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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
comments 293
After completing the official assignment, I decided to tackle another portrait because I really wanted to understand this concept of shape simplification way more. I did not do this in 1 sitting. It took me a couple of days because I tried to do it digitally first, but I wasn’t happy with the progress. I decided to do it traditionally because the feeling of pencil on paper is just unbeatable. There a lot of things I would change and I still wanted to do to this, but I’m training myself to stop working on a drawing endlessly. I feel I could’ve pushed the values even more. There is a ton I still need to learn, and this assignment is really challenging! But I kinda feel I can move on to the next lesson…. (?) I doubt myself a lot so I’m working on that as well…. So, jumping to the next lesson isn’t easy 😮💨
LESSON NOTES
Here’s a critique clip from the level 2 drawing basics project on simplifying portraits using shapes, values, and edges.
I chose this critique because it emphasizes the significance of considering the value range when drawing anything. This student's example shows the loss of visual information when extreme values are used without halftones. Get more tips and the full critique by checking out the premium course.
Related Links:
Improve Shape Design by Simplifying
Top 5 Shading Mistakes
DOWNLOADS
critique-simplify-portrait-from-observation.mp4
2 GB
critique-simplify-portrait-from-observation-transcript-english.txt
51 kB
critique-simplify-portrait-from-observation-transcript-spanish.txt
52 kB
critique-simplify-portrait-from-observation-captions-english.srt
90 kB
critique-simplify-portrait-from-observation-captions-spanish.srt
92 kB
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It’s time for level 2 critiques…portraits!
I’ll be looking through your portrait submissions and giving advice and tips on how to improve on common mistakes.
I think I posted my last drawing on the wrong board/thread so I deleted it and am re-post it here.
I wish I had taken a picture of it before adding the shading, because it changed his face a lot. I think learning values will help that. My transitions are jarring and not only draws too much attention to certain elements, but also changes their shape.
I continued to try to keep my edges sharp and angular. I lost that in the shirt a bit. I think I did pretty good on the hair.
His face look flat (like my pears). I tried to print out the image and draw the planes of the face over the top of it and was immediately confused. Definitely harder than it looks.
The wrinkles in his shirt were a little intimidating also. I’ve never really attempted fabrics with any sense of realness. I decided to keep it simple and just did the biggest shapes.
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15h
The portrait is tough! I think you did an overall good job identifying the planes. I have two suggestions that might help you feel those plane changes a bit more and achieve a better likeness.
- Bring in some more of the third lightest value in the lighter side of the face to give yourself more value shapes to work with on that side. It might feel a bit flat because there's not much information for the viewer to interpret, and what's there doesn't feel as intentionally designed as the darker value shapes. It's the side in light, but don't be afraid to add more midtones there, especially where the planes start to curve away from the light as the face narrows towards the chin. That shape on the forehead can be softened as well with more surrounding midtone.
- I think simplifying a bit more might help with the likeness. I noticed particularly around the mouth area, it got a bit render-y. It feels a bit more like an icon than shapes designed to build a mouth. I have found when working with portraits that --less is more-- Overworking areas can totally transform the face and get away from the form that makes the person's face. More detail draws the viewers eye to that area of concentrated detail as well, so keep that in mind when designing your shapes.
Your shading looks awesome! Good job keeping everything even. I hope these are insightful to you and helps answer some of your questions!
I am all over the place with big shapes and values :D I got lost in the details and found it hard to zoom out. But proportions are not too bad, I think.
I’m gonna be honest, I got tired mid-project and it didn’t end up as good as it could be, but the important thing is I learned a lot!
I don't know what happened. He ended up being a cartoon character and crossed eyed but I tried.
i tried to do gandalf but i think i need more black in the background i tried with charcoal the background but that doesnt work
Third attempt at portrait after watching critique video. Feel like I am improving more with shading and simplifying, but really need to work on proportions more.
Since I did so poorly on the level 2 reference photo, thought I'd practice a little more. Dimensions are off, especially on the face, but I think I've improved a little with the values.
After watching the demos and getting crit, I decided to redo the head and one of the pears. With a focus more on value grouping and shape design. I definitely see an improvement but also see where I can still use shape design to show the planes better and after watching these crit videos i could have used some more separated values especially on the face. But that's something to keep in mind for the future.
I found it difficult to block out my shading. I believe I was supposed to use 5 shades to make this portrait but I just used five different pencils and created the shades based more on pressure with my 4b and 5b.
My name is Vanessa and I have been drawing/painting for 10+ years. Self taught, though I do not draw often anymore. This is my first attempt at trying to get back into it as a hobby.
I hope to get more immersed into the community here!
•
5mo
Welcome Vanessa!
Hi this is my attempt of the portrait. I feel like some things could be improved in terms of shading, but that is a motivation to keep learning.
Any form of feedback is welcome.
After watching the critiques and Stan's attempt I decided to go back and adjust some things. I thought more about the plane changes, simplification and about the various tips about shadows and values.
Hello!
I completed the assigned portrait prior to watching the demo so basically I guessed how to go about it.
Having watched the demo I then completed my own portrait and I can see there is much improvement, though there are still a few things I would change.
I found this task tough but extremely useful for isolating big shapes and categorising values.
Any feedback is most welcome!
•
5mo
These are great, Ani!
I'm trying to improve my skills and would be happy to receive constructive criticism.
The combination of pencil, hatching and patience is my nemesis. I hope I one day will crack the graphite code and feel that hatching every plane change is just natural (for now I'm still confused how I should organize my planes effectively). I sat down after the demo and critique video and tried my best to not tame my impatience and just keep going, carefully this time. Middle image took me an hour. Leftmost two hours.
I still like the values of my first try (middle) more. I use a lead holder and the difference between HB and 2B I felt was too small. Nex time I'll try 2H or H, 2B, 4B and 6B.
