Drawing ‘Nicolai’
Drawing ‘Nicolai’
This lesson is premium only. Join us in the full course!
1:18:11

Portrait Drawing Fundamentals

Full Drawing Demos

Drawing ‘Nicolai’

19K

Drawing ‘Nicolai’

19K
Newest
Charles Ray
I definitely see mistakes but likeness was the goal. Critiques on that would be helpful.
Yoshi Oda
1mo
I think I made the eyes too big but I don’t think that’s the only problem. I think I made the overall head to small and the features a bit to big/bold if that makes sense? I would like some feedback so I can improve in the future
Nicole Guz
4mo
I tried following. But I have alot of proportional mistakes. How did you guys measure your reference to drawing? Also any other critique?
@robot0906
4mo
Here’s my potrait study I did on Wednesday.
Aadesh Maharjan
This is a portrait of Tyrion lannister from GOT. Critiques for improvement please
Angiev
6mo
Finally, Not sure how long ago I started the course. First time I went thru really to fast. I had some issue with the forhead lines, but here it is. I know I didn't push the lights and darks any further. Feed back is welcome
@alexanderglarose
I know you already acknowledged that you didn't render the lights and darks further. My question is, why not? You have a fairly well-constructed Nicoli. You could easily improve your drawing orders of magnitude by simply making the darks darker. Even just making the pupils their respective deep black could add much more character. Other than that. Your eyes look like they are looking in different directions (I believe the left pupil is slightly offset to the upper left). I believe the shape/outline of your shadows could be paid more attention, especially those under the jawline and in the ear. And your shadows are nearly as light as your half-tones. Remember, the lightest darks are darker than the darkest lights. And there are many parts of your drawing that weren't shaded at all. The only parts of your drawing that should be absolute whites should be your highlights (e.g. It looks like your whole forehead is a highlight). Everything else should be even just slightly shaded so that your drawing doesn't look blown-out. I believe you have much untaped potential in this one! You should come back to it some day :)
Marco Sordi
2024/6/4. Good afternoon everybody. Here's my latest work, a master study again. This time a tried to draw a detail from "Giuditta Beheading Holofernes" by Caravaggio. It's my first work totally realized by pastel pencils (Stabilo Carbothello and Rembrandt on Pastelmat paper). The wrinkles on the face of the old servant Abra, intent on holding the cloth in which Holofernes' head will be preserved, are excessively hard but the gradations and nuances are acceptable, considering the instability of the pastels. It is my first attempt to create a work with this type of media but I must say that I am moderately satisfied. Thank you for your comments or critiques.
maciek szczech
Beautiful. Next step would be perhaps to study the whole Caravaggio painting.. Looking forward to see more from you.
Melanie Scearce
Beautiful work! It's wonderful that you are experimenting with new mediums. Hope you had fun!
@ashton526
7mo
Hello, some great feedback on here. Would appreciate any critique of mine. Been drawing for about 8mo, so my self-critique list on this drawing is very long. Would love to know if it matches what others think, thank you!
Melanie Scearce
This is a lovely portrait -- very expressive. You did a wonderful job. I think what makes Stan's demo portrait successful is his use of lost edges and implied forms. Compared to his portrait, you tend to outline the features with a darker line to show the shape of the form that you have designed. I don't see that as a negative or positive thing, just an observation. Overall, you have a great value range and your drawing ability is really shining here. Great job and hope to see more :)
Arman Jucutan
Hello, here is a recent lay-in practice that I did. I am having issues with the lay-in stage. Particularly with setting landmarks and making the big shapes accurately. I like using straight lines in my lay-in stage because I find it a lot easier to set landmarks (e.g. thirds of the face) and draw the big shapes of the features (e.g. the eye sockets and overall nose shape) as shown in my work below. I don't feel confident with this method though because obviously my initial lay-in is far from what the reference looks like. Am I using too much straight lines here? Should I incorporate more curves? Thank you in advance for any kind stranger who will respond to this!
Melanie Scearce
I think if using straights helps you in the layin stage, use 'em! I would recommend focusing on finding the right angles if you use that approach. For example, in your drawing, her face is very square and she looses the feminine taper of the jaw because the line isn't angled inward. Hope that helps!
Samuel Sanjaya
I did some expressions study. I feel like knowing the muscles of the face will help me do this better
Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Samuel Sanjaya, nice studies! - I've been trying to learn drawing facial expression for a long time. I too thought that learning the individual muscles of the face would help me do it better, but it didn't help that much. I've been studying the Disney animators a lot recently. There is an awarness of the muscles in their drawings, but they are focusing on the large masses and how they squash and stretch. You need very little detail! Just a few shapes can give a very clear expression. So keep it to just a few shapes, give us a feeling of solidity with a rigid cranium, then have the features squash and stretch on top of it; have all the features affect eachother. I did a paintover explaining this in more detail. It might help to do some studies of facial expressions drawn by a Disney animator. I hope this helps :) Let me know if you have any questions!
Pedro Branco
Here's a portrait that I did recently. I'd like to be able to shade much like how Stan does in these demos but I just don't know where to start with the topic. It's a subject that I have a really hard time with. Tell me what you think please. Feedback is very appreciated.
Blake Pawlikowski
Wasn't sure the best place to post this, so dropping it here. Wanted to do another portrait on my own before doing the last assignment in this course. Per usual, being a day or two after drawing this, there's a list of things to work on that are very clear to me, however, I spent more time on the layin making sure proportions were correct and did some additional measuring. It's not quite as accurate as I'd like, but there's improvement (if only in the intention and time doing that initial drawing!). Open to feedback if anyone has comments for me! Always interesting to see if flaws I'm aware of are what others notice. Thanks!
Jesper Axelsson
Cool! - maybe the iris and pupil are a little large compared to the eye-ball. It might help to outline the eyeball and iris in the lay-in, to check their realtionship. Cheers!
Blake Pawlikowski
Here's my result after following the demo. Still some things I'm certainly aware of I need to work on, but open to feedback! I would say I felt confident going into this based on the foundation I've improved on throughout the course. My biggest personal critiques on this include needing to spend more time on the initial drawing (spend more time with initial measuring, be open to changing things later if they prove to be off or look off) and paying more attention to values across the entire image (some of my darks are too dark or neighboring areas not dark enough).
@ern1s
1yr
Hi, I would appreciate some feedback. It's extremely difficult to get likeness for some reason.
Gannon Beck
I think these are really nice. If you want something to work on, I would say to spend a little more time defining the shadow shapes--at least on the second one.
@donnelly
1yr
First Attempt, using HB 2B 4B, homemade stump and eraser. Had to change the nose near the end when I realized it was too short, changed the forehead at the end with Stan. I can see the mouth is a little off and will go back into it.
Blake Pawlikowski
Very nicely done! The mouth is also off in my drawing, however I think you have it much closer than I do. Thanks for sharing your work, it's impressive!
Gannon Beck
Very well done!
klaibee
1yr
Another exercise…focusing on a more defined stroke, less blurred …I need to do more of these drawings to find „my line“ and confidence. Maybe I will use a smoother paper next time- what do you think?
@ruthdallas
Well I don't know the reference but this to me seems like a really excellent portrait.
Gannon Beck
Very nicely done! I'll attempt this one as well pretty soon--if not today, then sometime this week.
klaibee
1yr
I didn't quite finish this drawing of Nikolai because i realized that I should have chosen a larger format to draw more precisely - or maybe I should have used a different pencil? I started blurring and could‘t work out the details. Anyway, i'll try again! what kind of pencil, paper and size is the best for a drawing like this?
Gannon Beck
Very nice! When you say larger format, what are you thinking?
Artūras ČIvas
Portaits sketches. Graohite on moleskine
Gannon Beck
Here is my drawing of Nicolai. I'll probably try again after I get more portraits under my belt. I think I'm approaching it well, but need some line mileage to refine my measuring technique and get used to drawing with a charcoal pencil.
klaibee
1yr
very cool!
Vin
1yr
Here is my attempt, Not easy but it's fun.
Herman
1yr
Looks very recognizable. Try to work on the symmetry of the lips and the eyes. Try to harmonize the shadows on the ears with the rest of the face. The iris of his right eye looks unusually bright; maybe there is a hint of a cast shadow you can add there (dont have the reference now). Well done!
Full course
You will be given unexpiring access to watch the videos online .
View course details
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!