Well I decided to try to do a port. of Derek Jeter from the Yankees, (Our family have been die hard Yankee fans since forever.

My 7 yr. old nephew is probably one of the biggest among all of us and they are re-decorating his room from teddy bears to the Yankees.

Here is my rendition so far and I am afraid that I am at a stand still because I'm happy how it is turning out but it needs more and I don't know which way to go with it...... critique away please I'll take all of the help anyone can give me.
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Here's my reference photo
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I think you give old Jeet the Meat more hair credit than he deserves. Otherwise I think you got him.



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I looked up your reference and I have to say that you're likeness is great.

What paper and pencils are you using?

I would suggest really identifying your mid and darker mid tones. Don't be afraid to go darker with the darker mid tones and push the darkest values to where they need to be too.
Identifying the very dark and pushing them there will give you a much larger mid tonal range to work with. This, in itself, will take this drawing to another level.

Look at the entire reference very carefully. Note the shine on the forehead, the muscle definition over the eyes, all made out of mid tonal changes, which if over looked, will completely change the image.

A couple of areas I see need some slight adjustments with the form would be the jaw line should be a bit straighter and more chiseled. The tops of the eye lids and creases need to be more refined... this guy is an athlete and not having the no body fat, hard look will change quite a bit.

Hope this helps..

Thank you Poecilotheria! That was amazing advice and I will try to do exactly what you said.
Thank you again!!!!

Oh and I just grabbed a peice of copy paper out of my printer (because I just wanted to mess around with it for a little while and then start on better paper but I couldn't stop myself. The pencils that I like to use are Faber-Castell "Castell 9000"
I really like these pencils.

Would you mind posting the reference photo you are using for your drawing? It looks great so far, although much younger than the man I see in Calvin's picture.

Hi Mindy,
I just posted it about 2 minutes ago, lol. I'd love to hear your advice.

Hi again,
I just went through your gallery and you are truly an amazing artist. I feel honored to have gotten tips from you... thank you again.

Thank you!!!!

Looking good, and you've gotten some good advice so far. I'd encourage you to reconsider that shoulder; it seems to me that it goes much too far out to our left. Since you can't see the end in the photo, I'd look at (or take) some photos of friends or family to help figure out how it should look.

Looks like its pretty covered here but will give my 2p worth

i think you have done him really well 2 things caught my eye ,, his hair line , more receded ,, and his jaw line needing to be more chiseled

then i would have to look really hard to pick anything else out

nice work

Thanks everyone, that shoulder was bothering me so I'm happy that you mentioned it. I do see now where several of you had mentioned his hairline and jawline so I'm going to try to work on that now.

I'm pretty bummed that I grabbed a piece of copy paper to start out on but ya know what's funny about that.... those ones are the drawings that always turn out the best for me.

It makes me wonder if in the back of my head I already know that it's just messing around with the picture and I know I am going to do another on drawing paper so I am more relaxed about it. It could also be that the texture of the paper... who knows?
Anyway thank you all for the great advice and I will post pictures of my progress

Chris

I think you hit the nail on the head. I always tell people that I actually try to mess up a drawing. This lets me go darker and try new things without freaking out about it.

I'm sure its not the texture. The reason I asked what paper you use is because it looked like printer paper to me which is the worst thing to draw on. The best way to not draw on printing paper is to not start a drawing on it.

Its actually bad to experiment on printer paper. You're developing a skill and gaining experience with bad habits. The paper is probably the most important part of a drawing. You can only go as far as the paper will let you. If you enter a car race, you're not going to take your bicycle, you'll want the fastest, best handling car you can get. Even though you may pedal your *** off and try harder than the others, your bike just won't float the boat.

I'd start a new drawing on better paper and not waste your time with the typing paper. IMO

great advice! It all depends which computer I am using, if I'm on my laptop then I am in my little place in the world that I call my drawing room( no copy paper in there, lol) if I'm upstairs and on my pc then copy paper is right there. I guess this means I have to keep drawing paper here.

Thank you again for the great advice

I feel that I have to point out that one of my favorite pencil artists on this site -- my very favorite, actually -- apparently works excusively on printer paper. This is a personal preference, like a lot of other things. Myself, I find it nearly impossible to get deep darks on that kind of paper, and so I can't use it, but that doesn't mean that there aren't folks who find the smoothness useful.

In general though, yes, you should use the best materials you can afford.

why to go Ernest ... what you can afford is me lol ... a dear friend here gave me some paper for my b-day a couple years back and it was the best paper ...but costly for my budget once it was gone I use whatever paper I can ...the paper I do use is smooth I know that but I have ran into a layering problem at times .

Chris I think your drawing is coming along well and trust me portraits are hard to draw because it could be the best ever but if it is off from what the subject looks like well then people feel they failed at it ...I think he looks like the man in the photo ...so you captured that and its the hardest thing to do .

Thanks Kim, I am loving all of this great advice

Chris,
I agree with the previous posters that he needs more receding hairline, and his slightly clefted chin seems to be a major recognition point of his face, so maybe work a little more on strengthening the chin. Pay close attention to those eyebrows too, they are more bushy in the reference. The bottom of the neck where it disappears under the shirt could use darker shading. Good luck with this, Chris, even if no changes were made it would look like him, congrats.

Thank you and he's a great work in progress..... I don't mind staring at him for a little bit longer LOL

Good likeness Chris.
The thing I noticed is the lack of texture to his skin.
Not something to fix, just something to think about for later.
Whoever gets to hang him on the wall, is going to love it!

You have a great likeness in this portrait, but with a few tweaks you can make it really have impact. Your drawing and shading skills are good, but subdued.

The first think I notice is the hairline on the right (viewer's right) The hairline should go back further at the top to mirror the other side. Also, the most noticeable and what changes the features is that the hairline at the temple needs to move forward, forming almost a diamond shape so its closer to the eye. The hair is sparser there, but you can easily render that with less strokes.

Finally, push those darks! The whole range of values isn't there yet in the face. I see areas of almost black at the base of the neck, under the chin, in the eyes, eyebrows and hair and the shading can be bumped up a lot in the face to give definition.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you every one for all of your great advice. I will definitely use it

I'm NOT a Yankee fan AT ALL, but this portrit makes me rethink! Wonderful!