A Portrait with Progression Details! I'm HAPPY This Time!

[shydeana]

First, thank you to everyone who helped me when I was crying for help in this dialogue:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=129432.0

So it's a lazy Sunday and I want to see if I can create a better portrait. First, I took a picture and divided it into 6ths with a ruler. What I noticed was where the mouth point of the nose, eyes, and hairline appeared at 1/6th. 1/2, 2/3, and 5/6.

So, I plotted thus:


I then erased the guidelines and added some detail:


I sorted out the light and dark areas of the face and added a neckline:


And finished with some basic coloring via my PC:


I think this is better than the attempt that cased me to cry. Please help me again with this one. Pretty please! Be honest.

Here, I did a little experimenting with the color:

[junquette]

I wish I had one tenth of your talent. Please don't take this wrong but the one eye in your coloured pic looks like I put the mascara on! 
I always get a little blob or heavy some where! But I really like what you are doing and sharing. I've been keeping tabs on you. SOrry I can't be much help though but wanted to let you know I think you are doing great!

[the wallaby]

I really enjoy watching your progress, and it really shows in this drawing. Looks like dividing up the face helped quite a bit for you. You should be very happy about this one, good job

[Tiegan]

Neato! I think she looks just like Demi Moore  !
Hugs
Elphalba

[cinnamon teal]

No critique yet.  Just a great big "Wow!!!" This is such an improvement!  Great job!!

[cinnamon teal]

ok, just one tiny piece of advice.  You are missing the trapezius muscle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezius).  It goes between the neck and the shoulder creating a little bit of a slope there.  It's an easy muscle to miss. 

Anyway, keep up the great work!

[shydeana]

Please don't take this wrong but the one eye in your coloured pic looks like I put the mascara on! 
I always get a little blob or heavy some where!

He-he! Yep, know what you mean.... 

Million thanks everyone that is helping me! I'll try really hard to make your suggestions into useful, displayable portrait art. Here, I modified the horizontal dimension of the grid to make a narrower face. I kept the same vertical proportion of 1/3/4/5/6 but used 3.5x6 rather than 4x6. I also tried a little to the side, not much, instead of straight on:


What seems to be hard for me is to draw opposing features (like eyes) so they look alike.  Does the braid in her hair look realistic or dorky?

I'm excited! I know this last one isn't as nice as the first, but I feel I've made progress. I want to try different angles. Different eye shapes. hairstyles, maybe even progress to waist-up and even full length figure art! OK, I'm babbling just because I have an ounce of success...

Oh.. wow... (taking deep breath.) I couldn't have made it past this last hurdle without all of your input and encouragement. If I seem overbearing asking too many questions, please tell me and I'll tone it down.

Now if I could only make a decent outfit and a usable matching bag...

Cinnamon teal, I'll remember to include this muscle on my next one.  At least now I can smile instead of cry when looking at the finished portrait. 

[racehorse87]

You're definitely a much better artist than I am!

I just thought I'd do a quick look for some tutorials on the subject. I'm no expert, so I'm not sure how helpful they are, but if you want to try them out, here they are:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/41863618/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39450178/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/32327635/

[kylieultra]

hey junquette!!

I'm very impressed with your progress so far, especially the shading.

Although they look about right, your proportions are a teeeny bit off.. this might help you though



(or go to http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/ultrakylie/Art/faceproportions.jpg for the unsquished version.)


The eyes take up about 1/4 of the width of the face each, same as the nose. The mouth usually falls from the inner 'edge' of one eye to the other.



Try those proportions next, post the results and tell us what you think!!

make sure you practice drawing something, anything, every day. practice makes perfect!!

[sarahpanda]

Good work! Getting the eyes to match is really a pain in the arse. Keep in mind that generally, people are not looking straight at the "camera", so you can get away with some fudging based on the angle to which they're turned, lighting, etc.

This is really good. Once again, your shading is really excellent. The only thing I notice is that the forehead is still really small, and the top of her head kind of looks pointed. The head will be easy to fix--you can just add more hair in the right places--but the forehead lengthening will be more of a challenge. I love the braid!

You should try drawing with a model (I get mine from magazines, the cheap way!) to get a better feel for realism. It really helped me a lot, anyway.

Keep up the good work!