Critique of portrait attempts in digital
3yr
Dan B
I'm quite new to digital, and have just been trying out Autodesk Sketch on a loaned iPad Pro, which to be honest I didn't enjoy much. One day I'll get myself a nice big wacom or something, but for now back to my little Intuos Art to keep practicing...
Anyway, please critique these, probably spent 30 mins on each using '6B' graphite, just trying to get shading and likeness to a reasonable level. These were probably around 10cmx12cm or so on the screen
I think I might try Ahmed Aldoori's 100 heads challenge soon because I'd like to be decent at portraits to do some for family as gifts, so these are warm-ups :)
3yr
Id highly recommend looking at the Andrew Loomis 'Head and Hands' book.(you can get a pdf of it online) but would recommend getting the book. It had helped me so much in understanding the structure of the human head, he had such a clear way of explaining his method. Secondly id try to loosen up initially, lots of loose studies will mean you'll learn more in a shorter space of time rather than drawing meticulously at this stage. The 100 head challenge is a great way of developing your portrait drawing. Go for it. These are great.
3yr
Nice, they look good! The little girl especially. Getting the hang of sketching on an iPad can be tricky, especially if it doesn't have a PaperLike surface protector and you're drawing directly on the iPad glass (not a fun experience imo). Did you get to try out Procreate for iPad?
Dan B
3yr
I went to look at Procreate but there's no trial version so I'm a bit hesitant to just buy it even with all the good feedback (my iPad is loaned too and I don't have other Apple devices)... I did try Infinite Painter briefly and that actually seems quite good for drawing. The default brush is even called Proko Pencil :)
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Hey, Dan!
I think my one advise would be to try to find a construction model of the face such as the Loomis head or the Riley rythms of the face (I don't think you absolutely need it as a portrait artist, but it's nice to know). I personally like the Riley rythms for finding the planes of the face. You could also use the Asaro head for that. You seem to have a good handle on how to separate lights from darks, but I don't think the reference image(!) with the male model is very good for that, so half tones and knowing the planes become important to show the form.
I hope you don't mind that this isn't about digital painting per se.
3yr
Thanks Oliver. I'll look into the Reilly method, I haven't looked at that before. No problem, I want general critique, was just noting the digital thing is new to excuse my digital sloppiness :p
3yr
u did an awesome job dude!!! just the second piece dont look symmetrical.. that girl one
3yr
These look good! If you are new to digital it will take a while to get the feel. I always did traditional (graphite, charcoal, colored pencil, pastel, paint, etc.), and when I started digital it was like starting over. There is a learning curve, but now I love digital. I still do traditional as well, but it was worth the effort to learn digital. Keep it up!!
