09-04-2016, 01:40 AM
What they said^ also you will need to learn portraits in many aspects.
1. Do self portraits from a mirror with pencil and paper. Its important I mention as well to always approach drawing anything through different "lenses". This free guide explains what I mean...
http://www.dorian-iten.com/accuracy/
^This as well as draw a box will improve your drawing skills in general.
2. Study the skulls structure by analyzing and copying it from all different angels. Getting an accurate 3d model would help or buying a skull replica to study from life would be best if you can afford it. This is the cheapest replica I could find thats accurate enough to be useful for an artist...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RLTKCPQ?psc=1
^anything cheaper than this one on amazon looked really bad and not good to study. Feel on your own face or a friends at the boney and fleshy bits to better understand them as well.
3. Learn the muscles of the face. The structure of the skull is more important at this phase for you. Dont get TOO wrapped up in learning muscles like I see many people do with anatomy. The bone structure is much more telling of the over all form and is the area I see most lacking in your drawing examples. Muscles are important later on when you have a good footing on structure and want to learn to invent facial expressions accurately.
4. Study photos with single light sources with a strong distinction between the dark and the light side of the face. Heres an example...
![[Image: f2e0b98e01ca0b44599987605f333d41.jpg]](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/f2/e0/b9/f2e0b98e01ca0b44599987605f333d41.jpg)
Learn the plains of the face by accurately lighting the form.
5. Study casts that have nice lighting as the above photo. Its good to break down your cast studies by tackling one facial feature at a time. Study eyes, nose, mouth and ears individually from different angles. Casts are good since the focus is to learn how light interacts with the different forms of the face up close.
6. Study how the masters did it. I should take my own advice here. Im no expert on master painters but Rembrandt and Sargent are good.
I think that covers most of the points I want to make. I would start with applying what you will learn from Drawabox and the Doran Iten guide I linked above. This is meant to be a long term approach to how to improve so dont be discouraged if it seems like too much to handle. Take one step at a time and keep practicing one aspect until it becomes second nature. Identify bad habits you have for incorrect proportions and wonky form and make a conscious effort to correct for them while you draw. Of course if you showed examples of your studies we could give more direct advice for your specific problems.
1. Do self portraits from a mirror with pencil and paper. Its important I mention as well to always approach drawing anything through different "lenses". This free guide explains what I mean...
http://www.dorian-iten.com/accuracy/
^This as well as draw a box will improve your drawing skills in general.
2. Study the skulls structure by analyzing and copying it from all different angels. Getting an accurate 3d model would help or buying a skull replica to study from life would be best if you can afford it. This is the cheapest replica I could find thats accurate enough to be useful for an artist...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RLTKCPQ?psc=1
^anything cheaper than this one on amazon looked really bad and not good to study. Feel on your own face or a friends at the boney and fleshy bits to better understand them as well.
3. Learn the muscles of the face. The structure of the skull is more important at this phase for you. Dont get TOO wrapped up in learning muscles like I see many people do with anatomy. The bone structure is much more telling of the over all form and is the area I see most lacking in your drawing examples. Muscles are important later on when you have a good footing on structure and want to learn to invent facial expressions accurately.
4. Study photos with single light sources with a strong distinction between the dark and the light side of the face. Heres an example...
Learn the plains of the face by accurately lighting the form.
5. Study casts that have nice lighting as the above photo. Its good to break down your cast studies by tackling one facial feature at a time. Study eyes, nose, mouth and ears individually from different angles. Casts are good since the focus is to learn how light interacts with the different forms of the face up close.
6. Study how the masters did it. I should take my own advice here. Im no expert on master painters but Rembrandt and Sargent are good.
I think that covers most of the points I want to make. I would start with applying what you will learn from Drawabox and the Doran Iten guide I linked above. This is meant to be a long term approach to how to improve so dont be discouraged if it seems like too much to handle. Take one step at a time and keep practicing one aspect until it becomes second nature. Identify bad habits you have for incorrect proportions and wonky form and make a conscious effort to correct for them while you draw. Of course if you showed examples of your studies we could give more direct advice for your specific problems.