Great work on the structure of this study and in keeping the silhouette. One thing I would point out tho is that the head feels a little bit large which throws the proportion off a little. I dont mind the left tilt of the head as it doesnt change much unless its not intentional you would have to correct if you are aiming for accuracy for this study. You can also stretch out the abdominal area a tad bit lower but all in all, great job!

I would say that the head is a bit off proportions even if it is in "anime" style but great work nonetheless. If you're new to digital I would suggest to practice drawing without zooming in your canvas and treat it as a physical paper so you always see everything rather than focusing on every detail. only zoom in when you want to render details which I've learned the hard way and its really hard to unlearn when you do it for a long time. Always use reference, always squint, and keep on drawing!

That's really tough ref to work from! The lighting is almost straight from the front, and a little above. So, almost everything is in the light. There's almost no core shadow—just under the jaw, a sliver on the breast, and probably an even smaller sliver on the fingers of the hand near the head. Can you explain a bit more about what you mean by just using two values? I see a lot more than 2 values. It's just a really compressed value range.

There's a lot of really good stuff in this one. Looking at your gallery this one shows a lot of progress. Nice work! I did a quick paintover. Here are some of the things I focused on: - Turning the form, particularly along the profile. Look for overlaps and changes in value. They're there, but happening really quickly since it's aalllmost in profile, but not quite. If you don't put them in, it'll feel flat. You may have felt this in the mouth—there are lots of little opportunities for overlap and value change. Also, the darkness of the hair is probably playing some tricks on you and making things along the edge of the face look lighter than they actually are. - Working on edges. As Luigi and Gabriel mentioned, hair is soft, so giving it some softer edges can help. But it's also about varying edges on all the forms—soft, hard, firm, lost, broken, etc. In general, a given shape on a 3D form rarely has the same edge all the way around. - Organizing the highlights. Which is the strongest? Vary the edges on highlights as well. Keep in mind that highlights are reflections layered *over* the matte shading (see this WIP video I've been working on about highlights: https://youtu.be/xC69A5tMr74) - The neck! Don't forget it's generally a cylinder. There are a few interesting lines from the musculature, but don't forget the larger form underneath all that. Look for the value changes to indicate it's a cylinder. - Putting in some occlusion shadows from the hair as it blocks light from reaching the forms behind/underneath. - Turning concave forms into a series of overlapping convex forms. Generally when drawing the figure, convex forms work best unless deliberately stylizing. - Toning down the texture of the hair. Leaving it in spots, but softening in others. - Knocking down the value of the jacket. Compositionally it's competing with the face—the light of the jacket next to the dark of the hair is the strongest contrast in the picture (it's also a very sharp edge). Our visual system is strongly drawn to faces and to high contrast, so they're fighting a bit. - I decided to put the silhouette of the hair back in, rather than the background strokes you put in. I liked the graphic nature of the hair against the flat background, but that's more personal taste. I think you could make the brushstrokes work, but right now they're introducing a new, unprecedented texture into the picture and thus draw more attention than they should. This is exacerbated by the contrast between the strokes and the background. Here's a video of the paintover, in case that's interesting: https://youtu.be/bdlmIgVfeH4 Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Hi @Patrick Velena, this is a beautiful study. I especially appreciate how you exaggerated some of the facial features of the face to get a nice design going. The original model definitely has a 'sharpness' to her, and I like how you incorporated that design language to her eyebrows, nose, lips, and chin. As mentioned by Gabriel, I do think that you could simplify the material rendering of the hair into big shapes with soft edges. Additionally, you can differentiate the silhouette of the hair by giving it a soft edge as well. This will communicate a material difference between the hair and the face. Overall great work, hope this helps!

Hey there! I love your values, you pretty much nailed them :) I'd drop that brushwork on her hair, while it's "artistic" it messes up the silhouette and it forces the viewer to focus on that area, which might not be your intention. Other than that, try to simplify the hair a bit. Instead of drawing every piece of hair individually, try to clump them up into bigger shapes. Simpler shapes are just easier on the eye. Keep up the good work mate! :)

Hi @Patrick Velena, Nice portrait studies and quick sketches! I like the lights and shadows in the two portrait studies. :) To me it seems that instead of really studying and understanding the shapes/construction and anatomy of these heads, that you "just" copied the visual information that was presented in the reference photos. (not that this is a bad thing per se) Also, in some of these studies it seems that you focus on lights and shadows, in others on likeness, and in some on linework. (all good things to study!). But I wonder, when you started these studies, did you have a topic in mind that you wanted to focus on? What did you want to learn with these studies? I am asking these questions, because for me it helps when I ask myself these kind of questions when I start to make (portrait)studies. Hopefully I don't sound rude, only wanting to help. ;) Awesome work!! Sincerely, Leon

do you have any advice for somebody who lives in a city where there's no thriving art community/schools. I don't mind online communities but I have problem keeping up with it because i mostly spend my free time doing activities such as working out & hiking (away from the computer/devices) when im not doing art hence i don't have much art friends i can connect with.

Nice work!

You have done well! I would disagree with the previous posters that your value range should be punchier, you can keep it subtle if you like. Much more important is that the reflected lights on the shadow side are not brighter than the lights! I think in some places this is the case in this one and it gives those reflected light on the back an "outline-y" feel to them. There are some drawing errors I think on the shoulder (looks a bit thin and noodely but I am not sure without seeing the reference) and the toes.

Well done on your first long drawing! It's a great first attempt. I think you've really kept the gesture in so well done because it's easy to lose that over time. I agree with Oliver regarding the tones though, I think you could really improve this image with bolder lights and darks.

This is looking really good, I think! I feel like you could add some more volume to the drawing by pushing the darks in the core shadow and brightening the light area a bit (make sure you seperate the two areas from each other). Dorian Iten has a couple free videos on lighting, that I find are super helpful (search for Dorian iten egg on YT).