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Time for a portrait drawing demo! I'll show you how to approach a drawing to get accurate proportions and then check your own accuracy in Procreate.
Newest
Léo Ikhlef
15d
Second portrait observation ! Even tho there are still mistakes, your tips on how to correct yourself without a teacher are really useful ! Made a lot of progress on my second one, which I did NOT see coming.
Honestly can't believe I made these easy mistakes now that I checked on procreate :')
I was like "ITS SUPPOSED TO BE ALIGNED, WHY DID I DO THAT???"
Thank you for that demo, i'll keep practicing !
Andrew Kovachik
21d
It cracked me up realizing how much of a visceral reaction I felt when he started erasing so much over half way through :D but all the changes Mr. Prokopenko made were correct so I guess I need to build up that confidence haha :'D
@harrow
28d
I didn't like how my last attempt turned out so I went back and tried again.
@harrow
26d
I did a few more.
@harrow
28d
I think the face is mostly there but the shape of the hair could use some work.
I checked the proportions by printing the original photo on transparent paper
@ryandt21
30d
I think this one went a lot better than the sailor. I did mess up by drawing a bit too large, placing a some hair out of frame.
Isaiah
1mo
👋, Had fun with this one.
@toph
6d
This is beautiful!
Shreyans
1mo
Tried with another one, And again.. messed up the eyes. Also I am facing difficulties finding and matching relevant landmarks. It's taking too much time for me to find these measurements/ landmarks. Mainly struggling with the facial features.
Léo Ikhlef
23d
Try looking for natural landmarks that tend to align if it was someone looking directly at you for example !
I think the moment you start seeing an eye and not a shape, is when you need to take a step back (also quite literally, you'll simplify shapes more easily). Since we see people everyday, we interpret it as something we know, but you need to really switch your mind into "simple shapes" mode !
For example, if you squint your eyes, you'll see that the hairline above the forehead is one horizontal line.
Don't mind how much time it takes, this is usually how you'll end up rushing and getting into easy mistakes :)
Really start from big form into smaller ones, try finding every big one you can before getting into details !
Good job anyway, keep it up :D
@acorn9
1mo
My approach to this one was to take a lot of time looking at the different proportions before I even put a pencil to paper. As I started to draw, I used a ruler to double check as I went along; that worked to help keep the proportions in check. I know that Stan only used a pencil, but having a second method to compare one thing to another seemed to help me stop seeing the face as a face, and instead focus on seeing just the shapes.
@brimarie
1mo
This portrait was somehow difficult for me to paint. The direction of the gaze and the chin were my sticking points. My first attempt failed and the proportions weren't right at all (blue version). Fortunately, the second one turned out a bit better :-)
Michał Staniszewski
2mo
A lot of mistakes. Nose should be more to the left. Lips are to big and in wrong position. Ear should be higher and a little bigger. Neck look weird.
Maria Bygrove
2mo
This is a difficult angle, don't be too hard on yourself. You did a good job simplifying the shapes. I think if you dared to foreshorten her nose a little bit more, the tilt of her head would be more obvious. Why not give it another try?
Shreyans
2mo
Half part into it and I realised, I messed up the proportions (the nose is looking too small for the face). But was too lazy to correct it. Messing up in measurements is really easy in this.
Any advice if you wanna give, would be helpful.
@acorn9
1mo
You did a great job with the eyes! That was a tricky part for me and you seemed to have captured the positioning on the face really well.
@ethel
2mo
I tried again with an image I liked better - it was fun even with the misjudgements revealed with the overlay. Centred the overlay on the eyes because otherwise it looks like they are too far apart & they aren’t! Learning ...
@ramdom
2mo
@ethel
2mo
Can’t see this - the lines are too light
@ethel
2mo
OK! Not the best but also not the worst! I skipped the curls because they are above my pay grade.
I don’t have the resources for the overlay - yet
@ethel
2mo
I skipped the curls because they are above my pay grade, and the flowers because too be honest, my patience was reaching an end. But with the overlay I can see that the eyes are way too high, their angle too steep, and I misjudged the location of the neck, but overall not the worst job for a beginner. I’m encouraged.
Richard W
2mo
I worked on the portrait reference. Still a lot of improvements to be done. Therefore, lot of practice seems a basic requirement! Pretty happy with mouth, nose and eyes while overall proportions are off
Blex
2mo
ok re did it with this face, was not perfect but went much better, gonna move onto the next assignment tomorrow.
@harrow
2mo
I don't have the tools to do an overlay but I think I've done okay. I got a bit frustrated towards the end so I ended up eyeballing more than I probably should have.
My biggest frustration was how to block in the nose.
Richard W
2mo
At a first glance, I would say that the forehead is too high. But not totaly sure
Blex
2mo
tried with a new portrait, and this broke me, i just cant maintain the distance with only a pen, tried to simplify as much as i could in hopes it would help but no, i'm giving up for now. gonna try to attempt the photo he used in this video and see if i can do any better, but for now i just feel defeated
@harrow
2mo
I find it much easier to measure with something thinner like a knitting needle. I'm currently using the skewer from some gas station chicken teriyaki.
Merry Lee Sharin
2mo
Basic Drawing- Demo- Measuring Proportions
007 Drawing #2: Roger Moore. Improving some areas, not so much in others. Got the nose and mouth proportions spot-on, but the eyes, while proportional, were too high compared to nose/mouth. Still having issues with widths of face. Have a slightly easier time making comparative measurements though.
Moving on to Dynamic Shapes, then will try Timothy Dalton.
Rafael Rangel
2mo
This exercise was pretty tough!
Merry Lee Sharin
2mo
Have you done any of the overlay techniques? The eyes on your male figure drawing were very expressive!
Merry Lee Sharin
2mo
Well, at-least Sean Connery is not alive to see this insult! Now that I "see" where some of my problems were, I'm going to try a series of all the 007's- despite that I feel it's much more frustrating to draw someone famous (or a family member) than a stranger because you're trying to capture their iconic essence.
I tried multiple times to follow Stan's Photoshop overlay instructions. I found if I played it back at 0.5 speed, I could follow along. But literally I spent more time trying to get it the "recipe" to work and then trying to use "adjustments" (and I use Photoshop a lot!) than I did drawing this. Eventually I gave up, and just had the photo on one layer and reduced its opacity, and then had my drawing on top in a different layer.
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About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
