Been wondering for a while if studying how the torso affects the position of other limbs is a waste of time. I feel like it’d help me make more natural looking poses but if there are other more effective ways of learning this then I’d love to know! If this isn’t appropriate for this forum I’ll take this down.

I FINALLY finished this piece. I incorporated a lot of the feedback I got here, or tried to. I spent a total of 13 months working on this piece and redrew it more than 2 dozen times in different media on different papers. Ultimately the "finished" piece was done in Prismacolor pencil on French Paper Co. Speckletone paper. I like the tooh of the paper and it works well with the Prismacolor though it's not really a drawing paper. This was a gift for my wife. The character is our dog, Marlow, who died 2 years ago. He loved water so this is how I envisioned him in doggie heaven.

I started to make a comprehensive list from everyone's answers for myself but thought others might want to check them out also. Sorry if the long post is annoying. ------- @dudydoodie @Lane Brown Aaron Blaise Aaron Griffin (aarongriffinart)  Adam Rex Ahmed Aldoori  Alan Lee Alex Raxvell - https://www.instagram.com/raxvell_ink Allen Williams ( https://www.instagram.com/i_justdraw/ ) Andre Kano Andrea Blasich Andy Espinoza (andyespinozaart) Ánh Minh Nguyễn Anthony Ryder - https://www.instagram.com/theryderstudio Aoyama Gosho Arinze Stanley Egbengwu - https://www.instagram.com/arinze Bastien Lecouffe (deharme)  Bec Flattley @becflattleyart Bill Amend Bill Sienkiewicz (billsienkiewiczart)  Bo Bartlett (www.instagram.com/thebobartlett/) Bogdan Rezunenko Brian Freud Bryce Cameron Liston (bcliston) Carl Dobsky  Carl Randall https://www.carlrandall.com/japan-portraits Carter Goodrich Christopher Lovell ( https://www.instagram.com/lovellart/ ) Clamp Clio Newton - https://www.instagram.com/clionewton Costa Dvorezky (costa_dvorezky) Craig Patterson/Absorb81 - https://www.instagram.com/absorb81 Daniel Castro Gamelas - https://www.instagram.com/danielgamelas Daniel Warren Johnson David Finch David Macaulay Derek Hess ( https://www.instagram.com/derekhess/ ) Dina Brodsky (www.instagram.com/dinabrodsky/) Dorian Iten (www.instagram.com/dorianvisuals/) Dulk - https://instagram.com/dulk1 Ed Summers https://www.edsumner.co.uk/ Ehsan Maleki - https://www.instagram.com/maleki_fineart Eliza Ivanova Elizabeth Zanzinger - https://www.instagram.com/ezanzinger Elsa Charretier Felicia Chiao @feliciachiao Geoffrey Flack (www.instagram.com/geoffreyflack/) Gil Robles Greg Beecham Guillermo Lorca García - https://instagram.com/guillermolorcagarcia Guy Davis Ian McCaig Ian McQue (https://www.instagram.com/ianmcque/) iffanie Mang J.A.W. Cooper James Bland https://www.jamesblandpaintings.com James Gurney James Harren James Labuschagne - https://www.instagram.com/jameslabuschagne Jeff Haines - https://www.instagram.com/jeff.haines Jeffrey Watts JelArts Jeremy Mann (redrabbit7)  John Howe Jono Dry ( https://www.instagram.com/jonodry/ ) Joshua Swaby (sway_art)  Kadir Nelson Kan Liu (https://twitter.com/666KArt) Karl Kopinski ( https://www.instagram.com/karlkopinski/ ) Karla Ortiz Ken Goshen - https://www.instagram.com/kengoshen Kevin Keele - https://www.instagram.com/kkeeleart Kevin Wueste - https://www.instagram.com/kevinwueste Kishmoto Masashi Knight Zhang Kristin Frost Lara Saunders - https://www.instagram.com/artlarasaunders Larry Elmore Lena Rivo Malcolm T. Liepke Marco Bucci Mark Schultz - https://www.facebook.com/Mark-Schultzs-Xenozoic-Tales-and-Other-Stories-223005194775/ Martin Campos (camposmartin030)  Max Grecke (https://www.instagram.com/maxgrecke/) Max Ulichney Mehdi Farsi Michael Hussar ( https://www.instagram.com/michael_hussar/ ) Mike Mignola Morten E. Solberg Murata Yusuke Nichlas Sanchez (www.instagram.com/nicolasvsanchez/) Nicolas Uribe Obata Takeshi Oliver Jeffers Oliver Sin - https://www.instagram.com/oliversin Patrick Onyekwere - https://www.instagram.com/patrick.onyekwere Paul Heaston Peter de Seve Quentin de Warren (https://www.instagram.com/quentindewarren/) Raoof Haghighi https://instagram.com/raoof.h/ Richard Ahnert @richartahnert Roberto Ferri Ryan Brown (ryanbrownart)  Santiago Caruso - https://instagram.com/santiagocaruso.art Santo Cesar Sarah Sedwick Scott Flanders Scotty Young Shane Wolf Simon Stalenhag Sinix Design Stefan Hoenerloh Stephen Bauman - https://www.instagram.com/stephenbaumanartwork Stephen Silver Steve Forster - https://www.instagram.com/steveforsterpaintings Steve Huston Steven Zapata Tehani Farr ( https://www.instagram.com/tehanifarr/ ) Thomas Blackshear Toriyama Akira Travis Charest (travischarestart)  Tula Lotay (tulalotay)  Tyler Berry - https://www.instagram.com/tylerberryart Victor Beltran Viktor Kalvachev Viria Wangjie Li (wangjie_li)  Yuumei https://www.yuumeiart.com/

Great suggestion. I've been searching maniacally for the past few weeks trying to find a paper I used 20 years ago so this is forefront in mind these days. Drawing in graphite on white paper can be pretty mundane but I love using toned papers with white chalk for highlights. It would be great to learn even more techniques.

James Gurney, Steven Zapata, Steve Huston, Roberto Ferri, Santo Cesar, Shane Wolf,

Quite a big list to be honest, few that come on top of my head Alan Lee, John Howe, Karl Kopinski, Bogdan Rezunenko. However big inspiration also comes from Hidetaka Miyazaki and his games.

Anthony Ryder - https://www.instagram.com/theryderstudio Jeff Haines - https://www.instagram.com/jeff.haines Karl Kopinski - https://www.instagram.com/karlkopinski Stephen Bauman - https://www.instagram.com/stephenbaumanartwork Ánh Minh Nguyễn Kevin Keele - https://www.instagram.com/kkeeleart Ken Goshen - https://www.instagram.com/kengoshen Lara Saunders - https://www.instagram.com/artlarasaunders Ehsan Maleki - https://www.instagram.com/maleki_fineart James Labuschagne - https://www.instagram.com/jameslabuschagne Tyler Berry - https://www.instagram.com/tylerberryart Elizabeth Zanzinger - https://www.instagram.com/ezanzinger Alex Raxvell - https://www.instagram.com/raxvell_ink Daniel Castro Gamelas - https://www.instagram.com/danielgamelas Kevin Wueste - https://www.instagram.com/kevinwueste Steve Forster - https://www.instagram.com/steveforsterpaintings Oliver Sin - https://www.instagram.com/oliversin Craig Patterson/Absorb81 - https://www.instagram.com/absorb81 Clio Newton - https://www.instagram.com/clionewton Arinze Stanley Egbengwu - https://www.instagram.com/arinze Patrick Onyekwere - https://www.instagram.com/patrick.onyekwere Ok, this could go on forever.

Kim Jung Gi. I admire his freedom in both his finished work and his process.

Hi Scott, I did some draw-overs, just the start of the process to adjust proportions and perspective first. The main thing I noticed was that her features needed to be shifted in perspective and to the right. Note the arrows.... the nose, dimple, mouth shifting right. On your version, the head itself is in 3/4 view, but facial features are beginning to slide around to the front view, which gives the impression of a less prominent nose. Some of the shifts involved turning circles more into ellipses (irises, orbital socket). I made the eye socket on the right side thinner, changed proportion of lip sizes. I tried to use as much of your own drawing as possible. you are right that a lot of rendering has taken place and that shifting proportions now would be a lot of work. It could possibly be done on this one or if you prefer try a second version. Hope this helps. Good luck!

@Nicole Lee this is the reference photo.

What bugs you about the finished work? And are there examples of the style you're going after? It looks unfinished to me but it could be of a certain style that I'm not aware of.

Hey :), I think that what you're looking for is something like the Asaro Head. You might be able to buy one at planesofthehead.com .Personally I had one 3D printed with a model downloaded from sketchfab. Hope this helps.

The main thing that stands out to me is the outlines. This is something I really struggle with too. I tend to make my initial outline too dark and the images gets confused due to tension between my tendency to outline versus building up the volumes with light and shadow. The image on the left does a great job of this but the one on the right seems unsure whether to define the shapes with outlines or with areas of dark and light. For instance his left ear. You can push the value of the hair behind the ear, in fact the whole lef side of his hair, much darker and get rid of the lines. A light outline on the highlight side of the features makes sense if you are keeping the background white instead of filling it in. I think you can darken the value on his neck, under his chin (image on the left again) but be sure to keep the reflective highlight along the jawline even in the shadow area. This will really make the image convincing and increase the feel of volume. If you wanted, I think you could also fade the outer edge of his hair towards the back of his head so there is no crisp edge. This would add a nice depth.

If anyone is interested in these, they are free. You only need to pay for shipping. The male head is about 9" tall and the female is about 8" tall. The onlly issue is very minor defects from the 3D printing on the ears. The defects are barely noticeable on the male and virtually invisible on the female unless you look inside the ear. Whoever asks first gets them. Shipping from Richmond, VA.

Where did you get the two small ones pictured? I've been looking for something exactly like those to go along side my Proko Skull. I've also been on the lookout for a larger size print, but haven't found anything I've liked as much as those.