my art teacher continues to say that my self portrait isnt good enough despite the fact that i have been comming in during lunch every day for 4 weeks working on it and people i show it to say it looks just like me. Anyone know what more i could do to this?
I'm not an artist or anything, but your eyes are crossed and your mouth looks kind of weird, a bit unnatural. Maybe change that. Right know it looks more like an attempt at comedy than a serious drawing (I know that sounds harsh, but I don't mean it that way. The eyes are just reaaaaaally throwing me off).
Damn, I got to learn that trick. Well, some other things then:
The way the shadow falls on your chin makes it seem like it has a curve to the right (your left). It looks like your nose is way too long, also because of the shade. It's like it grew together with your left eyebrow (my right). The lighting, at least I assume that's light, on your hair doesn't feel natural. The contrast is too strong, it looks like you went to a barber and changed bits of your hair colour.
In reply to J3sster, #4: that was actually very helpful. now that i look at it my nose does seem long, and i actually have taken care of the lighting in my hair just havnt had time to post an updated pic, but in all seriousness that you you were a great help
heres a quick update on the picture (i made the mistake of pressing down hard with ebony pencils so it gets a lil shiney and its gone through some abuse from me puting it in my backpack to ride my bike home from school)
One thing I notice is you need to get out of pressing down hard on your pencil and outlining major areas of your face. It's probably a bad habit you would've picked up from drawing cartoons or anime. If your teacher wants a realistic portrait, you need to look closely at how things look in relation to other parts. Seems like you get the big picture, but you need to draw exactly what you see.
The hair for example is really blocked out and sectioned and because of the lack of dimension it seems more like a solid object than a dynamic thing. Nothing is ever entirely one shade of color, its a mix and gradual flow. Looks like you understand midtones and all that but the inbetween could use some work.
If you haven't already, I'd throw down like $20 on some blending stumps (cost like a dollar. useful, but don't rely on them) and some different types of lead. I use mechanical holders and sticks of 3H, HB, and a range of 2B to 8B.
i just took a life drawing class, not saying im an expert but here are some things i notice:
the eyes seem to be two different sizes, right (stage left) one looks bigger and the shading is a big off. The shadow from your nose/brow stops at the eyebrow and makes it look a bit unusual, and seeing how it is on the far side of the light maybe add a bit more shade so it doesnt stick out so much
The eyebrow that we can see looks a bit misplaced, it maybe be because your scrunching it when making the crosseyed face, but a typical eyebrow is a bit farther away from the eye and has more of an arch to it. For me, if i follow the ridge going from my nose to my brows the eyebrow follows that ridge in a sort of sideways ( pattern
One more thing, this seemed kind of stupid to me the first time i was told to do it, by try shading your sockets, even just the slightest bit, because from your cheek bone to your brow your skull goes inward so even if it is very slight, the eyesockets will typically be dark then the rest of that section of the face
- Choose a thread. When posting a piece of work, choose the most relevant thread to post it in and stick with that. DO NOT post something in multiple threads just because it's a photograph that's been edited in photoshop and you think it belongs in the photography thread, the photoshop thread, and the art gallery.
- This is a Community. You do not need to post a thread just to ask for criticism just on your work, or just on one, specific piece of art. Use the Art Gallery thread, or the most relevant thread to your medium. If you post an entire thread just for your own work, it and you will be removed. Threads need to be all-inclusive to the community (so that others can post their own work in that medium), and not duplicates. It's okay to reboot old threads, it is NOT okay to create a duplicate thread or a thread that is not conducive to a community approach.
