Self Portrait?

[enchantma]

I like to pose for random pics to use as reference for drawing...so this is a pic i took, and i tried to do realism...and...well..haha...i guess i need more practice XD;;; critique would be helpful...i'm very new to this...

[KITA]

Okay, I'm going to gather from your other work and from the level you're on that you don't mind and would actually appreciate an in-depth critique. I tend to hold back a little bit here because I'm not sure exactly what people will want . . . .


I'm not very good at realism myself, but I picked up some tips in the figure drawing class I had last semester, so I might be able to help you a bit.

First off, there are entirely too many lines in you picture. I'm not just refering to obvious ones (like on the nose), but also implied ones such as several places on the hands. When you work with realism you don't want to render things in terms of lines at all, rather in terms of light and shadow, hue and shade. What you will draw will actually be the color variations rather than the outline of the object. It takes a bit of getting used to at first . . . but it's very effective when done properly.

One of the painting professors at the college, who paints so realistically it almost looks lke photorealism, said that when asked how he did a part of one of his paintings (specifically the rock bed of a creek) he explained that he doesn't look at the objects when painting. Instead he looks at the color variation and he paints that, if he gets all the hues and shadows correct then the image emerges as a result.

But back to the critique . . . .

This would be easier if I could see the photograph . . . but I'm going to guess your eyes are too small, and by that I don't really mean the whites, but overall. Eyes are balls and your shading doesn't really show this off very well. When we were working on facial anatomy my instructor actually had us start eyes with a circle, and then draw the shape of the eyelids, the circle acts as a guide so that when you add value to make the drawing volumetric you can depict it accurately.

I don't really have tips for eyelashes, I would suggest studing the work of someone who does really good realism for ideas there (Nimra for example). The details are so tiny I wouldn't suggest rendering individual lashes. A lot of times they aren't even rendered at all in realistic work because it's easy to make them look . . . cartoony for lack of a better word occuring to me.

Overall I believe you have the basic idea. What you need to do is add more depth and dimension and get away from the outline look. If you have a mirror I would suggest looking at your reflection as a better source.

Photographs can be good, but they are never entirely accurate to actual life and there will never be a better reference than looking at the real thing.



Okay, now that I've got the ugly part out of the way . . .

Overall I like the way you rendered your hair in this portrait, there are a few areas where it looks a bit blocky (okay it's really just that one curl by your right [I think] hand . . . .). Overall it has a very natural feel to it.

I also really love the fingernails, I think you pulled the texture of laquer nail polish off very well. Similarly, the sparkles in the eyeshadow are a very nice touch.


I think my favorite part is your eyebrows, though. But maybe I'm just weird



I hope this helped some, at least. If I had the photograph to compare with I might be able to give some more advice. (Or if I had more skills myself, lol)

[Kagome]

I believe thats the longest comment I have ever seen....0.o

Anyway!
Thats a cute drawing ^.^

~Kagome

[Margo]

WOW! It looks awesome!! And it really looks like you!! XD I really love...everything, but especially the hair, hands, and mouth =D Great job, enchantma! ^^