OK well I re-visited the painting, and made a lot of changes - it now looks much much more like the photo. Less "painterly" looking, but more like a photo, it was a heavily airbrushed photo anyway so I guess I tried to create it.

I cropped it, prefer the composition, and eliminates much of the anatomy issues!

Before -

New -

Oh, and thanks you Emily, I wouldn't have done it without your advice, and consequently I think I learnt a lot about painting a female face!

yeah painting female faces is pretty hard!  usually small features, big eyes, soft rendering = more attractive.

 that doesn't mean the whole thing has to be soft though, you can start adding shading with some more "brushy" brushes.  try looking at linda berkgvist (sp?) aka enayla's tuts.  or melanie dillon's.  they explain how they add some texture to the face.

Heya thx Nicky - Nah not adding colour, was just a b&w value study; when I eventually tackle colour, I've decided I'm going to learn and start from scratch painting in colour, I think ultimately that will be most beneficial, but^^ lots more work to do before I start that!!

Cool Emily I will check out those artists, infact I think I have a tutorial by linda bergvist in my book digital painting 1 - though I only got as far as looking at the pictures at the moment hehe.

Some drawing from my Raphael book -

Some drawings in norwich, cafe and church.

Ok, so I was shopping around on the net for a plaster cast, a nice bust or something (to draw), from art stores - and the price is mental, like hundreds or thousands or dollars. So I checked on some garden centres and found this one for £17 - it's pretty good quality, though I haven't drawn it very well - but I guess I must practice, that what I got it for after all! I still have my plastic skull to draw too^^

Heads too big and well, there's lots wrong with it, practice makes perfect.

OK - so been pissed off this week, faces and people, I can't draw them very well - I've never drawn a person that looks remotely like them really. So I bit the bullet and im going to hammer people, faces etc, for days and weeks til I get good, ranging from 30sec - 15min ish most of them. Though I use a slide show timer or my photo albums for 10min per pic a lot. 

Realised I shoulda been drawing from photos more - it's much harder than posemaniacs, I used that site a little too much - oh well, more drawing to do, it's good fun anyway.

As u can see I started off pretty abmismally and got a little better, just about.

lols, k some im just messing about, this is a sketchbook after all!

At this point I decided to look at my Glen Vilppu vid, quick sketching, he always inspires me with great drawing and advice - the tips I took were draw loose with a pen, don't give a *** if it looks crap just let yourself go - so a pen was quite liberating - just got messy, combined with a marker too.

For these I layed down a wash of watercolour to block in a shape then went over with a pencil and added some lines and stuff, then added darker marker, kinda fun actually! Thanks glen!

Tomorrow.. most likely more of the same, might do some photoshop too..

 Been listening to alot of Bobby Chiu on youtube - he's my hero! I feel like working all day when I hear him.

Update for today -

Well as part of my plan I've got to do some studies from my head - so I decided to make up a kind of illustration from a line I read in "Beauty and Beast" - a load of fairy tales came free with the Guardian so I was reading some^^

So, tried to remember anatomy from head, didn't do too bad, shading will be harder though - I don't know if I'll continue with this, as it was meant to be a short exercise in drawing from brain! Maybe i'll draw some more scenes.

Her two sisters mocking her, well cos she's not like them basically! (line about her reading a book)

Some shading idea, trying to make it more modern.

Again trying some looser gestures with a pen, not really giving a crap what they look like, trying to get a good feel quickly. Though I do hope they improve over time!

I did a wash with red water colour then went over in pencil/pen, tried to add some highlights with paint but didn't really work lol.

Continuing my quest to draw good faces >.< Started to watch some Glenn Vilppu on drawing the head, guys a freaking expert, learnt alot more than reading a book. Tried to practice some - still not looking great yet, but I feel more confident on the structure.. I'll try do a page everyday... Believe it or not, these took me over 2hours, argh i need to speed up :(

 Next Artist to study is Rubens. this was called "old woman with hot coals" Again value study, gonna get these right b4 I learn colour. Took me all this evening, like 6 hours :s Couldn't get the freaky kid's head right, but I'm calling it done, was only meant to last1hour.

Hey Bladien, thanks - well it sometimes feels like I'm stuck, stalemate kinda thing, just need to remember to compare myself always to 1year previously :)

Thank you for the encouragement Phoeni, I probably wouldn't be updating my SB if you didn't give me the nudge :) And Koshime is right, draw more! Oh and I heard some wise words on Bobby Chiu - never compare yourself to other Artists - as it's pretty much meaningless, always compare to yourself and make sure you're progressing personally; as everyone can fulfil their goals eventually  - just never lose sight of them!

Your a machine Alex!

2009 has been a great year in your development.

Heya Harle, ah last time you were called something different! Nice to have Harle back hehe. Seems pretty quiet around here these days!

Yes 2009 has been good, I've learnt a lot, no longer feel completely lost. And I have a good plan now:)

Though I hope 2010 is the year something super special happens, dunno what it is yet lol, all I know is I have much work to do =))

Small updaterino, continue working on some faces.

Must say I enjoyed drawing the old timer, something about old folks' faces - I should draw more!

ha, bobby chiu is addicting isnt he?

great updates alex, seeing everyone doing so many studies lately is making me wanna do even more. i dont think ive ever done so many in a row. i think thats a good idea to time yourself too, i should do that because i always end up spending a couple hrs or more doing 1 pg.

Heyhey - Nicky, yeah Bobby's a cool guy, would love to meet him one day! Studies are good, though I think it's important to get a balance - I'm going to try and do some fun ideas from my head soon :)

Happy Halloween Pheoni - Thanks, got one update today - meet ill for the last week, haven't had the energy to draw or do much else >.< Feeling OK today ish!

Did Lord of the Rings photo study - painted from scratch in monochromatic, from Koshime's advice^^ Found it a lot harder than black and white. If anyone can think of major things to change - I'll probably continue some more with it, but for now I'll move on to something else, it's not a personal piece so I cxan't be arsed spending days on it :))