Help: My Girlfriend

[fever_tr]

Hi, I am very new to drawing and I tried drawing my girlfriend. I can easily draw manga faces and emotions but when it comes to real life portraits, I cant do anything! The result does not look like her :confused: Please copy and paste the urls into a new browser window or the host wont show them!!!

My drawing:
http://www.redrival.com/fevertr/draft.jpg

Reference:
http://www.redrival.com/fevertr/reference.jpg

What was my mistakes? If anyone can draw a base line sketch, It would be great :)

[Petra]

I don't have a lot of time to go indepth (damn work) but try drawing the picture again, from scratch, and this time draw what you see in your reference picture. Don't draw what you think you see. Don't draw what you think a mouth looks like, or what you think eyes look like, or what you think a nose looks like. Just draw what is actually there. Pay really close attention to the relation of space and size to all the parts of the face and fight the urge to make the features look how you think they should look, because everybody's face and features are going to be different and will require that every time you try to capture that, that you really pay attention.

It's easier for you to emulate the manga styles of drawing because they're already stylized, but they're really not a good place to start if you want to learn to draw with realism. As someone, somewhere once said, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run, so practice, practice, practice! :)

Your girlfriend is pretty so it shouldn't be a chore to draw her over again until you get it right!

- Petra -

[Ian Mack]

I've been trying to escape anime style drawing for soo long now that its sick.

Petra is right. Draw what you see, not what you think you see.

[fever_tr]

Any constructive c&c ?

[madster]

Beyond the useless "draw what you see" crap, put your reference image under your drawing, and see the differences of what you did wrong for yourself...the mouth shape, the nose and mouth placement, and the hairline are what defeated you in this attempt. You did really well in capturing the facial shape, though.This thread does not permit the straight upload of images, or I'd post a copy of what I'm saying.
Just place your drawing as a new layer over your ref pic, and reduce the opacity until you can move the drawing to match up with the picture. You may have to use the transform tool to scale the images to match.

[fever_tr]

Thanks alot. I will definately do that.. :)

[fever_tr]

I redrew my girlfriend. Here is the new one!

http://www.redrival.com/fevertr/deneme2.jpg

[madster]

Heck of an improvement!!! Good Job!

[Elwell]

The change from the first to the second is really impressive. Keep at it!

[Johannes]

Nice progress. :)
I esp notice how the eyes really is changed - they look very alive. :)
My small tip woould be to make 5-6 small (matchbox size)and fast (2-3 minutes) portraits with her head at different angles. That way U could make a fine collection of GF portraits and also learn some anatomy, to get away from the mangastyle. :D

I always try to start with getting the headshape in, and the connection tho the neck, then I notice where the ear is. Draw the lines for the eyes, a line for the mouth, a line for the nose. From there on its hard work getting the stuff in right. Often people will be "aged" because I add a little to much lines, giveing them 5-10 years extras worth of age. :/

[fever_tr]

thanks for the help! It happens to me all the time when I try to draw young. People in my drawings are always 5-10 yrs older :rolleyes:

[fever_tr]

And btw, I drew this from a photo reference so I dont know If I can draw her from different angles. as I said before, I am very new to drawing

[fever_tr]

Hi this is an another drawing from another reference picture.

Hope you like it. any c&c are more than welcome.

drawing:
http://www.redrival.com/fevertr/cizim7.jpg

reference:
http://www.redrival.com/fevertr/yasemin.jpg

[fever_tr]

any suggestions?
:rolleyes:

[lovelyrita]

I think its a pretty good sketch except that the nose looks a bit crooked. It seems like the features don't line up correctly. The bridge of the nose stciks out too much and should be sloped in more, if that makes since. The expression looks a little odd too. She looks like she is gisgusted by something. Teeth are hard to draw, i usually just make sure the person I'm drawing has a closed mouth. If you fix that and then throw in more detail and shading, i think it would be a nice portrait! :D