This is my first attempt at a photo realistic Pencil drawing. It is on a piece of hot press illustration board which has NO tooth and is hard as rock, so there is no chance of damaging the surface and I can always get back to white if I want without damage. I choose this support since I have very little experience with pencil and did not want to spend many hours on something and then damage the surface. This was started last spring and sits on a chest of drawers next to where I work and looks at me asking me to finish it. The cat has knocked it on the floor 2 times so far.. you can see the bent lower right corner. I figured if I posted it as a WIP, it would guilt me into finishing it faster! I am kind of working from 2 sources, the reference photo on the monitor and the printed version. The printed version had better contrast but digital version lets me zoom in on details. I reduced the size of the reference before posting and it looks as if some detail was lost. I know I am doing everything wrong.. Not working the whole drawing.. not keeping my hands off the unfinished areas.... blending.. putting in more detail than is needed.. etc..
Any constructive critique is welcome.. good or bad!
Thanks!

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Reference photo
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Some folks work the whole drawing, some draw from left to right in one pass. I've done both -- well, I've tried the latter a couple of times, anyway, and the results were wonderful IMO. Whatever works for you is fine.

I love the way you've done the hair -- you've really captured the loose, slicked-back 'do.

It looks to me like the wing of the nose on our left protrudes too far.

yes you should finish doug..it is coming along so wonderfully, and i think you are doing a really awesome job..

Beautiful done and I agree with kay,Want to see your final touch. lily

keep it going. it's wonderful

Problem solved. I'll nag you everyday to finish it. That has got to be the most handsome man, and I think you are doing a fabulous job with him, but I want to see it finished because I enjoy looking at him and with a face like that it deserves to be finished. So get to work..

I'm going to be real honest here. Although I'm amazed at the technical skills used to pull off such realistic looking work, at the same time, for me anyway, I find it rather boring because it looks like nothing more than an exact copy of the photo. There doesnt seem to be anything original or creative about the piece. To me it just seems kinda bland to look at. I'm sure it's just me but I never really cared for photorealistic drawings.

Hi Air, good job on your first photo-realistic portrait. I agree with Ernest in that something bothers me about the nose......but I was leaning toward blending & softening the nasal edge on his left....ha ha ha ....funny how we see different things isn't it - I guess you'll have to decide for yourself what to do, if anything.

Nancy, we grow 'em hunky Downunder don't we!?

rsine, I agree in a way that photo - realism can be replaced by a photograph in many cases, but I love that you can, once you have mastered the effects of realism, take it even further and have figures pushing out of torn paper, or other wonderful and clever effects. But the talent to go that far has to start somewhere and I can see a wonderful talent developing here.

Oh I agree how important it is to learn the technical aspects of drawing. All the past masters emphasized how important it is to learn classical drawing skills. However, drawings that look like exact copies of photos with nothing to distinguish them from the orginal source material just seems to lack any life. Why would I take the time to look at an exact reproduction of a photo when I can just view the original photo itself?

For me, the best artwork (even based on photos) are the ones that not only show great technical skill but stand out in terms originality with the artist's own distinctive style.

Ernest: Thanks for pointing that out. That area is no not even close to being complete and now was when I should have measured. I took it back a small amount but I think the real problem is the eyes are to small! Not going to mess with that so will just have to adjust the other parts to match if I can.

I really appropriate the encouragement you are all providing! There is no question this will be finished, starting and finishing a job is in my nature and leaving something (anything) I start unfinished is unacceptable in my mind, but I want it done in the next few weeks not months! Your support and knowing there are folks that want to see it when complete will help in that matter!

Rsine, I agree with your 100% unfortunately we are all wired differently. I envy people that have vivid imaginations and those that can bring their thoughts and idea to life!
I however am a logical thinker, and that was the aspect of my personality that was dominant and nurtured as a child. I decided at the age of 12 I would be an auto mechanic, I attended the public school votec program and then 2 years of post high school auto training. After 10 years of working 6 days a week in the mid 90's I taught myself computer programming. I worked as a database application developer for the balance of the 90's. In 2000 I moved into the Unix System admin role which I have been doing ever since (still get to write tools!). Back in 2004 I leaned that drawing and painting was not some magic thing you were born with but a skill you can lean! I have been enjoying the fact I can build things with wood, or weld up a trellis for my rose bushes or any thing else mechanical all of my adult life, but adding the image creation to the list was really a wonderful discover!
Unfortunate, the ability to imagine things and make changes to things that are not there in front of me, is not something I have learned how to do yet.
So why make a copy of a photo? It's because that is the best I can do at this point, "real" is what I understand and I need exact specs and plans to build something from nothing... note that last statement.. Logic rules in my world!

Hope to get some time with this over the weekend but unfortunately not today :-(

I cant wait to see the end results Doug you have a fantastic start there. I work a bit of the picture at a time.. can't seem to make myself do it any other way. I finish some then go on. Capturing a bit of the personality of the subject is the most fun !
Kat

Here's a little update. Life has interrupted as it normally does and I am now just getting back to doing a little bit on this each day. Well at least I have in the past 2 days.. hope to keep at it.


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Makes my day, very nice.

I think we all have different ways of how we like to express our art ...I love doing portraits and the more I cvan make them look like the person the better ...I feel it takes alot of skill to put out the kind of work these people do ....anyone can draw a picture of say Brad Pitt but can you make it look real like a photo ? not all can and that is fine also ..Bobby is one of my favorite artist on here and he makes money drawing portraits .. people would not want to buy them if they did not look like the person they were intended to .

Not saying at all that I do not like other art .. i love the watercolor that Steve does .. its amazing and it is not what most would say picture perfect .. but its still perfect ... or the pen and ink ...there are so many different kinds . Risine you do strange off colors .. some may think that why purple hair lol but I love your style as well .

I love the portrait you are working on and i think your doing a amazing job abd cant wait to see the final.

Thanks Nancy and Kim! I did a bit on the nose today and just can not get it right.. well I had it correct and then I fixed it.... now it is not correct.. Hopefully when I look at it a couple of days I can see what my mind won't allow me to see at the moment!

I do the same thing hun .. wait before I do aqnything I will have wished I did not lol .. and most times i see clear as the day what and where I went wrong .

Hi, just to share.

I enjoy more when my drawing portraits looks like more a photo, i think this is the reason for a portrait.

Some times the problem is not the drawing, probably is the original photo or the point of view...

About the drawing, in my style, i think that...

all the drawing need more blending , the facing lines looks too hard, this make older man.

the shadow, the hair, the noise need different levels of blur because the flash in the photo put flat in one level everything

The black need to be diferent with the white face. in this moment is too close.

The eyes need hard detail.

I'm trying to help and be honest before to be kind,

probably my english looks horrible, sorry, please correct me.

FG Portraits.

In my gallery i'll apreciate all your comments too.

Yes I agree with what you say! This photo was a bad choice, very detailed and no contrast. I hope to go over the drawing and adjust contrast level once I get the image completely rendered making the dark things darker and the light areas lighter. My choice of hot press illustration board was also a mistake for the course texture of the subjects skin. I get sucked into detail so I feel if I leave it out or minimize it I am not doing a good job, this is something I will learn to let go over time.
This was an experiment for me in pencil, I have only just started drawing and I will continue to try, but I think I like paint and charcoal better than pencil.

Thank you for your input, I will keep keep these things in mind as I work to finish this!
BTW your drawings are wonderful!!

Been a long while since I posted any update and have really not make a lot of progress but I keep pokin at it every so often..


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Just totally jaw droppingly fantastic

oh-h lovely!
Excellent job on the hair.

I second that emotion!! T'is really good work>

adds my two cents..it is coming along really well Doug..keep going..

Thanks for all of your support and kind words! I will keep at it and hopefully be done before 2010!

You are almost there. Great job.