first post

[MisterJC]

http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/v171/jwbomt/keydralynn.jpg

hi, this is my first post... everyone here is just too damn good... =T

anyways, comments, crits, would all be helpfull.
yes... the lips... they piss me off. :mad:

[sam_1980]

the features look too big and the overall need to be more more contrast! the hair texture need to be more clear, use stroke to represent the direction of the hair texture! hope these will help!

[MisterJC]

hmmm... yea, i see it... i thought somthing looked kinda weird. =T

well, thanks for the crit. i'll have to keep that stuff in mind next time.

[toad]

comment- it's not a bad picture, you seem to have 'pretty' nice pencile and shading work

-crits- I'll leave the lips alone. The eyes are too big, the chin is too small, the neck is too thin, I agree with the hair, the face is too round, it looks like there is no head, just a face. You need the back of the skull man! Your head isn't just a ball!
You asked I answered.

But enough of all that stuff. Keep it up.
no worries man, don't listen to me, i'm an ass.

[MisterJC]

helzon, i see what you mean about the eyes, i just noticed how flat they look... i was actualy practicing eyes today now that you mention it.. :P

hmmm, maybe i should post my reference to show you guys what i was trying to get at.

http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/v171/jwbomt/Remembering_Better_Days.jpg

[Kallos]

No specific crit, but maybe a pointer or two for the future. ;)

It looks like you did quite a bit of symbolic drawing, which is a tough habit to break. This means instead of drawing *her* eye, you drew *an* eye, using part of you memory to fill in the details of what an eye is supposed to look like. When you're drawing from photographs, you really have to forget that you're drawing an eye, or a nose, or what ever. Instead you draw exactly what you see, and don't let your brain fill in the details.

Say you're drawing one of her eyes, the trick is, don't let yourself think of it as an eye. Put the symbol of an eye completely out of your mind. Instead look at lines and shadows, and try to mimic those exactly. Ideally, durring the process, you shouldn't even realize you're drawing a human being, because you're focusing completely on lines and values only. The "object" doesn't matter at that point. (It's tough at first.) With practice, when you're finished copying those things onto paper, you then step back and realize you've got a picture perfect portrait on your hands.

A good exercise to help pull you away from "symbolic drawing" is to take a photo, flip it upside down, and try to draw that exactly as you see it. (your drawing will be upside down too) When you do this, your brain has a harder time associating symbols with what you're looking at, so you have no choice but to draw what you see, instead of what you remember.

When you're done, flip the photo and your drawing right side up, and compare. With a little discipline, you should see some serious improvement, and your drawings will be much more life-like.

Hope that makes sense. ;) Good luck.