marker self portrait

[Lizzybeth]

This started out as practice for a self portrait assignment for ap but I was thrilled at how the warm gray markers worked that I finished it.

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/6866/smself3kc.jpg
The levels were adjusted a bit to make it a little lighter than the scan. Already I've noticed that I drew my left eye too small. Also, I only used black in the eyes so as to not accidentally place the focus elsewhere.
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/3087/sm10025011ij.th.jpg (http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sm10025011ij.jpg)
Here's a photo for comparioson purposes.
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2117/smaveryhungrycaterpillar6hu.th.jpg (http://img212.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smaveryhungrycaterpillar6hu.jpg)
crits on this would be appreciated as well

[sleep]

this is what i can see:
· i don't think your left eye is too small. i think the right eye is too big
· you have a broader jaw than how you drew it
· your nose should be slightly higher
· i believe you drew your forehead a bit too big

the food painting is rather lovely..! have fun

[Dstudio]

Thanks for the post!

There's something odd about the neck, maybe to tapered.

[Lizzybeth]

tie, I see now that the right eye is too big, but I think it's only length wise. Oddly enough, I think my eyes are different sizes, really I just squint my left eye slightly withough even realizing it because It's the only one I can make squint/wink on its own. So while the right eye is slightly taller, I guess that's fairly correct in this case. In the future though I'll try to keep better check on the eye proportions as even the slighter issues with them are picked up on by the human perception.

Since I had my head angled slightly down in the portrait I think nose and forehead aren't too large as they appear larger at that angle, the jaw looks more tapered too. I do think it went too far though in the portrait though. While I believe the nose and forehead are proportional with each other they are slightly larger when compared with the mouth and chin (I'm pretty sure my face is three noses in length). I definatly didn't draw my jaw broad enough though... I should have more on the immediate sides of my chin. I think it was there but got lost in the shading of the neck.

Overall though I think I drew my face too long. Here a comparison with the imaged squashed somewhat:
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/5918/selfcomparison0lo.jpg
This may have happened from having it angled on my lap while I was drawing it, drawing it skewed to begin with. I'll need to check my viewing angles in the future.

Dstudio, yeah the neck does look too tapered towards the top. Looks like I filled in the hair too much.

Thanks for the comments!

[DFrey666]

You mentioned your drawing angle being not right...
If you are drawing in you lap on a board or standing at a gaint canvas you need to have your eyes straight above the drawing surface. Any angle up, down, left right, will skew the drawing. You need to look at it straight on so that when you make comparisions from one body point to another, you can immediately see what needs corecting. An easy way to remedy this is to sit on a chair backwards with your drawing board. That way you can angle the board towards you and rest it on the back of the chair. There are numerous variations to this, sitting on a sofa and resting the board on a chair, etc. Your drawing is really good especially done with marker which can bleed and requires acurate strokes. Work some on your tonal range but you have a good foundation. Good luck!

Stay Hungry

[Lizzybeth]

Could you be more specific with working on the tonal range? Like by refering to a specific part that shows this etc?

[DFrey666]

Lizzy,

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. Just moved from Ohio to Studio City, CA, settling in and stuff, becoming a citizen of the state.

By tonal range I mean that every drawing should have a range from black to white with a balance of all the shades of gray in between. There are high contrast and low contrast drawings. However, you should start by getting the balance right between the light and darks. Take a look at an Ansel Adams photo. Then take a look at your photo. That area of your hair to the left of the photo is black right along the line under your ear going down your neck. Sometimes it's really helpful to take your color photo, turn it into a grayscale photo, and balance the black and white and draw from that photo instead of the color one. Color can fool the eye if it isn't trained to see the tonal range. Also, squinting helps a lot when looking for the mass and tonal range of any thing you are rendering from people to landscapes.

Have any more questions...send them along.

Stay Hungry

[arttorney]

markers are hard. I think this is pretty good. On the left side of your face where there is a stripe of shadow, the shadow comes up directly against your hair in the ref while in the drawing you left a stripe of lightness in between. ??? In the ref there is only a diamond of lightness at the indentation of the eye socket.