Tonal Studies

[anska.scripsit]

I decided, that I desperately needed to do some more studies to improve the proportions and tonal values of my pictures. While proportions tend to get out of hand when I draw from imagination, I often have a very hard time choosing values, especially the lighter ones. Here I used one of the great new reference images for practice. Critique is very welcome (and I hope digital paintings are okay as well).

[Jeff Vehige]

Beautiful! I think you did a fantastic job of capturing this image. The only thing I can say that may improve this image is to remove the hair around her eye. I know it’s in the photo, but for me, it’s a little distracting. I’m not even sure this would improve the image; it’s just a personal preference.

 

Again — outstanding work!

[Brit Taylor]

The hair around the eye is distracting but if you really look at the photo, the shine on it makes it less intense. Maybe if the tone used for that hair was lighter it would be less of a distraction seeing as there are some stark, major contrasts between the loops of hair and even the background. If the values were closer together, perhaps to be more similar to the hair that’s in the light, those loops can still be in the image but not pose quite so much of a distraction as they do.

If you look at the eyes, and the greatest amount of contrast there, it’s clear that’s the focus of the drawing.

Does that make any sense?

[Joshua Jacobo]

Beautiful work! I recommend you diagram the head as an egg and try to get a simpler pattern of light working. Her near-side brow is catching a lot of light but it doesn’t contribute to the overall sense of volume. To to connect that light area with a vertical band of light working from the chin, across the zygomatic muscles to the check bone, the brow as you have it and the front to side plane of the head. That should give the drawing a more convincing sense of solidity. Less patchy, more simple, even if your reference suggests otherwise.

[Author]

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