Portrait Exercise.. CC please

[eastshores]

I decided to start doing portraits from references before going any further with acrylic painting and 3D modeling. I need to get back to the basics of light and perspective. This was my first real attempt in over 8 years. Overall I'm happy with it, but when I hone in on things individually they look strange! Feedback is appreciated. (btw.. this is haley joel osment.. the actor, in case I mangled it beyond recognition)

http://www.jikapa.com/haleyjoel.jpg

[hypocalvin]

nice, i can't find much too say about it. if u want to practice lights and shadowing, i wud reconmend u to try a 3/4 view with sum dramatic lighting.

[down]

this is nice man, but i think your main problem here is missplacement of some features on the face. The shape of the eyes and mouth look a little bit off aswell...
I'm not sure about the values, even that they work, the picture still flat. The problem with the picture itself is that is a front view, it might be better to use a 3/4 picture, like hypocalvin said. Second thing that can help you with values and lightening is to have a picture with a strong light, no flat flash spotlight, something with a stronger light source.
If you plan to use value you might consider get rid of lines, they flatten the image, look at the nose of your picture, it would be better if you'd used value instead of line.

That's all for now. I hope that helped. Is only my humble attempt to help, nothing else.

Don't give up!

[down]

Oh yeah, I forgott,

put shoulders on that, the head is floating on space, scary ;)

[eastshores]

Thanks for the feedback.. I agree with the nose, I left too harsh a line on it. The reference photo was pretty flat, but for what I wanted to capture (slanted eyes and the mouth) I was ok with it.

thank you for the feedback, but I have to ask... what is 3/4? Does that mean box the portrait down to a 3/4 scale? Because I upscaled it to .4 times the reference photo.. Thanks again

[wcr]

3/4 means turn the head about 45 degrees. Usually means any view where the head is seen off-axis.

When you're drawing head-on, symmetry is critical, which makes it difficult. Down's comment about placement is relevant: draw a line down the middle of the face and you'll see that the features aren't really centered.

I do like the use of light and dark. Maybe Haley's right ear could use a little more definition. Put in a neck and shoulders if you can...

[eastshores]

Thanks for the explanation :bashful:

I started this one last night before I knew what that meant, and since I cant seem to sit and draw for more than 5 minutes straight I figured it would be a good idea to upload it and get thoughts before I continue.

I think after this one maybe I need to do some basic anatomy studies, because I honestly don't think I could rotate a face 45 degrees in my mind without slaughtering it! >:|

CC appreciate, this is an attempt at penelope cruz :)

http://www.jikapa.com/penelope.jpg

[rogfa]

Good job on the likeness on the first one. Be sure to read Fredflick's head tutorials, they helped me a lot.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14119

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14735

[SpazMcFlash]

You definitely have some decent rendering skills. Although down is right that your features look a lil off in both of your drawings.
I would definitely take a look at Ron's tutorials. You'll learn so much from them.

Also... it might help a bit more if you posted the reference picture along with your drawing to better help us determine what all is off in the drawing.
I went in anyways over your female and drew in some rythem lines. By doing this it will help you line up all of your features in the right places. So far her left eye is a lil smaller than her right, her nose looked too straight on for the angle of the pose so I kinda made a rough one with the adjustments, and the mouth needed to be moved over some more to her left. Some of the rythems are cheek bone, muzzle(mouth), chin, brow, eye sockets (sunglasses).

I also threw in an eye at the top to show an example of a decently structured eye. I'm not sure if it matches her eyes since I don't have a photo to go off of, but I hope it helps. Your eyes are rendered pretty nicely, although a bit more construction to them will really help make them pop. Just more straights, etc. hehe I sound like my instructors when they keep telling that to me. :dur:

http://www.jikapa.com/penelope.jpghttp://www.jeffejenkins.com/random_pics/help/penelope-3help.jpg

sorry for the quick mockup. I hope seeing these rythems will help you better understand the construction of the head.
good job so far, n post more - w/ photo ref if possible. :teeth:

[eastshores]

Thanks for the awesome suggestions! It deff is giving me a strategy to deal with getting the features placed correctly and relative to one another. I put the references side by side in the images, and tried to resize them to align as closely as I could.

I checked out Ron's head drawing tutorials, they are awesome.. I think I need a ruler though because I have a real hard time keeping the scalings right. :nohope:

http://www.jikapa.com/drawings/haleysidebside.jpg

http://www.jikapa.com/drawings/penelopesidebside.jpg

let er rip! :uzi: :uzi2:

[eastshores]

Now that I am looking at them side by side.. there are TONS of things I got wrong that I didn't see when I was looking at the printout of the ref and my drawing.. I think maybe I should abandon penelope since there are some major issues with sizing of her head/hair/etc.. and I'm already into shading.

I am anxious to attempt the "blocking" of features that I saw in those head drawing tuts.. will try to do some tomorrow after work and upload em.. and I will do scans throughout the process to see if I am doing things wrong at any point. Thanks everyone! :D

[SpazMcFlash]

Isn't it crazy how when you put your drawings next to the photos like that you can totally tell what's off.
For now a ruler will help a lot. well... but calipers or string will do even better. Then you're not wrapped up in exact measurements.
By measuring it will really help you understand how the facial features all relate size and location wise.
Remember plum lines and angle relation as well as size relation.

I would definitely give Ron's head tutorials a shot.
Another strategy that they've told us is to do tracings of a photo using the rythem lines to help understand how the rythems are flowing over the face, etc.
That really helped me better understand how to lock features together and how they are all related to each other.

Good luck! :^^:

[eastshores]

:dur: Ok.. I was about to sit down and have a go at blocking in features like the head drawing tutorial shows, and it struck me that.. breaking the image into thirds (something I've never really done) isn't obvious to me. So I am wondering is the image below and the lines I drew to break the image into major halves and then thirds, correct? Just having lines for reference is better than nothing, but I noticed on the head tutorials the thirds happen to line up with distinct places on the face (top of brow, bottom of nose, bottom of chin). Should I put the emphasis on equal measurement as I did here, or is the goal to approximate it into thirds while creating points at the most distinct features?

edit: I wen't ahead and tried to do some rythm lines like you showed spaz.. but it was kind of hard with a mouse and I just did my best to find the curves in the face and how they relate to each other.. how did I do?

Thanks!

http://www.jikapa.com/drawings/maleface_thirds_1.jpg http://www.jikapa.com/drawings/maleface_rythm_1.jpg

[GriNGo]

try out which works best for you eastshores... and the "rythm" lines look like you tired to paint a clown. You forgot to go and draw lines for the cheekbone, the eyes, and lips (mouth structure), the forehead... etc....

later,
GRiNGoLoCo

[eastshores]

You know.. I thought that same thing when I did the mouth.. I was like.. hrmm... BOBO!!! :D Ok.. I will make another attempt at the rhythm lines!

edit: I needed more control since I am doing this with my mouse, so I switched to using bezier curves. I tried to focus on sockets, muzzle, etc. I also was trying to create some curves that showed how the head was slightly turned to his right. Commments appreciated. I guess I'm ready to draw it.

http://www.jikapa.com/drawings/maleface_rhythm_2.jpg

[Main Loop]

:dur: Ok.. I was about to sit down and have a go at blocking in features like the head drawing tutorial shows, and it struck me that.. breaking the image into thirds (something I've never really done) isn't obvious to me. So I am wondering is the image below and the lines I drew to break the image into major halves and then thirds, correct? Just having lines for reference is better than nothing, but I noticed on the head tutorials the thirds happen to line up with distinct places on the face (top of brow, bottom of nose, bottom of chin). Should I put the emphasis on equal measurement as I did here, or is the goal to approximate it into thirds while creating points at the most distinct features?

ok the problem there is that you are using a reference where the face is tipped up.. the "thirds" thing only works when the face is viewed straight-on.. for the sake of learning, use an easier reference, unless you're looking for a challenge, of course

[SpazMcFlash]

I'm with Main Loop. You should definitely use different ref for now without the crazy tilt. Once you get a better understanding of locking all the features together then move on to a tilt like this. I'd start with Ron's tutorials since you'll have a step by step guide on where to go with the drawing.

Also I'd mess with the rythem lines on tracing paper over drawings instead of trying to use bezier curves, etc. It'll help train your hand better since you'll be drawing the lines instead of creating them with a mouse on the computer.

one more thing... the 1/3s of the head are hair line - brow line - bottom of nose - chin. This rule gets thrown out the window with major tilts like this one. Although this rule does vary from person to person.

[eastshores]

Ok.. I picked a new image based on the feedback you guys gave me. This one is not tilted like that (although I like that image and will return to it) I did the rhythm lines, and tried to seperate it into thirds. I know its not perfect but how are my features compared to my first two? Oh.. and this was meant to be a value study and rhythm line study so I did it in grayscale markers.

EDIT: Ok.. after staring at this, I see some majors problems with the neck but, I kind of loosely drew that in, so if you would give me opinions on the facial features I would appreciate that the most! Thanks!

http://www.jikapa.com/drawings/maleface_value_1.jpg

[SpazMcFlash]

For right now I wouldn't worry about values. Instead focus on getting everything proportionally sound. Get a strong layin down and post it up. Then if everything looks good you can render it up. Cept like everyone keeps telling everyone else on here... if your proportions are off... the greatest rendering won't save it at all. I just got told this as well in my thread... so I'm even trying to get myself to not worry about rendering as much. ;)

If you notice... this guy has a slight tilt in his head to his left. Remember that and even throw in some lines for the 1/3s to make sure you make his head tilted like that.
Also his nose ends too high. Drop down the nose about the height of an eyebrow. His nose isn't on the center line either. Push it a bit to the left.
His left cheek seems to also be pushed out a bit too far. It should be an eye width out from left nostril to the cheek.

Remember to break up the head in half to find the center line, then establish the 1/3s. After that you can throw in the rythems. Otherwise you'll have your features shifted off kilter like you have here.

You're getting there though! Try doing this guy again n remember the tilt of the head, etc as well.
Good job! :)