Mechtonia: Very nice job. The reflected light around the silhouette is nicely done.

There's some oddness in the values of the neck; it looks pretty flat compared to the face.

I wish there was more modeling in the braids, so we could see their shape. The parts in shadow are very flat.

The detail and modeling of the collar is very nice; good depth on our right side as it curves behind her.

The photo was really flat. Almost no contrast and only about the size of a wallet photo. The braids were completely black in the photo but I did fake in a tiny bit of shading although you may not be able to see it due to the scan quality. Thanks for the input.

I made this portrait of Christopher Hitchens recently.

Click to view attachment

I think I have a good eye, but my technique is abysmal. That's why I'm starting from scratch... all the way back to stick figures.

Einseidler, I don't think you need to go back to stick figures. You've done a very good portrait here and your style is unique. Because you have hard edges throughout the portrait it works well.

It really depends on what you're trying to achieve with the portrait as to whether you're satisfied or not. To me, this is a great loose illustrational style portrait. If you're trying to create another style, then sure you'll need to change outlining and shading techniques. Only you can decide that.

Einseidler, dont go back to stick figures - draw some more of these. I like your style very much

I'm going to agree with Lance, here -- I like that style and would like to learn to use it myself!

Thanks for the compliments. The biggest problem I have is that it's basically pure luck whether or not I can produce a portrait. I was never taught to see things in shapes. I actually find it very awkward to use the lessons taught in the tutorials on this site. However, I have hope that I'll develop a more consistent style in the end.

Here's another one I did of Jon Stewart.

Click to view attachment

Very cool!

There's only one path to consistency: practice!

Hey gang, Just browsing DS and came across this great forum topic.
I love the variety of styles on display here.
I'm self taught. Trial and error. I've definitely seen that the more time you put into drawing, the better the results.
I would love some creative input.
I know I can be more detailed but I think I hit a wall when I get about 4 hours into a portrait.
No, that's not in one sitting. It's usually broken into a couple.

Thanks
Coach K

Amazing work.

I know that wall you're talking about. I start hitting mine at around 1 hour. If I go beyond 1.5 hours, I find myself cutting corners to finish up before I start making big mistakes.

We often inadvertently put time restrictions on ourselves when it comes to drawing. We say, ok, I've got 2 hours to draw/paint/whatever, so you try to pack it all into a short period of time to get results. There is no time limit for any piece of art, unless you have a client breathing down your neck, wanting a portrait by 3pm on Tuesday afternoon.

Because you've rushed areas, you don't achieve the results that you planned on and you get frustrated. So then you rush further just to get it over with and move on to the next. Or you lost interest because its not doing as you want it and you just put marks on paper without really becoming involved in the process.

Not every drawing is worth completing. You have to accept that and be able to abandon the drawing and move on. You also need to reach a point of absorption into the process of drawing so that it takes over and you become involved in the act of drawing, not thinking ahead to the finished product.

I spend up to 30+ hours on a graphite portrait. These are realistic pieces and I work small sections at a time, but I rarely tire of the process or hit 'the wall'. Sure I dump drawings, but I don't get bored with the process of putting graphite on paper and seeing what forms out of the blank sheet. That's because I choose my subjects carefully.

Choose a subject that really inspires you. You'll know it when you see it. Then you'll spend the time required to portray that without becoming bored. I draw lots of things every day, but most of them aren't inspirational, they're drawing fodder to keep my eye/hand coordination sharp. The drawings that fire me up and keep me drawing into the night are subjects that strike my imagination with possibilities and keep my brain engaged as to how to interpret them on paper or canvas.

So, your portrait of Elvis is fine, there are some elements in it that could be tweaked, depending on what your vision is for this piece. But does it REALLY inspire you? Would it be more interesting with a background? Colour? A different person? Lighting?I think you need to ask yourself how much a subject inspires you to understand why you lose interest 4 hours in.

Thanks for your input Islander. I agree with you. I have done some pieces that really grabbed me.
I did a drawing of my daughter a few years ago. It looked okay. It had the typical 4 hour completion time.
When the local county fair was coming to town this summer, I was looking for a few pieces to enter into there fine arts competition.
I looked at the portrait of my daughter and said, "I can make that look better!" I put probably another 4 hours into it and it is now one of my best works. I did get an award for it too. Icing on the cake!
It's great to look back at my older portraits and to see how far I have come. I will apply your approach. Thanks Again.

This is the first of two douple portraits I was asked to do
The photo I had to work from is very bad, it was taken at night in a bar. I did some changes because I did not want the man's hand to appear beneath her hair.
I'm not very satisfied with the final result.

Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

Well, it's not too late to make it better! You've done everything right so far; you just need to push the middle values further. Both of these folks have a nice rich skin color and you can crank up the shading much more all over both their faces. I'm also thinking her irises should be a bit larger, and his wild eyebrows -- which look like a signature feature -- should be drawn less neatly! Also the strands of hair on the top and side of her head should probably not be so pronounced; I'd even out the darker values over much of that area.

Thanks Ernest, meanwhile and before I read you post, I did go and darken her hair, because she has dark hair, in this photo it doesn't show much because of all the lights from the bar. I will darken their skin as you sugested, I'm not sure how to correct the hair now, since it's much darker. Shoud I erase parts of it? I also tried doing something about his eyebrows but doesn't show much changes, so I will go over it again in the morning.
I also corected the corner of he's right eye (left eye to viewer) that I thought was not quite right.

anyway here it is after I darkend her hair.
Click to view attachment

Yes, Clara the good likeness that you achieved would benefit from more values on both faces.Try a more pronounced definition of their noses, shading more to give volumes to their faces.Good job so far.

Here is my portrait after some corrections as sugested by Ernest and Elena

Click to view attachment

Clara, I think you´re doing a good portrait. You just need to give volume to their faces shading some areas to give light and shadow, but be careful.

Thanks Kain

I added some more shading to the faces.

Click to view attachment

Clara, I suppose this is a great learning experience for you. Remember the more you shade the more contrast and definition to their complexion you give.Don't be afraid of shading everywhere on the face, forehead too, the features will just pop off the page wonderfully.

Hi Clara, I Hope you are getting on OK with the house to yourself. It will be feeling a bit empty, but in a way, you can enjoy doing your own thing when you are on your own. Now, about your portrait - it's looking good - I don't like criticising, but I feel the man's nose is looking a bit flat. Have a look yourself and see what you think. Maybe you are losing the nose definition with adding shading to the whole face. Cheers, Norma

Thanks everyone for helping me out with my portrait

Elena, Yes this is a challenge to me, it it was for myself I wouldn't be so afraid to go darker, if I ruined it I could always start again.
But I have to deliver this one and another one I already started tomorrow.

Norma, thanks, I will not be alone till next Monday, but I already miss them, isn't it strange?! I'm still getting everything ready for them to leave.

About the portrait, I added some more shading to both faces, and now I am really afraid to ruin it if I go on. I know its silly but that's ME

here it is. I guess I will leave it like this for now, until I do the other one, and then I'l take another looks at it, I've been with this one for 9 hours now, and I don't think I can see straight anymore

Click to view attachment

It's looking good, Clara. Now for the background I would apply some graphite powder with a Qtip or tissue paper to create contrast with the figures.But it's up to you if you do a bg or not.

I am a new face too and checking this site out. There is a LOT here! I just stumbled on this and am trying to figure out why I haven't heard of it.
I hope I am doing this right!

Welcome to Drawspace Kartense. Your portrait is fabulous. Great shading and values. I'd love to see more of your work.

THis is a photo of my sister Cristina when she was 20, and my 1-hour sketch that i did to become familiar with drawing her features before I attack that portrait.
Need feedback to what i am missing here and how much i achieved the likeness.This is a 3.5x6 in photo and a 5x7 in. sketch.

Hi Elena,

Your sketch does indeed look like your sister. One thing to watch out for is that she's not facing right towards the camera here, but about ten degrees to our right -- she's looking at our right ear. So the plane of the face is tilted away. In your sketch you've turned it back towards us to some extent; you've leveled the line that the eyes lie on, and pulled the right corner of the mouth up and out.

Also she's got wonderful movie-star eyebrows in this photo and you must be sure to capture their shapes!

Here's an alternate version of the image -- I like to work from both the original and an "enhanced for drawing" version like this.
Click to view attachment

Thanks Ernest. The enhanced pic really helps.You're right about the mouth and eyebrows, but the eyes I think they are not looking at us.Anyway it was the first try.I really need to work more with this photo for a real portrait.Thanks again.

Meanwhile I worked with the potrait of my doctor and I have a feeling that my shading moves away from any likeness with the photo.What do you think?
I took hos photo in his office(he is my psychiatrist)because I thought he has a very interesting face to draw.His ancestry is a mix a Armenian and turkish jew, Christian by faith and i want to make this portrait a gift, depending on the likeness and quality of portrait i can send this in now for Christmas or wait for four month until the next visit and try several versions until i get a perfect one(well, very good).He seemed very pleased with the idea and i bet will love to see it earlier than four months.I guess that I can do both, the gift now and later versions as i will develop more my skills in four months.What do you guys suggest?

I might be out of line here but I was reading these post and thought maybe I might be of some help. You've got a good, very good one hour sketch there. Your sister has a wonderfull look about her and the advise already given you is right.......here is a rule I hang tightly to so no matter how a persons head is turned or how the shadeing or lighting is this rule applies and always works well for me. Draw what you see not what you think is right. I do a lot of portraits and every one is different, every single one. The lighting, the head angles, everything about a person is unique so I have to draw what I see. I read her rules on portraits here and if you want your portrait to be exact and not art then useing the grids and rules work well.

I think , are you asking me too? well I think you've got this right on the money just keep going, you have him but you need more values. If you do this you will have a better than the photo piece.

oh no, I think I replied in the wrong boxes! I am too new here!

Thanks for the replies, kartensa.I am working on both gifts my sister and the doctor.The fact that what i see doesn't look like the photo is due to my limited experience and not because I draw what i imagine is there.

Elena, I think you've headed in the right direction on both these portraits. You've got good advice on your sister's portrait and I'm sure you'll do well. Your initial drawing is good, just needs some measurements of angles to take place so you get a good likeness. The quality of the photo when its small makes drawing a good portrait even harder, as I'm sure you know.

The drawing of your doctor looks wonderful, very good likeness. Well done. My only comment would be to provide an even tone to all the skin. The viewer's right side shows the white of the paper, but there aren't strong highlights on that side of the face. Keep your highlights for the brightest whitest lights in your drawing.

No matter what your level of experience, if a likeness is important, then use the tools available to you to ensure that you can get that. Whether it is a grid or projector or tracing, use it. THe hard part isn't getting the outline, its the shading.

Thank you, Jeanette.I will try to fix the shading problem, it's actually the part that makes me unsure to make this gift now or to wait.I am not quite satisfied with the portrait of the doctor at this point.Also the original doesn't have much white now as i worked more after scanning.Thanks again. It's important to get opinions from those more experienced and also who did not worked with the piece.

Ps. only once I used a grid and came out a mess.I couldn't "see" my face, and the lines distracted me. The measurements again confuse me more because they are about inches not shapes.So I rely on my eye only.

I think they both look like the photos! Keep going. I thought you had the "feel" for it. I was trying to say what you had was right on, all you need to do is get more values. I didn't want you to think they weren't and draw what you thought was there. I do think you need at least 8to ten values in every part of a drawing like these. Realism has to have the values to achieve what you want. I loved what you said about getting one of your doctor just right. If you are like me you will never get one you think is just right. You may draw so many of him you know his face better than his wife but you won't be happy. I think you have very very good drawings there now. I didn't want to say this before because you already thought your good drawings weren't good enough . The man you are drawing has the forehead I have the most trouble with and you have it right twice! Bald is hard for me, smooth bald harder, and you lighting on that photo........you have it so well already, I know if I were you, I would keep on with one of those because they are so close to done. You need to trust yourself because you are very good at this.
Katrina

Thanks very much, Katrina.I actually realized that is better to wait until I see him face to face and offer him the portrait and also make one in color, eventually watercolor or oil pastel.

But for now these are the shadings i got so far on this and one with my sister but i plan to transfer this to a pastel paper and draw it in either pastel or CP.

wow Elena great work, Your improvement in portraits is truly visible. well done.

will you post it when you get it done? this great!

Here is my sister portrait as an experiment of this kind.A printed graphite drawing on Canson mi teintes white pad (8.5x11in) enhanced with Colored pencils.I need your suggestions to improve it.Thank you.

Elena, I have to echo what Kaly said you have come a long way with your portraits. Great job on the doctor. Personally I like the graphite one of your sister best. I love the picture of her what a beautiful lady. She looks like a dancer. In the picture she has a tilt to the head and more of a softness to the eyes and hair. Her eyes are looking downward. Keep up the good work you can see you are truly enjoying yourself. We are pulling up our chairs watching this one knowing you will get it.

I NEED TO FIND SOME GOOD BLACK AND WHITE PORTRAITS PHOTOS. ANYBODY HELP ME, PLEASE?

Javier, there may be some royalty free photos in the Inspiration Gallery that you can use. Have you checked there? Otherwise, there are other listings for royaltyfree images online. There is a thread here, if you search for it, that lists a load of sites that have images that you can use.

With rules changing so much about copyright it really is much safer to take your own photos. Yes it takes time and some coordination, but its worthwhile. Also, self portraits are very useful and interesting to do as well. And you never run out of models!

Elena, your portraits are lovely. You've got the doctor perfectly. I'm sure he'll love it.

Your sister's image is also well done. The colours that you've used for the CP are a bit distracting if you're going for a natural look. First you would need to build the layers starting with your palest colour - usually light peach for fair skinned people, then start to build the shadows with shades of rose, tan, peach etc. I use a piece of scrap paper to practice skintones with before I put them onto my drawing.

Lips have very similar values as skin tones. Makeup can affect the colour however. You also need to watch the outlining around the nose area and just use gradual shading to indicate shape.

The same with the hair, blonde hair doesn't often have strong yellows in it. Its comprised of beige, blue, brown, green etc. Eyes as well come under the same method of building values and colour. If you look closely at an iris you will see the variances of colour and shading. There is no one solid colour in the eye, only the pupil.

Clara, Nancy, Katrina, thank you.
Jeanette, I very much appreciate your feedback and advice;the colorized image of my sister is actually an experiment and i don't find this piece thrilling either, I am working on a real Cp portrait but it will take time.
Thank you all for the interest in my work and precious comments.

I agree with her about takeing your own photos and for all the same reasons. It's much easier than you think to work with your own photos on a computer.

This is my grandson Mauricio portrait. I did it in colored pencils. I added the reference photo.

That's so cute Kain, I love the addition of the figures around him. Very unique.

I did something similar with a study for a portrait of my grand daughter while she was looking at a Donald Duck book. I had all the characters in the book appear around her, looking into the book as well.

Thanks Jeanette, as a matter of fact when I saw your grand daughter´s portrait I decided trying my grandson´s portrait. Of course mine is not half of yours, I made a lot of mistakes, but I am going to try it again.

Cool work Kain!