Portrait from Life

[Andres Cabanos]

Hello,

So far I have been spending a lot of my time working on the head and neck as well as sharpening my ability to see value and forms. So much of the aesthetic in the drawing has come from Glenn, Steve and Karl. The approached I used here, which I’ve learned from Glenn is both a combination of subtracting and adding to depict from. Not only using the eraser to correct, but to use as a tool to draw. Ive toned the paper with powdered charcoal and used the white of the paper for my lights, using the eraser to lift the charcoal of the page to mold form. Its a really fun and interesting process. It almost feels like sculpting.

Anyways I would deeply appreciate the critique.

Thank you so much for this opportunity.

[GaryM]

I really like it – the head looks well modelled. The only thing I can maybe suggest is to perhaps darken the background on the right so theres a bit more contrast allowing the face to pop out and draw the eye a bit more – it’s currently all a similar tone.

Really good stuff.

[Josseline Jeria]

Real nice portrait! I love the mood.

With this kind of value set up, make sure to keep a real close eye on your value variations in your light and shadow sides. Your darkest lights shouldn’t be as dark as your lightest darks. There are some areas here where the separation isn’t quiet clear. They don’t have to contrast a lot in order to do so, just enough to see a clear difference.

It’s interesting you can see the influences of all three but this is clearly your own work – great job!

[Niels Hoppe]

The mouth feels a bit off.

Because the planes the philtrum creates in the upper lip are both fairly visible it seems like the mouth is facing the viewer more than the rest of the portrait, which is in profile.

I’m impressed nevertheless, great portrait.

[Andres Cabanos]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to look at my drawing. It appears that my understand of the form is not clear. I might have to consider in revisiting anatomy of the face a bit more and i thought about really looking at the skull its self. I’m beginning to realize how important the skull is in affecting the features of the face.

 

[Sorasit Suprapoch]

i think edge quality could have been better. Look at John Singer Sargents drawing and see how he plays with edges

 

[Rachel Atkins]

I really love how you’ve created the hair and captured sense of personality in the eyes and mouth, really lovely.

[Rey Bustos]

Great work Andres! Here is my critique:

 

[Andres Cabanos]

Hi Rey! Wow I can definitely see how to white can add to the drawing.. maybe using paper that is just slightly tinted like a creamy white will make room for that extreme white you’ve suggested with the New Pastel.  Thank you so much for the advice. This is exactly what I needed!

[Joshua Jacobo]

Bit of accidental overlap but your work was critiqued by @joshuajacobo as well!

[Author]

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