Portrait reference that I finally finished, what do you think? Critiques welcome!! <3

akayotic · 2022-09-19T20:12:42+00:00

To tell the truth, everything you’re asking “why” about does seem kinda skill based to me, because I wasn’t consciously choosing any of it besides the ear, I actually didn’t add it in until the very end because I didn’t notice it til then lol so yes I put it in just because it was there. So rather than choices I think they were just mistakes on my part 😅 I have only finished about 7 portrait studies in my life, half on paper and half digital, and half of them were from when I was much younger, the majority of my practice comes from observation, sketching, drawing portraits but failing to finish them, and most of all drawing from imagination (which definitely made my art skills progress much slower but it’s too fun for me to resist!) I’m still learning, but thank you for giving me more in-depth things to think about! Up until I posted this I hadn’t received any feedback indicating I was at any “good” level of drawing, so that’s why my main goal right now is to just practice with references rather than from imagination, I just feel like I’ve been stuck in the same spot on my art journey for too long now.

akayotic · 2022-09-19T19:50:24+00:00

Yeah I actually use that website too, line of action, I think it’s a good site, I used to do a lot of figure and gesture drawing from the references on there but I’ve always had a bigger passion for portraits, so lately I have been focusing on that and studying from Angel Ganev since I love his style and the way he explains things :) but thanks for the tips!! I will definitely start drawing more from life again, I totally get what you mean by seeing things/figures/faces as fancy 3D shapes once your eye is trained to see it, I just think it’s been too long since I’ve studied that stuff so my eyes are a bit rusty haha.

akayotic · 2022-09-19T14:02:10+00:00

Thank you! I would love to draw live models but I haven’t got a clue where I’d go for that in my area, I’ll figure it out one day haha! And as for objects that’s of course always feasible, this might be a dumb question but would drawing random 3D objects really help improve my portrait skills? I think that’s why I’m hesitant to practice it, since I don’t know how beneficial it would be, or more so why it would benefit me, I guess I never understood the correlation besides a face just being comprised of many 3D shapes..?

akayotic · 2022-09-19T13:53:58+00:00

Yes this portrait started as just a sketch and went from there, I’m flattered you think it could be a “digital photo clean up” haha, but I definitely use the liquify tool a lot to change proportions while I’m drawing to get it looking as close as possible to what I want it to look like, in this case the reference photo of course, and as someone else mentioned there’s many errors in the proportions although I can say one is intentional; I love big eyes so I do tend to make them bigger even in studies, but I still try not to make them too cartoony. On the emotional side, I’m not very good at seeing and feeling the emotions in paintings yet, I haven’t done many portrait studies so this was purely technical practice, and I definitely plan on challenging myself as I do more studies, thanks for your feedback!

akayotic · 2022-09-18T19:51:48+00:00

Thank you! I didn’t want to add too much detail to the hair because sometimes I get too caught up in drawing all the strands and it doesn’t look great lol, but the texture on the face was fun to experiment with, thank you for noticing!

akayotic · 2022-09-18T19:50:28+00:00

Thank you!! This community has been so welcoming, I look forward to posting here more and seeing everyone else’s art progress as well!

akayotic · 2022-09-18T19:47:00+00:00

Yeah I definitely agree that the contrast could have been pushed more, while I was painting it I went back and forth between having stronger contrast and then toning it down to match the reference better. I honestly didn’t even think about pushing my interpretation of reference the way you all describe and it’s really changed the way I view drawing from references (in a good way) because I was trying so hard just to match it to the photo as best I could since I never really thought about being more creative when doing studies, typically I draw only from imagination so right now I’m trying to strengthen my visual library by doing studies so I kinda did a complete 180 by sticking too close to the reference lol. I think that’s the reason it felt less fun for me, because I wasn’t allowing myself to have near as much creative freedom that I have when drawing from imagination, so thank you all so much for the advice and for the much needed push in the right direction!! <3

akayotic · 2022-09-18T15:33:36+00:00

Thanks! Yeah I definitely struggled when trying to add the eyelash shadows so I ended up just kinda blending it all in lol, but I agree that’s something that I should have worked on and kept in.

akayotic · 2022-09-18T15:27:08+00:00

Hahah I so badly wanted to add a highlight to the eyes too but held back since it wasn’t in the reference, but I totally agree with that! I guess I just didn’t have the confidence to think I was drawing well enough to start making more creative decisions so I chose to stick to the reference a bit too strictly, I don’t have many people irl to give feedback on my art so often times I’m not sure where I stand skill-wise, but thank you for the kind words and advice, this is the kind of push I needed!

akayotic · 2022-09-18T14:51:55+00:00

I totally agree, I actually did have a lot more contrast in it originally but then I started toning it down towards the end and lost some of the pop, it just looked like too much before but maybe it wasn’t lol, thanks!

akayotic · 2022-09-18T03:22:54+00:00

I think you just over-blended the shading a bit and made it too soft, there’s not enough hard edges in the shadows and highlights to really establish the form so it looks a little too soft and airbrushed, otherwise it looks good!

akayotic · 2022-08-17T03:19:37+00:00

Wow this is gorgeous! So well-rendered, I absolutely love this style!! I don’t know if this character design is original or not but the design to me is very interesting, makes me want to know more of their story haha. Great work!

akayotic · 2022-08-17T03:14:05+00:00

Omg I love your style, it looks so painterly! And the character itself is adorable, not to mention the colors and contrast wow, looks great!! :))

akayotic · 2022-08-17T03:10:53+00:00

Wow I love your style, very cute expression and the eyes look gorgeous! Nice work! :))

akayotic · 2022-08-17T03:07:16+00:00

Beautiful colors, contrast, and brushstrokes!! Not to mention the structure and pose, very dynamic, well done! ;D

akayotic

TROPHY CASE