2draw.net - boards - Intermediate - Facial detail practise

alwaysLearning (Dec 7, 2004)

This started out to be practise just doing an eye and eye area, but sort of grew into a larger view. I'm practising the details of drawing faces, and this is one of my first from-scratch attempts to do so in colour, using oekaki. Yes, I know he (she?) is pale. Please let me know if the skin tones are so light that the shading isn't showing.

I fully expect to come back and finish this, but family responsibilities have been interrupting so much I thought I'd better do a safety save (and yes, that means that the timer is off, by quite a bit).

alwaysLearning (Dec 7, 2004)
drawn in 3 hours 3 min

davincipoppalag (Dec 7, 2004)

I'm just glad to see you back a.l.

alwaysLearning (Jun 18, 2005)
drawn in 2 hours 58 min

Well, I'm trying to get a bit more anatomical accuracy, depth of concept, and visual interest going on in this picture... ...but I still can't tell if I got the skin colour too light or not. Regardless, I think my next edit will probably be my last.

Yes, that is intended to be a blade centered between his/her eyes -- I haven't decided for certain if it's an arrow, or a spear, but I'm leaning toward arrow. Speaking of which, I'm hoping to address the perspective problems next time.

It may not be much of a picture, but I'm pretty happy with the eye, overall. Any useful suggestions for improving it (especially the eyelashes, which don't look right, and I'm not sure why) will be gratefully welcomed.

Here's to hoping to come around more often, and hoping that the intervening months spent working on sharpening my artistic skills are actually showing results. :)

alwaysLearning (Dec 30, 2005)
drawn in 3 hours 25 min

Artiste (Jan 2, 2006)

Well, Im new here so I feel a little weird giving advice, but it seems pretty obvious to me that you need to 'let go' a little in your painting. There is a tendency in beginner painters to noodle with a painting for too long. Loosen your strokes a little, and dont be afraid to f-up the peice. Its not the sistine chapel. The eyelashes dont feel right because I think youve messed with them too much, and now they look perfectly symmetrical. If you look at a photo of a person's face you will see that eyelashes dont actually look like little hairs, they look very often like a dark area, and if youre looking up close, you wont see every hair, but rather a few hairs here and there. Your modeling is good... and the color part of eyeball is very nicely done.

Opium (edited Jan 2, 2006)

you've definetly got a great start! I agree with artiste, the eyelashes need some more work. the eyelashes on the top lid, you shouldn't see till about the end of the iris, then it should gradually be little lashes, and the ones on the end on the right, should be defined...you could even show a few eyelashes on the left side too, but those are very short and not as dramatic. the bottom should be very faint. and is that an eyebrow ring? I'd get some references of them and just look at them, where they're placed, and how their shadows look. It's a good piece so far! and I like the pale skin :) It fits. Keep working at it! It might help to get a mirror and use yourself kind of as a reference