[Ian]

Hi guys!
I have been working on this for a while now. 1-2 hours. It is a portrait im working on for a dear friend of mine. I want it to look primo so, any help you can offer will be fab! I am posting the pic and the reference. So what do you think so far, (besides the obviously under-developed right side of her face).



Critique it! I need input.
Thanks so much,
Ian

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One man's hill is another man's mountain.

[Ian]

One more thing, I can't seem to be able to get her to LOOK DOWN! I have tried numerous different things and she still seems to be looking AT the viewer.
Hmmh?
Ian

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One man's hill is another man's mountain.

[waylon]

Looks pretty good so far. The first problem I noticed was that her eyes look somewhat un-symmetrical, which I think relates to why you're having trouble making her look downwards. Now, I'm no expert on this subject by any means, but here are a few tips I've picked up.

First, her eyes are on a flat plane, and she's facing pretty much forwards, so you should be able to draw a number of horizontal guide lines between any two corresponding points on her eyes, and all of your lines will be parallel.

Now for some practical application of this... Notice, on the source pic, how the tops of her eyes look very flat. In fact, if you just drew a straight line across, you could use it as a guide for the tops of both eyes. There are some other things too, but I'll let you find them on your own.

Once you have the eyes pretty much symmetrical, you'll have a much easier time getting her to look like she's looking down. First off, her pupils are a bit small, especially her left one. If you get them a little closer to the right size, it'll look better. You can also angle them downwards a little.

One more thing that's distorting it a bit is the placement of her eyes/nose/mouth on her face. If you look at the source, the distance between her eyes and the top of her mouth is about the same as the distance between her eyes and her hairline. On your version, everything's stretched upwards. Fixing that will help a lot.

Hope this helps.

[newt]

I'd like to point out that the drawing looks an awful lot like the photograph. If you're going to go through all the trouble of making an look like a photograph, and you do your job so well that it ends up looking just like a photograph, it sort of defeats the purpose.
Like those photorealism paintings in museums, where you can't tell it's a painting at all. What's the point of that?
I'd just make the drawing less exact - maybe less smooth gradients in the shading. More painterly.

[Ian]

Thanks waylon!
Im implementing your suggestions we'll see how it looks in the morning,but fer now...*BoNk* zzzzZzzzZZzzzzZZzzzz

*mmmumble* Ian

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One man's hill is another man's mountain.

[Ian]

less exact? but....but I like exact!
Ian

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One man's hill is another man's mountain.

[Prometheus]

sweeeeeeeeeeeeet I had to look wihcich one was the original

FIx up the hands abit

[Ian]

Ok finished! I fixed some different stuff and added the Orchid for fun = ). Her name is Orchid so I figured it would be cute to put that in. Any last things? Boy am I tired, I seriously need to do that pile of homework I got sitting on my floor.

Ok thanks!
Ian

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One man's hill is another man's mountain.

[Matt Elder]

Been looking at the images and they are pretty cool. One slight suggestion, in the last one you added some hair lines that are pretty sharp, you might like to dulls these a little as they look that they where the last things to be done.

As for trying to emulate a photo, technically I think it is really difficult to do and if you pull it off, usually it is because you have an understanding of how the face and image works. This then becomes the key when you don't have reference material as you've 'practiced' with it and hopefully learnt something. I use photo references to learn stuff but don't feel that it is truly my own because I didn't have to go through and solve spacial issues from making stuff up - the photo did that for me.

just my 2 cents.

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See ya on da flip side
Matt
http://www.mattelder.com

[shahar2k]

by the way, one little thing about the drawing, you might want to fix that stick (wooden thing her hand is resting on ) cus right now it looks like she's pulling her own hair. other than that, to make her look down the left eye.... well you drew the dark areas all around the eye while in the photo the dark shadow dissapears right under the Cornea (lens part) oh it's allso much smaller (lens part) other than that, damn good job I think still, you really don't have to make it LOOK like a photo, here's one from a photo I did a while back

it's done from a highschool graduation photo, first marking important parts using the wacom's transparent sheet then I matched colors as well as I can (don't have a scanner to show the original though)

[This message has been edited by shahar2k (edited September 22, 2000).]

[Ian]

Exactly!
The more you work from photos, the better understanding you will have of the face and body (or whatever it is your drawing) so that when you work from memory, you have a "library" of sorts that you can draw from. By drawing from photos, you effectively extend that library. Also, your right, I can't shake the feeling that I didn't actually create this. I just kind of looked and drew what I say, (which takes skill) but is a MUCH less daunting task than making up the material.
Ian

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One man's hill is another man's mountain.

[bell_maker]

hello..
well im new to this forum and im practically new to these forums so what im gonna suggest .. dont follow it.. unless someone after me thinks its right
well i think if you want to seem as if she's looking downwards then the eyes should actually be lower? you'll get to see more of the forehead if you see someone from above.. and try pulling her mouth to the left (our left) a bit..

no dont try that.. well.. does anyone else agree? hehe.. i think im wrong but just though i might try to contribute a bit.. well .. goodluck with orchid
-bellz

[Bugscratch]

Looks a lot better than the first version. The orchid is a good idea since it makes it makes it easier to recognize that it is not the original photo but a digital version.
Good luck and tell us if she liked it

bugscratch

[Ian]

Yes,
She liked it a lot. Matter 'o fact, she said it looked better than her. I said, "No it doesn't you look just as good, it's you!" She doesn't agree. Oh well, maybe it's some kind of guilt/girl/teenager/chic/don't know how to correctly thank someone for hard work when somone obviously worked really hard on it, kind of thing huh? Oh well, she likes it, but maybe I was expecting more than a "oh thats nice," huh? MAybe I just had my hopes up?
Well, thanks for your support everyone! No big sloppy kiss for Ian.

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One man's hill is another man's mountain.

[marc_taro]

People do that all the time. I think the 'that's nice' response is really because they don't know what to say. Most people dont have a the verbal skills to discuss art. They also don't want to say the wrong thing - since artist are very sensitive. It takes a long time before people will tell you what they really think. F2F that is...

btw - I agree with early posts - dont make it look like a photo, you already have a photo. Leave some brush strokes in - let YOUR hand show in the final work.

[Bugscratch]

Hey, isn't "this looks even better than me" a nice compliment to your work ? I mean I don't know anything about the way she said it, so I can't really judge this. Maybe you really had your hopes up too far.
Don't give up too fast though. She looks like a nice girl. Just remember, Rome wasn't built in one day. ;p