Portrait wip

[Vimes]

Asked for some advice about portraits in the art discussion threads but no one seems to have answered, so thought I'd post and actual portrait I'm working on at the moment and see if anyone can point out errors.

About an hour and a bit into this and I've been trying to work quite methodically and check my measurements as a lot of the time always end up having to readjust and repaint parts of a portrait because I notice stuff is wrong half way through. Having a lot of trouble with her left eye and getting to be in the right place/shape. I think the face looks a bit too wide or too long I'm not sure sure. I check the measurements and they seem right but maybe i'm not being accurate enough. Going to carry on working on it anyway but any advice would be great. General tips on approaching a portrait just general painting technique would be good too. I'm painting this in sai with a kind of square brush pen tool just for the record. Cheers :)

[Piotr Jasielski]

I think the easiest way to see errors is to overlay your study on the photo and lower the opacity. I think the main issue here would be that the eyebrows descend too rapidly and that her right eyelash is a bit too vertical.

[Myriam]

have you tried sizing up the original so it's the same size as your drawing? makes it a lot easier.

[Saraiza]

one thing that comes to my mind is, if you draw a line through the "edges" of the eyes, it creates a line which is more or less horizontal. your eyes are sloped too much.(´??hope you understand what I'm trying to say... -_-)

[Vimes]

one thing that comes to my mind is, if you draw a line through the "edges" of the eyes, it creates a line which is more or less horizontal. your eyes are sloped too much.(´??hope you understand what I'm trying to say... -_-)

I think I get what you mean. The corner of each eye should be more in line with each other, I'll fix it when I work on it next, cheers for replying.

---

I think the easiest way to see errors is to overlay your study on the photo and lower the opacity. I think the main issue here would be that the eyebrows descend too rapidly and that her right eyelash is a bit too vertical.

Thanks yeah I see what you are saying, I tend to exaggerate angles quite often I find. I could put it over the top yeah, but i'm trying to train my eye to see the mistakes more so i'd rather try and work it out on my own.

have you tried sizing up the original so it's the same size as your drawing? makes it a lot easier.

I'll make it bigger yeah and see if that helps. I don't want to stick them right next to each other though and line everything up together because that's almost like using a grid i think. Unless using a grid is actually a good way to improve? I don't think I've ever heard anyone say it is though.

[Piotr Jasielski]

I could put it over the top yeah, but i'm trying to train my eye to see the mistakes more so i'd rather try and work it out on my own.

Yes, training the eye is the priority and it's good not to some sort of "cheats" as long as You can see flaws and correct them. But if You reach the point where You are not able to see what is wrong -just check it by overlaying and correct it from memory.

That's at least my approach.

[Myriam]

Of course you shouldn't use a grid, but to see if you're doing the proportions right, it's important to draw the same size as your reference (it's what Dan always sais btw ;) ). It's nothing like using a grid, it's just to make it easier - otherwise you're bound to screw up the proportions, it's natural. I guess the brain isn't able to calculate them correctly or something. I don't know, just try it, all of a sudden your mistakes will become obvious. And it's no cheating - unlike the overlay technique ;)

[Vimes]

Updated a bit more trying to sort out the stuff everyone pointed out. I think the eye is more correct now, still not quite right though. Still quite blotchy looking overall too, thought it would look a bit smoother by now, any tips on blending it better, use a soft brush maybe? I wouldn't want it looking too soft though. Also any tips on edges, I always have trouble making things neat, like the eye I've spent a bit of time on with small brushes trying to make it a bit sharper still looks roughish though.

[Piotr Jasielski]

Study looks better, god job.

Soft brush might be a good idea. You can also use some custom skin brushes, but it is not really necessary. For fast blending smugde tool may be quite useful here, but You should be delicate with it, otherwise it will look way too soft.

[JonHop]

Study does look better but one thing I think is that the distance between the left eye in the piece (one closest to the visible ear) and the bottom of the jaw, chin, is a little bit too short. Seems that side of the face needs to be made longer, if you understand what I mean? I've been studying facial structure recently also and the eye you were having problems on is the same one that's been affecting me! lol Hope what I said was helpful and not to confusing, Keep up the work.

[Myriam]

i told you to make the face the same size as your reference. do it, you'll see all the mistakes yourself ;)

[Jaku]

Hello!

I hope you don't mind, but I made this fast paintover on your portrait. As far as I'm spezialized in portraits and caricatures I've good a very good understanding about the human head.



First thing I've got to say is that this is a very nice approach. But there are many things that you could fix.

The first thing that came into my eye was the lenght of the nose, it was too long. Also the size of the eyes was too big, and the mouth was too low.
The overall head was too big and long.

I added some red lines into the foto to show you what kind of proportions you've got to look at whe you try to make a portrait. Always look at the way the eyes end in line with the nostrils. And look at the size of the nose, in relationship with the forehead and the chin.

Well... I hope you find this useful! :)

[warmics]

I'm a noob, but here goes my contribution anyway:

Grids are bad for what you're trying to do. So good for you :) Training the eye to measure distances is very good. Having said that, using a picture of a different size to the study will compromise this ability I think. Unless you pic something like an eye or the nose and use it as a measuring device for the rest of the features. But then you're not really measuring with your eyes, but with a device (which is totally fair mind you XD). I don't think there's any drawbacks to overlaying your picture to spot any mistakes. You should try flipping your canvas or turning it upside down too. It really, really helps. It's dramatic how much stuff you'll notice just by flipping it. Naturally, flip the source image as well. Finally, I think her hand is too small.