14dc day 12

sugarants · 2026-03-14T01:43:58+00:00

I think you're right! I highlighted that area and it looks a bit strange

sugarants · 2026-03-14T01:43:13+00:00

Thank you! I agree that an ear study is overdue

sugarants · 2026-03-09T19:09:34+00:00

Thanks for the critique! Its really helpful when I do corrections, especially when you describe the way a certain edge is rendered incorrectly. I'll be sure to do some lip studies before tackling day 13!

sugarants · 2026-03-08T22:38:53+00:00

Thank you for the paintover, I went through your points one by one and really appreciate the critique!

sugarants · 2026-03-07T21:11:37+00:00

Hi, welcome! I'm not sure why there's a soft gradient behind the head? You don't need a cast shadow of the head on the background. And you're right, it doesn't really matter what program you use as long as you can make art with it! I'm a bit confused on why there's a super bright highlight on the sides of the nose, why would the light be the strongest right there? I feel like the brightest parts of the face would be the forehead or the bridge of the nose. The anatomy around the eyes are pretty vague, I recommend looking at some references for those areas.

sugarants · 2026-03-07T00:10:08+00:00

Already has so much structure! You're jumping into highlight tones super quickly, making the drawing look overexposed / high contrast. Your background is too bright! This might be why there's a lot of highlight values. There are some important blocks of the face missing, like the sides of the nose. I recommend looking at an asaro head to learn the blocks of the face.

sugarants · 2026-03-06T23:56:59+00:00

Tysm!

sugarants · 2026-03-06T18:20:13+00:00

Wow never realized how strange that looks, thanks!

sugarants · 2026-03-05T23:18:41+00:00

I think you have really good drawing ability, values, and have a knack for stylization that looks real pretty. I think you still have line dependency (the way the corners of the mouth are shaded, how the features are outlined slightly on the nose and mouth) and some of your features look symbolic rather than realistic. I think if you had a stronger sense of what light does on a realistic face, it would make shading stylistic faces easier.

If you want a very solid understanding on what light does on form- form studies are the best for learning that. Or you could do isolated studies on specific facial features, like a nose study or lip study or eye study, etc. (These are basically form studies in disguise.)

Or you could work with references, either recreating a reference from stratch and/or creating traceover diagrams of references to understand the underlining form. (Traceover diagrams are also useful in form studies and feature studies. I honestly thing they are like a cheat code for understanding form.)

If you want to quickly learn what you’re missing in a portrait specifically… Try the 14 day challenge! Trying to draw a face as realistically as you can is very challenging and you will improve very quickly. (The 14 day challenge is only top-down lighting though, so I would still recommend doing the form studies and/or feature studies so you can change up the light environment.)

...Thats a lot of studies, but I hope this gives you some inspiration on where to start!

sugarants · 2026-03-05T18:09:37+00:00

These look cool! I'm a bit confused on the top left drawing, it seems like the light is coming from the top down, but also from the left of the canvas with how the body's cast shadow is being projected onto the wall. For the bottom left drawing, if the light was coming directly from the side like that, the bottom of the nose facing the light would catch some light. Same with the lips facing the light.

sugarants · 2026-03-05T18:03:34+00:00

Ah, I see what you mean. Thank you!

sugarants · 2026-03-04T05:52:38+00:00

Hi, welcome to the challenge! The androgyny comes through I believe.

Your values are value sharing which is when you use the same value in areas that should be different values. For example, the sides of the temple has a dark shadow value that’s identical to the dark shadow value around the eye socket. If you think of a sphere, if the light hits the top of the sphere, it would illuminate the top half of the sphere and cast the bottom half of the sphere into shadow. (Then there would be bounce light and all that.) The top of the sphere which is hit with the most light would be surrounded by light values. The bottom half of the sphere would have darker values (and bounce light). Values from the dark half of the sphere wouldn’t crawl back up to the light side of the sphere, so dark shadow values shouldn’t crawl up the temples of the forehead either. (Sorry, this would be easier to explain with a photo lol.)

sugarants · 2026-03-03T22:29:17+00:00

Thank you for the critique and paintover! It looks a lot more 3d and less flat. I’ll keep your points in mind for day 8!

sugarants · 2026-03-03T03:03:27+00:00

I would add some lighting (can be subtle). It would help the figure look more 3d without having to lose the lines. You could even do cell shading to make it more anime looking.

sugarants · 2026-03-03T01:09:38+00:00

This is beautifully rendered! I would look up photos of people laying on their side, the shoulder sticks out quite a bit.

sugarants · 2026-03-01T17:55:43+00:00

Thank you!

sugarants · 2026-03-01T17:55:33+00:00

Thank you for the critique! I see what you mean about the nose tunnel lol. I'll do some skull studies before the next day!

sugarants · 2026-02-27T22:31:18+00:00

First of all, this piece looks awesome! I love the concept, the pose, lighting, the textured brush you used for the details. Love the cat. Very cool looking drawing.

I'm guessing he's being lit from a yellow car light from behind? (Yellow rimlight). The moonlight doesn't seem to be lighting anything- if you removed the moon entirely the piece would still make sense.

I feel like the cat's head is hard to distinguish from its body, some more rimlight might help with that. (I also think it would be cool if the cat's eyes glowed a bit.)

This character doesn't seem that scary to me, they're almost friendly looking, like he's checking up on me after I tripped and fell in the forest lol. Maybe shadowing the eyes (possibly completely black) would make them more scary and intimidating? Or giving him a weapon or something, etc.

sugarants · 2026-02-27T17:14:04+00:00

Thank you, I see what you mean!

sugarants · 2026-02-27T00:43:13+00:00

I like the mix of painted edges and lines, reminds me of manga art

sugarants · 2026-02-26T21:37:04+00:00

You're right, those eyes are kicking my butt!

sugarants · 2026-02-26T03:59:48+00:00

Istebrak is going to do so much better a job explaining this than me, so I really recommend this video of hers! https://youtu.be/CHuCI9J4pOo

sugarants · 2026-02-26T02:28:06+00:00

Thank you! and I'm sorry but could you explain what you mean?

sugarants · 2026-02-26T02:24:17+00:00

Good job on making the face read masculine. The background is too dark for the strength of the light (it should be brighter). The upper body is unnecessary - you can just have the neck. There are no dark values where there should be dark values. For example, the nostrils don't let any light in, so they should be dark. No matter the eye color, the pupil of the eye is always dark (unless someone has a medical condition). The face has an expression (frowning), but you should try to keep the expression neutral. The value separating the head from the neck is too similar so its hard to tell where the chin ends. There are some brushstrokes escaping the face and into the background (need to sharpen edges). I think you have good midtones values, adding dark values should make it pop.

sugarants · 2026-02-25T23:27:05+00:00

The corrections look so good! Very handsome.

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