I'm determined (for once), to do this portrait well. So please, some advice would be greatly appreciated.
Ta Da.
Thanks much.

That's it? o.0
I know the lips are killing it.... but i'm sure there's much more.

It'd be nice if you could link the reference. I'm sure I could point out a number of things for you if you could...

-Oh wait, haha, I found it down on your revision comment. Be right back with some stuff.

I did, or does it not work?

EDIT: Yup it works, but here it is for even more convenience.
Here.

Yeah it did.

(I'll add some fixing areas to this post, so check back)
-Btw, are you trying to make it look just like the reference? Cause you may wanna even out the scratchiness to keep the smoothness of his skin and keep him from looking more like a scarecrow.

-Move eyes closer in together (too far apart currently)
-Pull out "his" right cheek bone going up the corner of "his" right eye
-Bottom lip is thicker (bigger)
-chin is a tad too long, pull it in
-The lower left side of the lip is out too far, (tuck inwards/you'll see that if you look closely, look at negative space surrounding lip)
-Bottom of nose on the right side is a tad too wide (pull in)
-Pay attenton to negative space of eyes to shape them right

Alright, try some of those out, and I'll help you more if you need it. Any detail problems you have questions about, feel free to memo me. I love to be able to help out :).

lol, Oh no, i'm making a sketch of it, i'll make it smoother but not perfectly moisturised and exfoliated (sp?) skin.
Another thing is, i can't seem to capture the emotion on his face >.<, he looks so timid and lonely in the ref, but mine is just robotic, like how most of my portraits turn out.

EDIT: Excellent, thank you Gig.

The thing is, without accurate proportions, the emotion will be off too.

It seems like you're drawing this portrait detail by detail, which is working well. Consider adding shadows under the nose, brow ridges and all the under-plains so your details don't get over shadowed (no pun intended) by the lack of contrast. Particularly with pencil portraits (or digital pencil portrait), if everything is drawn lightly, there will be no point of interest, viewers will strain their eyes looking for focal points.

I added a couple shadows to your drawing, to show you what I mean:

http://www.angelfire.com/rings/cloxboy/eddie.gif

I just added to what you already drew but I think you can see the difference. I imagine you see my point.

Gah! My sense of proprtion is horrific. Thanks for the help again.
I need to get to bed soon, work on it some more tommorow.

EDIT: Amazing! That looks so much better already! Thank you so much and your quick Photoshop (i assume) skills! *kiss* ^.^

Cloxboy is right, but before you go shading everything, proportions come first. That's even how you do it in art class. You get the shapes down before shading and detail. So follow his instructions after you've got the face down.

lol

Yes mommy.
I'm inspired to work on it more now, but sleep first. =]
I'm so tired today and got so f***ed at hockey training today (not literally).

I used to play hockey but I could never learn to power skate, bad ankles.

I didn't mean it to sound like proportions are more important if that's what you got from it :P. I mean step-wise. Shading/detailing an outline that is off is really a waste of time and nothing more. Unless of course you don't plan to fix the proportions and you aren't gonna erase what's there to correct it.

No, no, i got what you were meaning 'G', it's all good. =)

Oops, i meant field hockey, not ice hockey, haha. I wish i could play ice hockey but i suck at skating and it's not a popular sport here, at all.

EDIT: That's why i want to go to Canada, because French Canada is the best Cananda. =B

Gigandas: I agree, especially if he's going for realism, which it looks like he is.
And like Gig, I'm not trying to be contemptuous either.

Contemptuous... *goes to dictionary.com* Ok, no i didn't think you two were being 'contemptuous' at all (thanks for the word). Even if you were, it's ok, harsh critique can be good. I wouldn't complain, because i'm the one asking for help. =]

EDIT: Off to bed with me now. I'll think plenty on the portrait matter.

that looks pretty good, the eyebrows may need to be more lower on the side and higher in the middle to make it look like he's really sad and pitiful. lol (i had a list of other ideas but now i can't remember them since 2draw was being gay for several minutes when the page refreshed and everything i typed out got deleted. >:( )

Arg... had another go at it today... Erased the eyes and tried to pull them in closer like Gig said, but found i couldn't reproduce the eyes very well... So frustrated... I think i'm gonna leave this for a bit, gonna try this on good ol' paper and then come back.

Don't give up! You know what? Your proportions aren't as off as you may think. I overlapped your drawing over the photo ref, take a look:

http://www.angelfire.com/rings/cloxboy/eddie.gif

It's pretty close except for the head. It's almost like you put all your efforts into the face and then kinda gave up on the head and the hair, then again, this drawing isn't finished.

I put red arrows where your drawing really doesn't line up with the photo, like the back and front of the head, as well the jaw line.

The eyes are actually pretty close to the photo accept you need to change the eyelids and eye ball so they're positioned more at a 3/4 view and from a slight downward angle. The shadows really do tell the story here, as you can see when looking at your drawn eye and the photo's eye, you need to get darker with your shadows like I said before. The better the shadow placement, contour placement, the more reference points you'll have for proportions. Reference points are key for scanning your reference, model, etc. If you're really trying to draw the photo, you should make these changes. Good luck.

I'm not drawing this picture but just some of the things you guys said are of great importance to me. I have been trying to do realism, but I feel that I keep getting all porportions off. I wish I could show you guys an actual picture I drew so I can see what I am doing wrong. Thanks guys, you indirectly helped me! ^^

I have to tell you how impressed I am with this whole thread. The information and help you guys are giving HK is how it should be here all the time.. Too often it's "you suck you dumbass" or.."go back to picking your nose" ..This is great.

Here is a great thread for help in many areas of drawing, painting, etc.:

http://cellosoft.com/2draw/view/11685/

Yea thats a good one

Good so far. It looks like him.

Thanks much again for your 1337 skills and clever thinking Cloxboy. ^.^
Gee, it's really not that bad off huh. Don't worry, i'm not giving up, but maybe i'll try my hand at some other portraits, because i know i can do it, it's just that sometimes i lose that uh... touch. =]
Here's one that i did in pencil not too long ago, sat down for a good two hours for it.
Portrait

That's a good looking pencil portrait HK..

Wow, totally, that's a good profile portrait.