to practice edge control - in this case making a hard edge.) I hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
Jake
1yr
It's been a while. I was hitting a wall and had to acknowledge my faults, so I have bought the Drawing Basics course. They cheekily give a one time discount offer on "figure drawing fundamentals" at checkout as well....so I got that haha! But anyway here's exercise number one, lines!!!
Jesper Axelsson
Nice! Is it the assignment for this lesson Project - Get Your Tools and Start Playing (I would encourage you to post your assignments under the assignments tab in the lesson), awesome! I'll take a look on you other post as well👍
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
latest study. Focusing on eyes and nose at the moment, so the jaw is mostly indicative.
Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Jake, cool drawing! It's great that you try challenging angles, and I think you did a pretty good job. The elliptical line wrapping as a crosscontour around the sphere (the line that the brows sit on), looks really nice! - I think you'll really benefit from, and enjoy taking the Drawing Basics course. It will give you a broad foundation that is going to help you in whatever subject you're drawing. - Try to be lighter on the hand as you draw. This video has some great tips on linework Intro to Lines . - Try to apply the same approach you use for drawing the head, when you draw the features; build the features with 3D-pieces. Do this with light lines, then render on top (Top 5 Drawing Mistakes (at 8:51-->) ) - Since you seem to enjoy working with value, I think you'll appreciate doing value studies. If you're interested, check out this video How to Organize Values (you can get it for free in the Proko Course Sampler ). I found working with 5 values difficult at first, so I started with practicing 2-value studies, then moving to 3, then 4, then 5. For the 2 value studies, I still used the same approach of finding the extremes, then judging a value against those, to discern what group it belonged to. (I attached a paintover of Proko user Tony Vu's work.) If you find it hard to control the value itself, it could be useful to do a value scale, with the drawing tool you intend to use. Draw five squares, and mark them 1 to 5. 1 is the white of the paper. 5 is as dark as you can go with the material. Start by filling in square 5. Get to know the material; apply strokes in different directions, build up the tone from light to darkest, feel where the tip of the tool is touching the paper. Make the tone as even as you can. Then do the same with square 3. The value should be inbetween the strength of 1 & 5. Then you do #2, which should be inbetween 1&3 in strength, then #4, which should be inbetween 3&5 in strength. I hope this helps :) Let me know if you have any questions!
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
Don’t know about technical accuracy but I’m feeling a human connection to a lot of the eyes I have been doing
michael legassie
this is beautiful, but quick tip, if this is watercolor, try to use color pencil and blend those uneven marks.
Martha Muniz
Awesome progress! You've come a long way and I applaud the dedication. What program are you using by the way? I think switching to smoother brush may help bring out more clarity in your drawings.
Peter Anton
This is a good start! The left eye looks a bit bigger than the other. I'd avoid doing all those splotchy gray values all over the face, I'm not really sure what's going on there, but it looks like you don't have a clear separation of lights and shadow. Structure and studying the planes of the face will help with that. I think the face might be too long as well, or the eyes should be lowered
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
I think lacking an approach to eyes that I liked was the road block previously and now I’m back to happily drawing every night
Steve Lenze
It's good to know that you are feeling more confident and are drawing everyday...but, Don't give up everything you have been working on or learning about the head. I did a quick sketch to show you some things to think about.
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
As I stated earlier, I’m not the best learner. I keep forgetting things I learned in the past. So one of these is a trace. The other one I blocked in and then worked in the finer details. Size is a little off but I am a bit proud of it.
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
Still trying to intake the material reg eyes. As I replied to somebody earlier I find it hard marrying the guide to what I see in the eyes, I’m not a fast learner or good listener I’m afraid. I also seem to have trouble with mouthed and chins. It seems the chin ends up being too small or maybe my mouth is too big, but I have trouble nailing it down.
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
Latest sketches, not had chance to further much in the eyes department though
Steve Lenze
Hey Jake, I did some sketches that I hope will help you with your eyes
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
Recently moved onto eyes, it didn’t quite sink in so I’ll have to research some more
Martha Muniz
Hi Jake! Some things that could help: - Right now your studies seem to be focused on the shape, but pay attention to the building blocks that make it up--the upper and lower lids, brow ridge, cornea, tear ducts, etc. are all 3d forms that have planes of their own worth knowing. The lids will have a thickness to them, and the spherical shape to eye itself dictates the perspective and curvature to the iris and pupil. It's important to understand the construction in order to draw and place them at different angles, and to shade properly later down the line. - Some of your irises/pupils could be larger, there's usually barely any visible eye white on top/below in a neutral eye pose. - For placement, a rule of thumb is that there's about one eye shape length in between. Though it's pretty good with the 2nd example, they do seem rather apart and slightly small in the 3rd image. I hope this is useful. Let me know if you have any questions. :)
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
Steve Lenze
Your doing well with these Jake, keep it up and you will be able to draw a head in any position from imagination :)
@michael_idahosa
I like the one you did at the top left corner, the three quarter view makes the head look more 3d. You just have to be more loose with your lines and work on your facial features.
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
More!
Jake
1yr
Asked for help
More practice making sure I nail it before moving on
Steve Lenze
These heads turned our pretty good, keep at it :)
Jake
1yr
Think I made a little progress given the feedback
Cade Burdett
Hey Jake! I’m biased because I started a thread myself haha, but I think you should do it! It helps keep me accountable and encourages me to get up and start drawing. Whatever floats your boat, do it! I’m still learning myself, but I think looking for the shapes in the head might help bring your portraits into life. This looks more like you were looking just at the contour alone. It’s very hard but try to simplify it down. Good luck!
Jake
1yr
Thank you very much :)
Steve Lenze
Hey Jack, To answer your question, you should look for head reference in different directions and angles, then use the Loomis method to draw the heads. You can then put your drawing over the reference to see how you did. It's a great way to check your work. Also, I would just draw the head shapes using Loomis without the features for now. If you can show the head in any position and make it look dimensional and solid than you can start adding features. I did a few examples based on your drawings to show how they should look. Notice too how loose my drawings are, yours are pretty tight which can make it hard to explore the shapes. I hope this helps :)
Jake
1yr
Thank you very much for this response :)
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