Drawing ‘Morgan’
Drawing ‘Morgan’
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Portrait Drawing Fundamentals

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Drawing ‘Morgan’

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Drawing ‘Morgan’

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Marco Sordi
2023/12/4. Good evening everybody. Here's another expressions study. Thanks for any comment or critique. Good night.
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Marco Sordi
2023/12/2. Good evening everyone. Here's another study of Elsa's facial expressions. This time I took a step back and tried to copy her expressions from some scenes in the films and shorts. There are some small differences in aspect ratios between older and newer films. However, I think I have finally understood the main anatomical peculiarities of Elsa's face. I will continue to do this exercise until the end of the month. I would be really grateful if you could give me some feedback on this. Good night.
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Marco Sordi
2023/11/19. Good afternoon everybody. Here's the fourth and final piece that I will exhibit at the next exhibition scheduled at the National Art Center in Tokyo from 1 to 11 December is also ready: "Rachele" (oil on 30 cm tondo). Thanks for any comment or critique!
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@samuelshiers
Looks amazing. I'm a newbie and stuff like this is very inspiring.
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Marco Sordi
2023/11/17. Good morning everybody. Here's my third expressions sheet. Thanks for any comment or critique. Have a good weekend!
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Martha Muniz
Hi Marco! Nice work so far :) I think something you can focus on next time in your practice sessions would be volume, especially of the cheek/jaw area for Elsa. When it comes to expressions, emphasizing the volume as it moves around can really add liveliness and believability to the character. Something to keep in mind is the squash and stretch, so whether the jaw is clenching, the mouth is open, the eyebrows are frowning inwards or excited upwards, etc. will all affect the distribution of the form.
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Marco Sordi
2023/11/8. Good afternoon everybody. Here's another sheet of Elsa's expressions (in the final version of Frozen 2). In this study I think I got closer to the original look of the character than the first one I made a few days ago. In some cases drawing the hair was a little tricky. I think I have a bad habit of drawing the hair too small especially in the upper and back area of the skull (I usually draw the entire skull of the mannequin and I probably make it too small and this causes the hair to also lack volume). The photos should be a suggestion and in some cases I changed the angle or orientation of the head a little to make Elsa more visible and expressive. For any opinion or suggestion leave a comment. It will help me improve it. Thanks to the whole community!!
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Marco Sordi
2023/10/29. Good afternoon everybody. Here is the revised version of my previous expression study sheet. Thanks to Liandro's very important feedback I was able to expand some versions of the previous faces and push the design to the extremes. Thank you very much @Liandro, your professionalism and generosity are a great stimulus and encouragement for me to always do better!
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Liandro
You're welcome, @Marco Sordi, I'm glad I could help! Keep up the good work!!
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Love Byström
Alla prima portrait in oil from a live model. The lighting was a bit flat, and coming slightly from below, but I think I still made the best I could of the conditions.
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Jesper Axelsson
Really najs! I'm not a painting expert, but you might want to clarify the structure, with planes. Think of it like you're building a sculpture. Simple but well designed planes. Like a low poly 3d model. This might help you be more decisive about how you design your forms. Then you may soften these planes, if you'd like to develop the painting further. I attached a little paintover. I focused on clarifying the structure of the head. I was unsure at what angle we viewed it at. I assumed, slightly from above, and tried to add some to the front plane to clarify this. I also adjusted the values to more clearly communicate the light direction, thinking of the head's simple geometry. When you paint, it might help to think that you're drawing, only this time with a different medium. So you try to describe the forms (constructing and such), but with paint, that is put down as shapes of value and color, as your tool. Try to communicate the subject to the viewer. For a face, the eyes are important, but I don't really feel the spherical form of the eye-ball in your painting. This is something you might want to clarify. At the end of the gif is an example of what a start of the painting might have looked like in the early stages. I also attached some of the oil painting I've done, so you know where I'm at and what of my advice to take with a bigger grain of salt. ( The paintings are about the size of a hand and were done in about 2 hours each, from photos ) I hope this helps :)
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Marco Sordi
2023/10/28. Good morning everyone. as an exercise to improve my skills in drawing the character's expressions I used some photos and tried to reproduce the emotions expressed in each of them using a Disney character (there are no photos with very extreme head angles so in some cases I exaggerated the gesture like in the case of the head at the bottom right). I redesigned the character each time without using copy and paste except for the irises of the eyes. To emphasize the character's feelings, in some cases I made the hair more lively and agitated. In the case of characters from old 2D animated films there is a precise standard (even if in the various illustrations, TV sequels or illustrated books the character's design can change considerably). In the case of a character from a 3D film, finding a standard style is really difficult. I checked dozens and dozens of images from the internet and checked the art books of the two films that I have at home as well as the illustrated books on sale in bookstores. All the official character designers, Bill Schwab, Britney Lee, Jim Kym have a really different style: the nose, the shape of the face, the eyelashes and even the lips vary from artist to artist. I tried as much as possible to maintain the iconic traits to make the character recognizable. If you have any ideas on how to make this better I would be grateful if you could give me some suggestions. Thanks and sorry for such a long text. Have a nice weekend.
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Liandro
Pretty cool, @Marco Sordi! This is a challenging and effective exercise on character design. Overall, I think you did really well in maintaining the character’s traits consistent across the different drawings. When looking at your work, I had some ideas and noticed a few possible adjustments, so I painted over your drawings with suggestions for you to consider what might work for you. Here’s what’s mainly on my mind regarding the paint-overs: Expression 1 - This is an expression of surprise, so you might open her eyes some more (hide the upper lid, make the bottom edge more rounded, show more of the eyeballs around the irises) and give her mouth a bit more of an “O” shape. In the photo reference, the model has a somewhat incredulous mood to her surprised expression, so, I’d say the crooked eyebrows work well for that! In case you want the character to have a more “naive” surprise look, you might push the character’s brows upward and make them a simpler arc. Expression 2 - I love this one! For a very gentle tweak to make her look a bit more keen, I’d just squeeze her mouth towards one side. I also like the idea of making her have a subtly disguised smile, so I’d also push the corners of the mouth slightly upward - but if what you’re going for is a more annoyed look, which is what the photo reference shows, then you could keep the corners of the mouth as they are. Expression 3 - This one is a clearly terrorized face, so you may not want to be subtle in making her mouth open very wide in all directions. Perhaps even show less of the tongue (as if she’s contracting her tongue because she’s screaming) and let the bottom teeth appear. To emphasize the fearful look, the eyes should open as much as possible, completely hiding the lids - and, personally, I even like the idea of making her irises smaller so that there seems to be even more negative space at the eyeball areas. You might also wanna emphasize some tension on the brows. Expression 4 - Your drawing shows a happy smile that works perfectly fine, although I notice a few subtleties in the photo reference which I think could be nice to capture. In the paint-over, I chose to show both set of teeth, tilt her eyes a tiny bit outward (so that it looks a bit more like they’re smiling from the cheeks) and tilt the eyebrows upward a little - overall, I think this gives a slightly more sheepish touch to the smile, which is what I'm getting from the reference. Of course, all these changes depend on if you want this kind of quality to the character's expression. Please notice that these are merely suggestions! Let me know in case you have any thoughts or questions. Hope this helps!
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Marco Sordi
2023/10/11. Good morning everybody. I fixed the character design I posted few days ago and thanks to your suggestions it looks much better now (though her left eye in the 3/4 view still gives me some problems). Thanks a lot.
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Liandro
Hey, @Marco Sordi, nice job working on the adjustments! I agree that it looks better than in the previous version. If you allow me, there’s still a few extra tweaks I'd suggest. Since she's a young woman with “cute” face proportions, one thing I’d do is to make the angle of her face rounder in profile. I can see it’s a little bit already, but I think I’d push it to make it even more rounded. Then, keep that same pattern in the 3/4 view by bringing the bridge of her nose slightly more towards the front. I'd also round out the chin a tiny bit more. I believe these tweaks could approximate the other views to what she looks like in front view. In general, rounding out the forehead and softening the chin are typical tricks to make a character look "cute". Unless, of course, it’s your conscious choice to give her less rounded traits in order to convey a less stereotyped look. That can also be a valid take. Finally, be sure to make the eye look rounded / spherical. Think of the 3D forms of the head and the eyeball and how one fits into the other. Perhaps that’s what's bugging you regarding her eye in 3/4 view? Hope this helps!
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Steven Wolf
Yeah, that looks much better now. Nice work!
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Marco Sordi
2023/10/7. Good evening everyone. This is a character design I'm working on these days. For the moment I have finished the basic look and I would like to know if I am proceeding correctly. To align the features of the face and hair I used guidelines. In particular I would like to know: 1) if the protagonist looks like herself in all three angles. 2) whether her eyes, particularly in the 45 degree shot, are in the right position and in the right proportions and perspective. 3) if the hairline is too high or the forehead is too wide. Obviously if there are other problems or mistakes please let me know. I know they are all very busy but if I could get some very kind and professional feedback especially from @Liandro, @Steve Lenze or @Martha Muniz who have already been really generous and helpful with their advice in the past, I would be really happy! Thank you!!!
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Liandro
I'm glad to see that @Steve Lenze has already helped you, @Marco Sordi!
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Steve Lenze
Hey Marco, This really nice, the front and 3/4 view are pretty good. The profile needs a little refinement. First of all, even though we want to keep the likeness, we do still want to follow the proper anatomy. For example: you tried to keep the eye in the profile the same shape as in the other views. This doesn't exactly work because it goes against the anatomy that we are used to seeing in a profile view. The volume of the head and hair are too narrow, making the head look kind of flat and long. Also, because of the hair, the neck in the profile looks to thin compared to the other views. And, the hair in the front view looks like it has less volume than the others. I did a quick draw-over to show you what I mean, I hope it helps :)
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Steven Wolf
This looks very nice to me! I have a couple thoughts. On the profile view I am not sure that her muzzle fits the three fourths view. When I look at the three fourths view I don’t picture that protruding forward as much as you have in the profile view. I don’t know that I am right, that is just my impression. Another thing that I notice on her profile view is that her eye seems like it is in a, non-relaxed, wide open expressing of surprise. It’s a very intense look. In the other views her eyes look casual. I see why it’s like this, because of how you shaped the eyes, so I don’t know if you have to redesign the eyes so that on the far sides they don’t look wide open, or if you just fudge the profile view so that you are not seeing the full iris. I like how they look in the other two views. I hope that helps.
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Marco Sordi
2023/9/30. Good afternoon everybody. As promised here is my third work regarding character design from photos of ordinary people. In this third study I tried to incorporate some animal elements that seemed in line with the features of the people in the photos. Thanks for your comments or suggestions. Good Saturday.
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Herman
Love the shape design on the fourth one, especially the ears.
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Marco Sordi
2023/9/28. Good morning everybody. Here's my latest study sheet about character design. At this level (100) I tried to push the deforming process a little forward compared to my first attempt. To simplify the features of the face I used polygons and tried to keep the lines as clean as possible. I drew some characteristic of the face of the people in the reference pic pushing dimension and exaggerate the proportions. At the same time I payed attention to keep the sense of realism. I hope you like it. If you have any critique or suggestion please feel free leave a comment. Thanks!
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Martha Muniz
Hey nice! Another thing you could use for caricature is looking at the distribution of 'thirds' for the face. Going back to the loomis model, the face plane is divided into perfect thirds for the average proportion guide, but typically people's individual proportions will deviate from that guide. Taking a look at how it changes can be another assessment when drawing someone's caricature in order to exaggerate that relationship and design the shape of the face.
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Marco Sordi
2023/9/26. Good evening everybody. here's another quick illustration I made today. Thanks for your comments or critiques. See u tomorrow!
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Marco Sordi
2023/9/26. Good morning everybody. Here's an exercise I'm doing to get better in character design. I decided to divide the exercise in 3 levels: 10, 100 and 1000. Each level represents how much I exaggerate the looks of the people in the pics. 10 is the lowest and the closest to reality and it's supposed to show the characteristic of the person without going too far from the original. Next one will be Lv. 100. Thanks for your comments or suggestions.
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Martha Muniz
Hey, cool exercise! I definitely see the resemblance with a slight exaggeration on these. Just a quick tip for caricature, it can help to think of exaggeration as moving around a lump of clay, so when you push the clay towards one area, then there will be a displacement left behind. Like in the glasses guy example, I see you noticed his eyes are close together, but if you push them slightly inwards, then his temple area can also be pushed inwards to keep that same relationship and proportion. This will help keep the likeness and also give you some more areas to exaggerate as you continue to up the levels for this exercise.
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Marco Sordi
2023/9/22. Good evening everybody. Here's my new illustration made with pencil and color pencil brushes. Thanks and good night.
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Marco Sordi
2023/9/19. Good evening everybody. Here's the first of a new series of illustrations, the first realized completely with "pencils" and "color pencil" brushes. Thanks for any critique or feedback.
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Marco Sordi
2023/9/18. Good morning everybody. Here's my latest character face concept. Thanks for any advice that cold help me to improve it.
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Marco Sordi
Here's the fixed version.
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Martha Muniz
Very nice! A quick note would be to watch out for the accidental tangent created between her jaw and neck. It could also be a fun opportunity to push the stylization--maybe a long, thin neck to go with the angular design and long face shape. Also, maybe some more angles in her hair, such as exaggerating the peaks at the top of her head. There's an interesting dynamic with curves vs angles here that you could further explore, or use for future characters.
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Marco Sordi
2023/9/17. Good morning everybody. Here's my daily character face concept. Thanks.
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@summerliu
looking good
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Peter Anton
Looks great! Apologies for the wall of text, I'd format if it weren't so late. Your drawing has a great feeling and style to it overall. I have many thoughts which you can take or leave, I like trying to critique people to improve my eye/teaching skills, so feel free to ignore me :) I'd say the mohawk looks a bit too far left from the centerline. The ear anatomy looks a bit odd, especially how the hollow area is right up against the jaw. I also fee like the upper portion of the sternocleidomastoid could be indicated a slight overlap just below the ear, leading us toward the lower portion of it and giving the neck a bit more dimension on the right side.The shapes of the eyes are too similar, which would be perfect in a front view, but don't take into account the roundness of the head, which causes the far eye to be a bit more turned away from us. I'd also look into mouth anatomy a bit. The teeth feel like they are tilting with the mouth, instead of the lips moving around the teeth. If you try to move your teeth into the same position as your character's I think you'll see what I mean- it feels like I'd have to break my jaw to make that happen, considering how the line between the upper and lower teeth is at such an angle. The lower lip and chin indication both look like they are "floating" which suggest either a lack of anatomical knowledge or not knowing how to how to simplify that knowledge into lines. learning about the origins and insertions of the orbicularis oris will help you place the line on the outside of the mouth, for instance, instead of just having a floating c-curve. Hope that isn't too much all at once!!!
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Vue Thao
I gotta improve my shading skills. :p
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Jesper Axelsson
Cool! Anything in particular that you feel like you have to work on, when it comes to shading?
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Marco Sordi
2023/9/16. Good afternoon everybody! Here's my daily character face concept. Thanks.
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Martha Muniz
Cool work! Just an opinion, I think you could incorporate more balance into it, by either adding more volume to the back of her head to feel more anatomically accurate or, more stylistically, push the shape and go towards a more exaggerated face and/or hair design (particularly making the upper half more angular/uplifted). Still, very cool design :)
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