Portraiture, amateur. (Kat Von D)

#1

Please tell me how I can improve.
How “good” would you say this is? Scale 1-10?

#2

i think, your main mistake is drawing different details with enthusiasm and forgetting about basic forms, so this details begin to live by themselves) Maybe you should`t forget, that all difficult forms have simple forms in the basis. For example, we can simplify head to cube. Head like a cube has four sides: frontal, back, and two lateral sides. Four basic planes. Head in you drawing has more ones. Forehead is in the one plane, lip is in the another plane, chin is in the third plane, etc. Like the Rubik Cube) And, as a result, this head is fall apart

of course details of face should be situated on the correct places

I understand, different beautiful details can be the most interesting things for drawing, but they are minor. Just don’t forget to check location of details from time to time

I believe, you drawing will look great! :thumbsup:

#3

Oh ya, I should add the reference image speaking of that.
All criticism, no matter how harsh, welcome. I want to be better.

#4

Maylar said it best - concentrate more on the whole form, and not the cool bits. That photo is challenging, because of many reasons, like her eyes are so covered in makeup, it’s hard to make out the form below it, and her tattoos distract the eye. Her eyebrows are hair, not a solid block, and your nose obviously needs to be finished. Your choice of image is not good, either, it’s washed out and effects added, which makes the details in the shadows hard to see, and washes out the mid-tones and highlights.

1-10, I’d give this a 6-7.

You could use some work on your line quality, as well - if you’re using a Wacom, this is VERY challenging to the beginner, it’s much easier to learn with a pencil. What I mean is, instead of drawing thick black lines on the contours, use thinner lines and use a darker lead, and vary your line weight according to where the line is - thinner on lit edges, thicker on lines in shadow, medium for in between. If you are using pencil, invest in some drawing pencils of different weights (B= soft, H= hard), and explore using different leads and pressure to vary your line weights more effectively. This is key to good drawing skills.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good start. I would recommend you use better source material, not heavily made up figures with indistinct photo lighting.

#5

6-7 out of 10 was way better than I was expecting haha, I thought it was in the range of 3-4 out of 10.
I don’t mind a bit of failure - I’m an amateur and want to get better.

This was drawn with a woodless HB pencil and one of those white staedler erasers. It’s all I really like using because I feel very attuned to those two. I feel like I have far more control over an HB pencil than anything else.

Where would you recommend I get some pictures for portraiture, particularly of women?

#6

Where would you recommend I get some pictures for portraiture, particularly of women?

In real life?) I`m serious. It would be much better. Real person is the best model for drawing (especially for study drawing) Insidious photos can deceive you by shadows and silhouettes;)

and in general, what a question! Sometimes I think, half of the Internet content is girl`s photos

o, idea. Maybe, if you want use photo and only photo, it could be better to chose photos of people which you know

#7

It’s very important to learn the underlying structure of what you’re looking at. If you only copy the surface, you will end up as one of those people who can only draw something decent when you have something to copy, and even then, you will often get the overall structure wrong, since you are only looking at the surface and not the structure. Studying anatomy/figure is crucial, even if you are working from references, because they will teach you to deconstruct what you’re looking at, and how to reproduce what you see not only by slavishly copying, but actually understanding how the whole thing is put together, and even be able to construct a credible looking image even without any references.

#8

What structure do you mean? I’ve done a lot of work on skulls and the muscles on top of them.
I haven’t so much done portraiture on top of that to look right, eyes are particularly hard for me to get right.

What in the picture is specifically wrong with anatomy, other than the forehead being at a weird angle and the nose being kinda screwed up?
… And the face being generally too long and not made up right

#9

What he’s saying is that you can use your knowledge of anatomy to decipher 3-d information from a 2-d image, and apply that to your drawing. The nose would be easier for you to draw if you apply your knowledge of what volume a nose takes, it’s shape, and apply that if the photo/lighting is indistinct or challenging. Just reproducing the photo is half the battle, sometimes you have to look more closely and instead of drawing what you see, improving what you see in your drawing. Does that make sense? In other words, if altering the shape/shading on the nose slightly makes it look better in your drawing, use your knowledge of the structure of a nose to do that, using the cues in the photo.

I hope that makes sense, lol.

#10

Oh yeah that makes perfect sense haha
Thanks both of ya!

#11

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.