Portrait practice

Share Your Art
1

Hi everybody
I came here in this community to ask for advice and encouragement as I had this journey on my own I struggle thinking on how I could improve .
I learned what i know on my own I know I need a mentor but a mentor is expensive.

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3 Likes
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I love them all! Great job.

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Thank you :grinning: :smile:

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At a glance I see pensive - disappointed - pleased - good natured. I like the expression of each. Very nice. I can’t give you technical feedback as I am a student myself, but you give your subjects real expressions.

1 Like
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You capture a spirit in each of these. None seems flat or lifeless. (This means you’re more advanced than I am.) I think what you need to work on first is how to draw the overall shape of the head in any given pose. Your proportions are off to one degree or another. Search youtube for “how to draw the head from any angle.” I am currently doing lots and lots of exercises where I don’t draw any facial details, just the shape of the head and proper placement of the lines indicating placement of brow, bottom of nose, top of lip, the jawline, cheekline, but that’s it. It is helping me. Even though I’m essentially drawing mannequins, they pop out at me. They’re starting to look real, at least in the sense that a mannequin looks real.

Another thing I would suggest, because this has been important for me, is don’t try to draw finished things all the time. Get loose, get freaky, let the pencils fly where they may. I’ll relate a brief story. Some years ago, in a previous attempt to get better at drawing, I was working on cartoons. I wanted to capture exaggerated facial features. So I made faces into a mirror and started sketching. My only goal was to capture what mouth and eyes and nose look like for certain expressions. (It turns out I’m really good at looking like a sobbing crybaby, who knew.) After I did three, I stopped and actually looked at what I had drawn, and…

IT WAS ME!

I had drawn myself pretty accurately, without even trying. I then tried to draw myself and…total failure.

Sometimes you hit the target by pulling back the bow, closing your eyes, and letting it fly.

(Not meant to be actual advice for archers.)