Hello, this is my first time posting here. I felt encouraged to post after reading about the forums in Issue 79, so here's a WIP of a print I'm working on. The top is the sketch, the bottom is where I'm at now. I decided to change her expression and to start off in black and white values (though it wound up not being truly black and white due to a mistake on my part, but oh well). I would love input on this.

 

I worked on it some more. The reference I've been using is from Posemaniacs.com.

I must say our original blue drawing of face has something going. The other two just look weird. I think you are being misled by your reference - you are using them without proper knowledge of the structure of the face, thus producing faces that don't look real or attractive.

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Yian 2012

Ok, thank you very much. What do you recommend I should do?

I think, if I were in your shoes, I would make one of the two choices:

1) decide what kind of direction I am taking with this piece and do all the necessary practice and gather all the necessary references I could, then practice until I am satisfied with my skills.

or

2) Draw naturally and draw the way you feel comfortable, and draw a face that you consider to be beautiful, then compare it to a reference photo (not a 3D model or a muscle chart, but photos of real people.) Then see where you have gotten wrong and see what you can do to improve (which might take you back to option 1 a little bit.)

Either way, whatever you do, I think it is important not to lose your original sense of beautiful and artistic feeling in the midst of references. Unless your goal is realism and this face is supposed to be an exercise to realism, you shouldn't be afraid to draw a abstract or stylized face, which I believe was what you were going for.

It wouldn't hurt to learn more about drawing a realistic face, though, so what you are doing here is also cool. I'm just under the impression that this might not be the direction you originally headed for.

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Yian 2012

Thanks for all the advice! You're right; I think I was beginning to get too obsessed over drawing a realistic face instead of the face I had imagined. I'll go with #2 and backtrack, and maybe even go back to the original concept with the other expression. Then I'll find photos of real girls (I had gotten frustrated with finding a reference of the angle I wanted so I went to Posemaniacs, where I knew I could turn the model to get the angle). Thanks again! (:

I started over:

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll96/ekqo/NoEyebrowsCopy1-2.png 

More work done~.

Some color washing. I don't know what to do yet on the eyes. By the way, sorry if I'm not replying properly to this thread.

 

Ekqo, your latest is eerie and interesting.  You are replying to the thread fine, as far as I can see.

 

Yian has some great advice here. 

I was just thinking about reference today, and how it can really create problems.

I personally had a really hard time with faces and figures until I just started drawing what I liked (idealizing and exaggerating features)... then I looked to other artist's work for reference and to help solve creative problems.  In schools, artists study and copy master artists because the masters already solved so many visual puzzles.  Copy art you like, absorb the information, and then apply it to your own ideas.  Above all, have fun!

The Posematics might be good for understanding some of the underlying anatomy, but all the detail is just distracting information.  

 

 Drawing freely as well as studying good construction is key. A good fiend of mine started posting some of the best tutorials on construction and figure drawing here.  http://www.drawsh.com/  The information applies to anything you might draw or paint.

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DA Gallery

Thank you SO MUCH for this link! And honestly, everything you said was what I believed in doing before I started working on this; I can't believe how easily I let myself get away from what I really wanted to do. I never wanted to go for complete realism because it never appealed to me, but somehow I still got so focused on doing just that. No wonder it was turning out ugly. I'll have to be more careful next time, so I don't get wrapped up in my reference again. Thank you again!

Finally got to work on this, got really busy for a while.

I think the face is coming along nicely!

I really liked the red hair though! The contrast was really nice! 

Her right eye looks a little off to me. 

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Ok, thanks for the tip! Also, her hair will still be red in the end, I just started out in black and white first.

No problem! I'm glad to hear about the red hair. I really love it! I can't wait to see it finished! :)

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_ /\ _¸.¤**¤·.¸·¤**¤·
\ ¸.¤**¤ ♥Jeannie♥
/.· \¸.·¤**¤·.¸·¤**¤·
My Deviant Art Page
My Art Blog