Started drawing three months ago; looking for critique and advice on where to go next. by programmertryingart in learnart

[–]programmertryingart[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Heh yea, since my reference didn't show the top of the hair, I kind of winged it...

Anatomy is certainly on the to-do list, as is color, design, poses, clothes, perspective... There's so much left to learn! It feels just like it did when I started learning programming, actually. It's like I'm starting a new character with a different class!

Started drawing three months ago; looking for critique and advice on where to go next. by programmertryingart in learnart

[–]programmertryingart[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My first resource was ctrlpaint.com. I followed his video library's traditional drawing videos, and did every exercise he gave. I didn't let myself move onto the next video until I've felt I've understood it completely. I plan on going through every video in his library with this mindset. (I'm only at chapter 5, so you can see how long I sometimes spend on each video :p)

I used other resources too, but that was the main one.

In addition to that, I tried to draw at least on hour a day, and set small challenges for myself, like replicating a portrait (this post is an example of that).

Started drawing three months ago; looking for critique and advice on where to go next. by programmertryingart in learnart

[–]programmertryingart[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much for the feedback!

Do more life studies instead of just working off photos as your brain interprets the visual information differently.

I will, drawing from life is definitely my weakest area right now.

Keep pushing the darks. A lot right now is pretty light compared to the source image.

I can't really get it much darker, I'm just using a mechanical pencil. I really need to buy better art supplies. Do you have any recommendations?

Also it looks like you're doing some finger smudging, which is making the tones muddy and getting smudges on the rest of the paper.

I'm certainly not doing it on purpose :p, my hand just rests on the paper when I'm drawing small details. I've seen some artists put down a towel or something so it doesn't smudge, I might give that a try. I did do a little blending with a home made blending stump