Llamallove's sketchbook

[Llamallove]

I'm back, here's some study stuff from recent times

[cgmythology]

Nice updates, you blocked in those faces quite well. Very good structure and form, keep it up!

[darktiste]

I'm back, here's some study stuff from recent times

Is this stylization study or likeness and accuracy study.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

IMO, if you're trying to do realistic portraits, it's all about measuring and accuracy. There's a spectrum of how much you can improvise w/ different subjects. With stuff like trees/rocks/clouds/landscape stuff being on the end where you can make stuff up more easily, move things around, fill in gaps, etc.

Human faces are at the far end of the spectrum where I feel like you just have to measure meticulously. Faces and hands, maybe, are the Dark Souls boss fights of drawing/painting. Every form of inaccuracy w/ a face stands out. You can measure w/ digital tools, holding up the pen, grid, or w/ your eye very carefully. But I don't think you can get around it.

Dorian Iten has a nice web page about working big to small, which is important since every error builds up and creates more errors down the road: https://www.dorian-iten.com/howtodraw/

Also, I didn't know what 'measuring by eye' really meant for a long time, until someone explained it to me. I think most artists do it naturally or without thinking. But basically you can move your eye from two points on the reference, and see and feel that distance with the movement of your eyes. You can then repeat that with your drawing, repeating the same movement of your eyes to find points/distances. It takes some getting used to but it does seem to work.