[Josseline Jeria]

Great! Keep chipping away. I would say to soften the forehead wrinkles a bit. Or add some values to make it clearer that there is depth there. that the wrinkles aren’t sitting on top of the skin but rather indentations so to speak of it.

Yours and others head drawings have inspired me to get back into my own head studies! I’ve done very little this year. It’ll be good to get back into it. Another thing to add to the list of the numerous things I’m working on to keep me as busy as possible at home

Keep drawing!

[Josseline Jeria]

You’re welcome

Construction is definitely good to have a solid understanding and application. I’m working on this myself. Gesture and form is one of the most difficult parts of drawing in general, so plenty of practice is essential! The overall construction of that image looks ohk, but I think it would help to start developing your construction more dimensionally. Looking at the face in basic planes. In this case, constructing the front and side planes. The proportional lines can be adjusted to develop this. Glen Vilppu’s beginning head drawing classes are good for this. From memory the second video he goes over the planes of the head. The seeing part is tricky. That is where the Reily Method helped me.

Seeing yours and everyone’s head studies has inspired me to get back into head work. I did a lot at the end of last year, but it’s dropped off this year, as I was focusing more on painting. But I’m back at the stage re-realizing that for my paintings to progress, I have to improve my draftsmanship. Construction, form and gesture are the areas I want to focus on.

Hope your drawing is going well 🙂

 

[Josseline Jeria]

Yes indeed. Thanks Joshua 🙂 and Charles for the excellent critique.

[Josseline Jeria]

Thank you for sharing that with me. That is so wonderful of you to be creating this piece as a tribute to her life. She truly does seem like she was a kind person.

Seeing the photo I think you could actually benefit from neutralizing and lightening the background, and perhaps her blouse too. Keep the same hues, as they’re lovely, but experiment with that. I think it will help soften the overall image, which I think could emphasize her kind and wise appearing nature, and draw even more attention to her face. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to do some rough colour thumbnails/studies to explore this.

Keep us updated with how it continues to develop 🙂

[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!

[Josseline Jeria]

I find construction difficult. What I’ve noticed is that I benefit from spending more time at the beginning with the most basic of shapes, setting lines for where features sit, the proportional distances for features and overall head, and the like, and be really sure about them before you start building the features on top. The foundation is everything.

Have you done any of the Frank Reilly Method on here? I found the anatomy section very helpful with supporting my head construction, as it helps you to better see what you are drawing. It isn’t a long section and it doesn’t go into too much detail. What was most useful was understanding the head in three separate layers – bone, muscle, skin. Understanding the bone structure helps most with initial construction, and it helps you to see how the muscles sit. Understanding the musculature helps you understand movements of the face and what all that is happening on the surface (skin) actually reflects and means. The Reilly rhythms help you to see how all the features and structures feed into each other and understanding the face holistically.

Westermoe’s Reily section in the Beginner’s head drawing course is mostly what you’d need.

[Josseline Jeria]

Hi Antonio, this is a lovely portrait. I like the pose and how you’ve made the drawing to suit her facial expression and figure.

I don’t think your shadows are too light necessarily, I actually think it’s quiet nice. The main thing to remember is that there is a clear separation between the light and the shadow side – your darkest light shouldn’t be as dark as your lightest darks. I think that for the softness and kind of mood you were going for here, having too much contrast between the light and shadow side would take away from this. It ultimately depends how you want your image to look like and what you want to say with it.

I like using Mark Westermoe’s shading approach for studies like these. The shading direction across the image is generally in the same direction and consistent. This helps to create a “cleaner” and coherent image. You can add some variation in areas you want to bring focus to, but by being selective in your choices, it will help direct the viewers eye, and display a good sense of draftsmanship.

Overall construction is always beneficial. Using comparative measurement helps with determining the size differences of facial features relative to each other.

Keep drawing! 🙂

[Josseline Jeria]

Hi Xelael,

Do you find you like to focus on the darker parts because you like darker imagery overall and the mood it creates? or enjoy working with shadows? or both? This is important to clarify and make clear for yourself. It seems you enjoy working in a low major key = overall proportion of image is dark.

If you have a look at artists who work with chiaroscuro, most tend to have more description in the lights, as in general the rule is that the light is more descriptive and the shadows less so. The shadows suggest form whilst the lights describe form. You can still draw the viewers eye to the shadows and create the kind of mood you want for your image by playing with your overall design matrix : your set major key and minor key (minor being the range of contrast between the dark and the lights, and the contrast within the dark group/zone and the light zone/group). e.g. setting your major key low and minor key low, will mean you’ll get an overall dark image, and low contrast so that the lights don’t contrast too far from the darks. But make sure there is a clear separation between the two.

I hope this makes sense. Bill Perkins covers how to create your design matrix in detail in his section of the Introduction to Drawing course and his Colour Bootcamp course. I think it’s quite important to graps these concepts, which so far I haven’t found are commonly addressed or taught, but are vital in helping you to develop a very clear image to better help express what you want to say with your image.

[Josseline Jeria]

Hi Cassandra and welcome 🙂

I think you picked the perfect courses to start off with, especially with your artistic goals and direction. I really admire comic artists and sci-fi is awesome. I draw cubes and cylinders too, I think it’s important to do so frequently. I move them in a lot in different ways in space to practice viewpoints, foreshortening, el vs. hl, overlapping and depth, and generally as a way to train my mind to see the 2D picture plane as one to work in 3D.

I think taking on some coaching is a fantastic idea. It will be very valuable and excel your learning. I myself would like to get some coaching soon. Have you seen the new video critiques NMA has on their youtube channel? If you haven’t, you should check them out. It’ll give you a good insight as to how instructors do their vid critiques.

As for getting the best out of it, I think you should devote as much time as possible – you can never get enough practice in. Set up a daily and weekly timetable to give you clear structure and direction. Allow room for error in timetabling  i.e. if a project takes longer than you anticipated, something in your personal life comes up etc, so that you have a bit of  flexibility.  But try to not have it be too flexible. Do your lessons – watch the lectures, write notes and draw along, draw what you learned separately, do the assignments, get your critique and apply it whilst it’s fresh. Do all the things you need to, but allocate yourself some time to doodle, make thumbnails, draw from imagination, draw things that interest you. Given you love sci-fi, you could do some of your personal studies with sci-fi related imagery, e.g. if you need to draw a portrait, maybe do one of a actor/actress in a sci-fi film. I think it is important to do things that remind you the kind of artist you want to be, and to help develop your artistic voice. But the main focus should be on technical mastery – that is ultimately what will best help you express yourself.

I’m not too sure when it comes to putting together a portfolio, sorry. Maybe someone else will give advice for this.

Keep us updated with how it all goes!

Stay safe and keep drawing 🙂

 

[Josseline Jeria]

Hi Gwendlyn

This is a great portrait! I find myself interested in the sitter, wanting to have a conservation and get to know her. That’s not something that all portraits capture, so well done for achieving that.
Lovely complimentary colour scheme. The variation in colour temperatures in her face is nice. I would say that in areas like her upper eyelid and socket, the crease indicating the plane where the cheek terminates next to her nose, and the creases either side of her lips would benefit from softer edges. Rounder forms = softer edges. It can read like a line when we look at it, but it’s plane and form changes. Indicating with changes in value, hue and/or colour temperature can achieve the desired effect without having to use a hard line. I struggle with this myself. I’m not experienced enough to give more feedback, but I hope this helps.

All the best

[Josseline Jeria]

No worries! I have noticed this myself with my painting. I may have most elements ohk, but the painting still feels a bit flat. We tend to focus on value and colour, rightfully so, but other elements such as detail, texture, etc help with achieving depth, creating a mood and atmosphere.
It is very inspiring to see everyone working hard and progressing. I have found this forum has helped pushed me to work this past week when I had moments of struggle. Receiving feedback, giving feedback, reading others feedback – it’s all so valuable! I’m finding myself coming across things I’d forgotten to focus or address in my work, or brought to my attention things I hadn’t prior. It really compliments and enhances our learning.

[Josseline Jeria]

You’re welcome. I think that’s part of  what makes feedback so valuable – for our work to be critiqued with fresh eyes. We stare at our work for so many hours whilst we paint, it becomes difficult to self-analyse; at least I find it so.

This is FAR from bad, by far ohk 🙂

 

[Josseline Jeria]

Ahk. I finished that course last December, finding I need to go over all the concepts again to see where I am at and what I need to work on.

Did you post the painting recently? I’ll have a look for it.

I began learning to draw so I could paint better. At heart I am definitely more a painter than a draftsman. But drawing is the foundation of a good painting, so plenty of drawing we must.

I’ve never projected or used a grid for my paintings – did you find it helped with the construction? though did it tighten up your painting?

Oh yes, I do too. We try as best we can. Assess and evaluate at the end, and try try again.

The eyes do look better placed within the facial structure you’ve created. I think moving it has de-emphasized the head tilt, which isn’t bad if you wanted to make the overall gesture more subtle. The tone does look better.

You’re welcome 🙂

Josseline

[Josseline Jeria]

Thank you Rachel! 🙂

Trying to create a sense of harmony across the image was an important factor for me. I wanted the viewer to feel as though they are right in the scene, taking in the whole landscape. I wanted to recreate the feelings I had in that location many years ago. I didn’t think I quite capture it, but it was fun to make nonetheless.

I see what you mean about pushing the backstrip further. That indeed would help. The alternative as you said would be to pull the foreground beach in, which may work better for the kind of effect I’d want to create. Thanks for the suggestion!

Haha, that was an A+ project 😉 and will do

[Josseline Jeria]

I forgot to add – probably one of the most important aspects in developing your style – Digging deep to find and listen to your artistic voice 🙂 what do you want to say with your art? what are your intentions? what story do you want to tell? all these kind of questions can help give some good direction.

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