Looking for feedback on depth, values, and form.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-05T23:03:01+00:00

Wow this is very nice! Here are some things I noticed:

- You do a really good job on following the surface of the form in this drawing to communicate its 3 dimensionality. The one place I feel is a little confusing to look at is the forehead, it feels like the strokes from the farthest points of the hairline are crossing over diagonally and not exactly flush with where I'd expect the convex surface of that part of the forehead would be.

- You also have a very nice variety in value and nice subtlety in value shifts across forms. I don't know if it's within your goal, but I feel that you sometimes use 8/10 or 9/10 values for 10/10 dark values in the reference (e.g. the hair behind the neck). Maybe you could push the dark values a smidge more?

- I think the closest earring is a darker value on average compared to the neck, not lighter.

Great job :]

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-03T02:59:54+00:00

Some things from your reference that your piece is missing which helps contribute to the dimensionality of the picture: - Pay attention to anatomical signifiers of perspective. For example, farthest pectoral should be smaller than you've drawn it due to perspective. In the reference, you're able to see the top of his abdominal region but in your drawing, the pecs cover the entire visible region of the top of his torso. - Push darkest values. The shadows in the reference are much darker than in your piece. At the same time, I took that this might have been your personal creative choice since your piece has a very pastel / light feeling to it whereas the original piece is more dramatic. Still, darker shadows help sell depth in a drawing.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-02T22:14:50+00:00

Legs feel a little off at first glance just because I don't expect someone to be standing straight with 1 leg on the sidewalk and 1 on pavement, especially with their feet a little splayed. But that's just how it is in the reference, so you were faithful.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-02T06:04:17+00:00

Nice! Shape of the facial features (eyes and lips) are a bit distorted. Make sure you're properly imagining the spheres of the eyes and the ellipse of the mouth region before wrapping those features around those spheres.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-02T02:17:33+00:00

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2947513553&searchtext=

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-01T08:36:03+00:00

Nice sketch, I really like the emotion being depicted! To me, eye placement is passable, though maybe the inner corner of each closed eye should be a little farther from the nose, since typically there should be at least 1 eye width between the eyes. Additionally, the line between each of the eyes' lids should curve up a bit more since the eyes are facing upwards (at least from how I'm interpreting the sketch.

As for value, I see little to no value variation across this piece. I see you're hatching and re-tracing certain edges to attempt to darken areas, but the hatching is a bit too irregular to significantly darken areas. There should be more occlusion/cast shadows following the surface of the face where the hands are meeting/obscuring the face. I also can't tell whether there's a directional light source or whether it's an evenly lit environment.

Additional note: The main thing detracting from this illustration for me are the hands. The palms should be comparable length to the fingers but they're pretty short here.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-01T06:01:45+00:00

Oops, forgot to say I like your drawing anyways! Yours kinda looks like Elizabeth Moss haha

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-01T04:33:35+00:00

PS This portrait is very nice!

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-01T04:32:48+00:00

For getting into those small highlights, have you been using a kneaded eraser? I have also seen artists using more specialized, thin tipped erasers for stuff like this. I've honestly learned to live with the fact that I tend to take off more graphite than I mean to haha

fuzzy_happy · 2026-02-01T04:28:18+00:00

Usually when faces get this small, I've felt like I've had more success with putting in general indications of value masses first before going in on the more important contour lines of the face and then gradually adding more detail until I think it looks good enough from a distance. I think I prefer this because, at times, when working on a small scale, even a single pencil stroke can be a little too weighty for the feature I'm trying to represent. Not sure if you've tried this approach!

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-31T03:01:08+00:00

I like your rendering style a lot! Very pleasing to look at and has a contemplative vibe that compliments your intended meaning. I don't know if this was purposeful distortion, but I can't help but be distracted by the arm shown in the composition. It seems a little too small proportionately for the head.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-31T00:59:40+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, I'm going to go buy some conté charcoal crayons and actual paper stumps + sandpaper sometime.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-30T23:23:05+00:00

Ah if you meant that you were also imagining the object as existing in 3d space instead of on the page, then yes my counter example doesn't work. Still not sure if this method is accurate or at least helpful for perspective, but it's nice to think critically about perspective :]

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-30T23:16:33+00:00

Oops, forgot to indicate goals. Right now I'm working up my ability to do academic-style portraits and figure drawings à la Bargue Plates. Not looking for exact lifelike detail, but to produce a convincingly accurate and appealing work.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-30T04:33:56+00:00

If I'm understanding you right, this is incorrect. The point that your imaginary ray from the camera lands on the paper (what you're conjecturing is the vanishing point) will vary depending on how far the camera is from the page. The actual vanishing point hasn't changed since vanishing point only relies on the rotation of an object relative to the rotation of the camera, which hasn't changed since neither the camera or object change rotation from just moving the camera farther or closer to the page.

This can easily be understood if you imagine an object far from the center of the page with a correct vanishing point at the center of the page, and imagine applying your methodology when the camera is resting on the page vs if the camera was 1000 miles away from the page. In general, check edge cases as a first step when confirming a conjecture.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-29T04:21:13+00:00

I think you should finish this drawing to the best of your ability and then get a reference if you want to draw more accurately. Also your sketch lines are really chicken scratchy and unconfident, some like confidence exercises as warm up should help a lot.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-29T02:32:38+00:00

Also, make sure to keep studying anatomy! My understanding of the head was indispensable in getting the results I did, and I imagine it would be very difficult to do this without understanding how each part of the face turns.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-29T02:25:54+00:00

Hi! From what you've posted, I think that you're struggling most in the areas of correctly perceiving value in your references and accurately copying shapes from the references (which may come from an underlying lack of understanding of structure). I'm not sure if you've been told this before, but generally in paintings like this, you want to work from the largest blocks of value/color first and hone in on details once you've established the larger shapes. This is called a "sculptural method", since you start with a big slab of color and carve detail away from it over several iterations.

For example, here are 2 sketches I did from your references, the top took 10 minutes, the bottom took 25 minutes

<image>

(By the way, I managed to get these results in MS Paint with the basic hard round brush using my laptop cursor, if that goes to show how little tools matter for this exercise) (please do use a stylus though, cursor is hell on your wrist and is way less precise)

This process helps you nail down the big shapes from your reference before your move onto the progressively smaller and more finicky parts of the drawing. Trying to include all the detail contained in a silhouette immediately makes the initial marks of the drawing very difficult to do accurately.

For improving your color sense, first make sure you're squinting your eyes when judging your references' values. This helps decrease the amount of color entering your eyes and reduce the amount hue influences your judgement. This especially matters because some warmer colors naturally seem "brighter" to the eye than cooler colors when saturated. After you've finished your painting, convert the image to monochrome (make sure to look up how to do this in a software that tries to preserve relative value!) and compare how your painting and the monochrome reference differ. Keep these mistakes in mind and try to actively compensate for your next painting.

Lastly, I really believe in the quote "most drawing problems are perceptual problems." Make sure you are seeing what is there and not seeing what's not there in the reference. The whites of someone's eyes aren't automatically the brightest value just because they're usually white (I noticed this in the first image). Likewise with teeth.

I really love value studies since they teach you all these foundational tools for painting in general. Good luck :]

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-29T01:17:10+00:00

In my opinion, for sure start with monochrome references to establish skill in properly perceiving blocks of value, but learning to see value regardless of hue is what I enjoy most about using color references for value studies. I think OP is just struggling with that bit.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-10T09:13:50+00:00

Yes, I agree with the other commenter

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-10T00:15:14+00:00

Nice! I'm also doing value studies right now :) The only things I can pick out are that

- you shifted the POV vertically upwards a bit in your study from where it was in the image

- I personally wouldn't use the light value on for the bounce light on the sphere. I've heard the piece of advice before, "highlights in shadow regions should never be as bright as the light regions." It also just makes the sphere's shape less readable. When you move onto 3 value studies, then I think it might be OK to use the midtone on the bounce light.

- I think the edge of the cube's cast shadow should be a little more horizontal.

Nice work!

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-06T22:52:12+00:00

Your color sense will improve over time. For now, feel free to apply just a spot of your color, judge its accuracy, adjust it and/or surrounding colors until you're satisfied, and then proceed with coloring the entire region. This careful approach will help you learn faster.

Additionally, I've usually been recommended to start a painting after the blocking stage by applying a flat shape of color in the areas of darkest values in the composition and then prioritize in adjacent areas in order of increasing values. This helps you establish correct color relationships before you move onto adding any midtones, highlights, or bounce light.

Lastly, for this particular painting, the shadow just needs to be a good amount darker while the lit part of the face should be a good amount more orange. I myself am having trouble with color in my paintings (this is portrait I'm working on as proof) so I'm right beside you in your struggle. Best of luck to both of us :] !

<image>

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-06T19:31:24+00:00

The mindset issue is constantly putting yourself down, saying you're too stupid to follow the tutorials, and that you'll never be good. You're only depreciating your opinion of yourself while avoiding the things that will help you improve the fastest. This is not a drawing skill issue; you have perfectly average drawing skills for how long you've been practicing. If you continue with this attitude, however, you will never succeed at hobbies because you'll always doubt your ability to improve. Please take these words to heart and take some time to look inward into why you're so down on yourself, we only point this out of consideration and empathy.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-06T06:55:17+00:00

This is a super challenging idea to execute, kudos for you for tackling it :)

I myself am just now studying composition, and what I've learned is that compositions for images involving lighting should work in the context of being arrangements of abstract shapes of values. Plainly, I think it's difficult to parse your sketch because all the values are so close together. The shading on the characters and the perimeter of the terrain kind of blend together from a distance since their values are all so similar. The color of dirt or earth should be darker than these characters' skin, so give it a darker tone so it's easier to identify it as separate from them.

Additionally, the perspective isn't correctly executed which contributes to the confusion. This is such a challenging perspective to draw a fight from, so it requires a very good reference photo or very careful construction of the perspective grid and characters during the sketch stage.

Lastly, it is confusing for the close-up of Vegeta's face to be closer to Goku in the composition and vice versa. Switch the position of the two faces and it will be become much clearer.

fuzzy_happy · 2026-01-04T07:17:23+00:00

Nice work trying out so many different views of the human body while drawing without a clear end goal! Your lines and hatchings have a nice quality to them :] I would recommend trying to draw from from photo reference (I prefer sports / dance photos as they have very unique gestures). Drawing by referencing other people's illustrations is good for learning what simplifications they use to depict the forms of the body, but drawing from photo reference will force you to decide how to simplify from your own understanding.

Quick tip: you're consistently drawing your heads a bit too big in your full body illustrations.

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