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Any sugestions on how to improve this portrait. I can't seem to get it dark enought, I'm afraid to ruin it
kaly

First I'd say you are doing a great job already! What a cute picture
In my opinion I think the drawing is lacking contrast. It seems as if you have the light and mid tones in, but no dark tones. Are you familiar with the "squint" technique. If not, it is when you squint your eyes almost all the way closed and compare the original with the reference. You will see the tonal range better that way. When I did it to your drawing, I noticed your darks were not dark enough. I wouldn't worry about ruining the piece and I'd go darker in the areas that need it. Be adventurous!!
Great job so far Kaly.

Thank's cantwin, I think I will give it a trie, anyway if i do ruin it I can always start over again, and I really would like to try doing This in much bigger paper to offer it to my friend, this one is very small.

Kaly, also there is a big difference with pencil drawing depending on your supplies...the better the paper and pencils the better the results. You may need to buy some different pencils with a wider scale of lead ranges. H being for hardness and B for boldness and softness (hence where you get your really dark black tones). As for paper I would suggest Strathmore bristol smooth if you have it where you live.

Thank you so much for your advice.
I really don't have any good material, my pencils are left overs from I can'tn even tell when and I've been using copy paper I can't afford to buy expensive stuff, but i really have to get some new pencils.
Thanks

I agree that you need to increase your range of values in your drawing to really make it stand out. Can you increase the size of the image so we can see it better? Its a bit small here to really get a look at it.

As for expensive supplies - they aren't really. You can buy a 22 x 30 sheet of smooth paper and a mechanical pencils for under $5. Add a tube of HB and 2B leads for the pencil - that's another 3 or 4 dollars and you're ready to go. You can get pretty much the full range of darks with just those two pencils, perhaps adding a 4B for really dark values.

Do not try to draw with bad pencils and bad paper. You'll only frustrate yourself.

I tried to get a bigger image so you could see it better but I coudn't, sorry, the original is also quite small
I promisse I will get some new material to work with. Also I must get advice on what paper to use, for I'm not familiar with the tecnichal names in portuguese. Anyway all I have to do is go to a proper store and ask for help
Thank's for caring
Love you all
Kaly

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Still haven't bought new pencils but I did manage to darken it up a little bit. The paper is realy bad, it's not smooth enough!!!

Kaly, I think it looks alot better with the darker values that you added. It really is starting to pop out now. If you have an art supply store by you why not just look for Sanford Design Ebony pencils. They are fairly cheap and you can get a range of assorted values from one pencil. I love them for my graphite drawing and it is really the only pencil I use. I get two in a pack here in the states for $1.49. Plus they work great at working themselved in the grain of toothier papers!!

[attachmentid=8867]Hi everyone
guess what, just got some new pencils and some good smooth paper
So I decided to start all over again and do a bigger drawing....I had to use grids, to get my porportions right, and I just did my outlines, am now going to star shading it.
Thank you all for your comments and tips, I hope to finish this soon so I can show it to you.It's very light, hope you can see it LOL
love
Kaly

Looks like you have a good start.

Thank you Paulette, I'm going to work on it tonight

ok, so here's my work. do you think I could still go darker???
thank you.
Kaly

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Kaly, yup, you could go a lot darker and make this picture really pop out. Just look closely at your reference and have you tried posterizing the image, besides just make it black and white? If you have a photo program that does it yo will really see where to make your darkest dark values. It's a beautiful picture so keep working on it.

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I can't seem to get it much darker, I used 4B pencil , and still doeson't seem dark enough.
maybe I should get a 6B.
Anyway I think I'm going to leave it like this for now.

Big Kiss
Kaly

Taking the advice of these ladies is in your best intrest ...these women here who are helping you are very talented and educated in the art field.

Dear Kim
I do take the advice of these lady's or anyone elses advice, please don't get me wrong. This is my first portrait (maybe second if you count the drawing I did of my grandfather, it's in my gallery). And when I say I going to leave is as it is, I ment for now, besides I did darken it a little after the last advice I got. I just though maybe I should give it a rest and later pic it up again.
Thank you for your comment, I would not want to be misunderstood.
love kaly

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Hope this is dark enought I'm realy afraid to ruin it now:(
Love Kaly

Kaly I can understand your fear and frustration! I am trying to do a pencil drawing (new to me) and I think my problem is the paper! I can not, no mattter how shap I make the pencil or how much graphite I put down (8B) I can not get the dark areas dark! Don't even mention that shine!
Unfortunaltly, comparing the picture you just posted to the original, you are still not dark enough
If you are happy with it, call it done, it may be you have reached the saturation point of the paper (think that is the correct term) in the dark areas. I would guess depending on where the light hits it and where you are standing the dark spots change a lot with the glare. I put both the photos together in one so you can see how different the values are.

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thank you for your comment. It is far from being as dark as the original, but yes I think I have reached the saturation point ....of the paper and of myself LOL

I guess I'l just have to improve in my next drawings. This was also my first so I guess its not that bad
Love
Kaly

It is a wonderful drawing!
Getting a good dark is part how you lay down your graphite. Many, many light handed layers will build up a better dark than a couple of heavy handed ones.
If you so a search in the general discussion forum on shading there is a fair amount of info and things to try, like the ball recently.
This is a link to a thread on circulism that I started (information learned from Jeanette).

Thank you so much Paulette, I will look in the forum, The one you refered "the ball" is it it the demo for the sphere? I did that one. and I did manage to do it dark, but I wasn't afraid to ruin that one...cause if I did I could easly start over again... Anyway I am taking you advice, I'm going to search the forum and all the shading lessons....as well as the link you gave me.
Thanks for caring
Love Kaly

Yes I meant the sphere, I saw afterwards that you were in that group. It can get scary to push things farther on a drawing that is already better than what you have done before.

Yes it sure is.... but then you can't win if you don't take the risk

Love Kaly

The drawing is really good.

I have a problem with the dark too, but I'm learning to get over it with the squirkling lessons here in the site. Squirkling is really helping me see the values of the picture better. It helped so much that I believe my drawings are now a little too dark .

If you don't want to continue on this drawing for fear of ruining it my tip is that you test on the smaller version that you presented first. Get it really dark and then see if you like it better and then maybe it'll build up some strength to try on the bigger version!

Thank you for liking my drawing and thanks for the tip as well, I think I´l try that...
Love Kaly