@Christopher Lebreault Nice work! To make the head look more turned to the side, you need to draw the centerline of the face closer to that side. So, to make it look more turned to the left, push the centerline closer to the left edge of the head. Also, that "side cut" will change: try making it more circular when the head is more turned to the side, and more squished as the head turns to the front. About the chin: try to do it by "eyeballing" for now - draw it in a way that "looks right" to you. Just keep in mind the following guidelines: . The chin width is about the same as the width of what the lips should be; . The jaw line has a "corner" that sits at about half to 2/3 down from the line of the base of the nose; Over time, your intuitive notion for this should improve. Also, as you progress with the course, you'll get more information on the proportions. Hope this helps!

Hey, @Jo Sheridan, this is really cool! Both versions look interesting to my eye. Since you asked about the textures, I actually really like the result of mixing watercolors with pastels - I like “moist” effect of the pastel strokes, they seem to harmonize with the watercolor washes underneath. The “dark” version does have less color variation, although I also sense a bit more unity in its composition since it’s more monochromatic. I’m not an expert in The Lord of the Rings, but I’ve watched the movies and I’m familiar with the overall story. This scene you chose as a reference has an eye-popping composition, it’s really stunning. Your choice for changing the scene’s perspective makes me feel like there is a bit more distance from the action (in there reference, it almost feels like we’re inside the march). Not that it’s a problem to give it more distance, it’s a different point of view and can be done intentionally. Although, for composition sake, I feel like your drawing perhaps could have some more foreground elements to help us better perceive the scale of the elements into the distance. It could be maybe some rocks, or some old statues, some breaking waves from the water below, or anything else that’s much closer to the viewer and help us notice how far away everything else is. In the reference, notice how the perspective of the bridge and the army really shows the deep space and makes the temple look absurdly monumental; since your composition has a less contrasting perspective, I think this effect is getting a bit softened. Another thing I’m definitely not an expert in is watercolors - sorry! I really don’t know how to help you with the issue of things getting darker and darker. Personally, one of the reasons I find watercolor fascinating is because it looks so simple, but it’s actually so complex to handle. All I’m able to do right now is play around with it once in a while, just for fun, certainly never getting too technical and almost always messing things up! :) Hopefully, I’ll be able to learn the techniques properly someday. For now, I’m almost always sticking with Photoshop, which (oddly) is much more comfortable to me than traditional painting. By the way, since you mentioned you’re learning Photoshop, perhaps you’d like to check out http://www.ctrlpaint.com, it has a large and free art-geared video library about digital painting in Photoshop, and some of the videos are focused on beginners. Walking on the mud doesn’t sound pleasing, I’m sorry! :) We’re starting to get some quick rainy showers here in Ceará, the state where I live, although I think the heavier rain season shouldn’t come around until January or February. The good news is that the heavy rain season here is very important for the people who live in the countryside because it helps agriculture, although for us, at the capital, it's a bit of a mess because a lot of the streets get flooded… but the rain also helps dial down the winds a bit, so, when it stops, the weather gets better for surfing, which I like! :D Anyway, hope you find my comments helpful! By the way, I notice you’ve been sharing your artwork here in this topic I created, but you can feel free to also post your work in other parts of the community, such as in the “Share” category, or even create your own topics in the “Learn” category. And if you’d like me (or actually anyone) to be notified about posts you make anywhere on the site, simply tag with @ Hope this helps, keep up your good work!

Hey, @Jo Sheridan, I'm doing well, thank you! Here in Brazil we haven't reached a second lockdown yet, but I suppose we're heading towards it, it's probably just a matter of time... Hopefully all this pandemic craze will start to soften soon. It's great to know you've also been able to find strength in your art! I had no idea drawing was such a recent thing for you, your work makes us think you've been drawing since forever. I think you did really great with this one! I see absolutely nothing that comes to me as misplacement. Actually, your observation skills amaze me - you nailed it on the likeness, and I came to wonder if you used any tracing technique because the proportions and angles in the drawing are really really close to the photo. I would be no problem if you did, a lot of artists do, but I got to layer the drawing on top of the photo on Photoshop and I assumed you didn't, you're just really good at drawing from observation. :) I think you also did and amazing job with the hair texture and, yes, the shadows and lighting edges, it all looks so well treated. If anything, something that came up to me as I flipped from the drawing to the reference photo is that there is a very subtle difference in the overall head proportions which I think makes your son look about 2 or 3 years older in the drawing than in the photo (in the drawing, the cranium is a tiny bit smaller compared to the face length). Since that shadow edge on the cheekbone is also a little bit less soft in the drawing than in the photo, there is a feeling of a stronger bone structure, which I think helps add up to this "age difference". Just something I noticed, although I don't think any of it is an issue at all, your drawing looks awesome and totally stands on its own in my opinion. You have a "family portraits" series now! Despite the fact that your older drawings already looked great, I notice quite some progress and refinement over time when I look at all the drawings you shared so far. Not sure if you had noticed that already, but your time spent drawing is visibly paying off and improving your technique. Congrats on that and keep it up! Hope this helps! And if you'd like to share other thoughts or questions, feel free to do so!

Hey, @Jo Sheridan! It's really a challenge fitting in time to draw some cartoons along with so much other stuff there is to be done! :D Nice work with this drawing, I can imagine how it must have felt very different from your previous portrait works. I think you did a good job getting the shapes in place. I feel like it lost a bit of gesture on the bending of the torso and the neck. It also seems to me the hands and feet might have gotten a tiny bit too small, especially the hand in the front. I really like how you designed the arms’ anatomy, and I’m wondering if you were mostly copying from the reference or did you apply any supplemental anatomy knowledge of your own. For composition sake, I think one simple adjustment that could bring a lot of difference is making the chair (bench?) ands its drapery a little darker - make it a closer value to the background (rather than having it close to the model value-wise as it is now). For the background, right now, I’d suggest focus on trying to make it a little bit more uniform, so its fill and “texture” won’t draw too much attention to distract from the figure. I’m not good enough at charcoal to give you advice on how to use it to get darker values, but one exercise that could really help you better control your pencil pressure for value is to practice doing value scales. Hope this helps!

Hey, @Jo Sheridan, this is a great drawing! I like your choice to work on dark paper and I think you handled the hair texture pretty well. I think what mainly calls my attention is that the contrast is a bit too low in areas that should feel deeper, such as the eye sockets and the occlusion areas near the neck, the jaw and the forehead (pointed out in blue). Also, there’s something about the head construction that makes it feel less of a rounded form than what it should be - when I compare the drawing to the photo, I see the angle of the mouth matches quite closely, but the angle of the eyes doesn’t as much, and I think this is what's making the head feel kind of warped overall. I don’t know how was your process, but I suppose thinking of 3D forms (for example, as in a Loomis head) and using cross-contours to establish the height of the facial features might help with getting a stronger sense of volume and perspective. One final thing I’m noticing now is that the foreshortening effect on the arm is less strong in your drawing than it was on the photo. Nevertheless, this must have been a real challenge indeed, it’s a hard perspective with a hard expression to portray. I especially like the forms on the hand and the subtleties on the facial features. I think this is good work! Let me know in case you have other thoughts.

Wow, @Jo Sheridan, I think this looks pretty good! It definitely feels like you’ve done some thorough, careful work. The likeness is definitely there. I love how you treated the loose strands of hair on the upper part of the head (actually, the overall hair and brow textures look nicely done). I understand your struggle about the subtle tone variations, the light is really very soft on the reference. One thing that calls my attention is that the eyes got a little asymmetrical (the eye to the left got a bit too small in the drawing somehow; or maybe it’s the one the right that got a bit too big?). Maybe it’s just a matter of double-checking proportions side to side during the construction stage. Regardless, I really like the fine detailing on the area of the eyes. And one thing I’d suggest for a future drawing is maybe work out the structure of the neck a bit more, too, in the linear sketch stage - this should probably make the neck feel more solidly constructed when shaded. Hope this helps! Keep up the good work.

Looking at this now I can see his face is the wrong shape under his left eye - grr - how is it we only see these things too late!

That's very kind of you to say, @Teresa Bolen! :)