Decided to try this while eyeballing it.. I think it looks decent I guess but in terms of accuracy I was a little bit off.. still am pretty happy with how it came out. Didn't do much shading only the tiniest bit because it looked weird without it

Had a try at the portrait before watching the video

I think with notes a lot as a recent habit for self-study, so I'll just share my thinking here. To keep this at least not too self-obsessed, I did an eyeballed version of this reference for fun (as attached). Look; measuring is hard and I've just spent all my rigor energy on the assignment and going over this video slowly, you gotta let me off the hook sometime, right? This was done with absolutely no measurements taken using pencil/stylus, and gauged solely by shape-feel. I didn't erase any lines that don't have to do with small details, so my thought process can be seen pretty much as-is. I thought she looked like a lemon and drew that as the most major shape. This loose sketch style is what I've always run with, where I wing everything with curved shapes and create flat, 2D, interlocked mosaics with very loose hierarchy in how I approach working through them. The problem with my approach has always been facial features at subtle angles, because there is no emphasis on angles or working out the 3D forms, with only the bare minimum of trying to use alignment. I think I've actually improved this intuitive approach since starting the course, but there's still a lot to fix, and I can see how a bit of stricter measuring sprinkled in there at the appropriate stage of lay-in before adding details can take things to the next level of accuracy. I've deliberately left out any kind of measurement or capturing angles with straight lines (I used to do them with curves) to see how far off I would be, but I think a bit of awareness of rhythm, being patient and deliberate with lines, and other things from this course still kept things convincing enough even though the features are tilted in relation to the facing of the head. ## two styles of drawing? I just did the self-critique for this project (for the musketeer) and I'm glad I went back to do it. It showed me that if I neglected measuring for one part, it could throw off all the things surrounding it; in my case, it was the reference person's right eye socket being too big. - I think I understood that it's not really that I'm that much better at eye-balling, but that I've done it enough that I have subconscious shape comparisons going as I draw. - With measurement, I don't have that habit developed yet, and measure-style is a lot more explicitly methodical with the act of deciding on units of measure, choosing which one is useful for the current problem, then taking measure with a pencil. I believe the core is no different, but the primary proportion checking method differs. - Where eyeballing would do a loose shape check, measurement wants you to compare with something concrete like the length you retain with your finger on the pencil. - I think from seeing how Stan works, they are not mutually exclusive, but more about what goals we have, and that influences which one is the primary method employed. - For example, if you're trying to draw a picture for someone you respect, you'd go for a more careful measured style because you want to show that effort in your gift. - If it's just for a friend, keeping it loose and adapting to mistakes or to caricature lets you express yourself in that way. I think I know what I have to fix. - I've always been very fast and loose with drawing. I would say that sometimes I can nail down the shape I want, but other times when I really want things a certain way, I don't have the precision for it and I'm forced to solve it by random adjustments. - So if I were to improve that eye for judging alignments and angles, and that sense of what unit of measure to pick and comparisons to measure against, then I should do more measure-based drawings, and let that know-how spill into rough eye-balling styles of drawings. One additional thing that I want to note is Stan's envelope technique. I think it's a personal issue, but I had difficulty understanding the actual nuances of it until I saw Stan blocking in the flowers in her hair. - Stan basically generated/imagined negative shapes to fill in the space between a straight line across the tips of the flowers and boxed that in. - Not only does that require training visual processing, but visual memory as well, because you need to be able to look at that envelope and understand what you packed in there as well. ## demos are great I really appreciate these demo lessons, because they embody a kind of problem solving technique that seems to have been buried under new tech: working backwards from the solution. - I read some of George Polya's How to Solve It, and that book isn't just about maths, but useful general heuristics about solving any problem. - While great lessons can guide a student to put together a solution, the next step of clarifying a path of incrementally improving that solution then becomes a problem in itself. - Working backwards from a valid and efficient solution and reverse engineering it until understanding takes significant effort and is not some kind of cheat. On a wider point about drawing in general and what comments I have about the course so far, I think I'm a case of having tried to run before I could walk, and I've done so for too long. - I think it's the lack of structure in what I want to tell, I look at everywhere and tell people to look everywhere as well, and in the end the effort was one that is too self-consumed. - I think it goes deeper into personal philosophy and reasoning skills, in that a desire and mindset to understand what you see, allows one to think more clearly and show more clearly what you think as well.

Did these two post demo. Considering hoe @Stan Prokopenko was taking the measurements. Looks better than the one I submitted in the last lesson. Was able to make more use of the full page this time. But lots of work to do. Please critique and suggest what I should focus on next and how to practice more.

I had a hard time finding any measurement that I could repeatedly use across the model's face except for the length of her face from hairline to chin was the same as the width of her face at the widest point. So I mostly eyeballed the rest and took photos at each stage to see where I went wrong, and that was very helpful. I think I'll do a few of these to really get it down.

I tried a different photo for this one. Something that for a start had easier to spot proportions. It went better than the first attempt not a lot better. Faces are really hard and I have never studied them to be honest. I will try one more and then move on.

Here is my result. I focused on eyeballing most of the proportions :)

2 hours of work again. I don't know whether I like the result:)

I feel the general body proportions are ok but then in the details I got: 1. Eyes too large, and 2. The mouth too small. Will keep on working on it.

I don't know why I always have problems with the widths of faces. I either can't find a good place to measure from (I usually choose the middle of the bottom of the nose and then compare the measurement from there to each direction to something vertical on the face), or it's like my brain can't believe the face is ACTUALLY that wide. The subsequent result is once again a too-low ear and too-thin frame on the right side. It will be very interesting to see if my eyeballing produces better results.

I usually take my drawings super slow (the musketeer assignment took over 2 hours for me), but I tried to follow along with Stan's tempo in this video. He's definitely waaay faster than I am at both thinking and line execution. For the musketeer assignment, I meticulously measured every little corner so that I could get the proportions right, but for this one I did eyeball a lot of things, since Stan did too for a majority of his measurements. I still seem to draw the nose (and this time the mouth as well) too low. I'll have to really look out for that.

Followed along with the video and it turned out pretty good!

I have A LOT of work to do, lol

For some reason I found this harder than the musketeer. The placement of the facial features were pretty off.

Thought I got it pretty close until I put it into procreate and got humbled.. oh well

here is my attempt

Another attempt at proportions.

Hello! Does anyone know how to do the overlay in Krita? I don't have access to Procreate or Photoshop.

The demo was cool, so I tried it myself. Picture 2 is me adding reference points for measurements (as I spend 3 sessions on that drawing). Picture 3 is the final results overlayed… looks like I used the wrong reference point when doing the face details :( I didn’t measure at all for the neck, curls, ear and flowers, kinda rushing it. Still I’m happy with the results, especially the outer shape of the face, I struggled quite a bit with that one