[Norman]

Thanks so much for taking the time and effort and critiquing my work. I dont have access to professional critique to my work and this shows me how really helpful a personalized critique is. I think I will need to watch the video a couple of times to get all the details 🙂

Love the “globe” idea and will try to incorporate it in my ongoing sketch practice. Also the ear and nose positioning is a very helpful piece of advice that I hadn’t realized.

I think this will help me a lot to focus on some central topics early on (early construction of skull “ball”, basic positioning) and be more conscious about what I do, if I do it (e.g. shading).  I still find it absurdly hard to “make every mark count” and not scribble around at some point. 😀

Thanks again, I really appreciate the generousity of the critiques here in the forum.

[Norman]

Thanks for your genereous advise and hints. I will look into the mentioned videos. Regarding the Reilly Method, I have looked at if superficially before and find it very interesting, but guess it will help to have a very solid basic construction first (Skull, Face Plane, basic gesture etc.) I think I struggle still at this point. I tried to go through an example at the computer overlaying, just to see how everything fits together. Would you agree that the construction in the image below is correct? At least part of the problem is me not being able to SEE things correctly, even before trying to bring anything to paper.

[Norman]

Hey Jaylene, are you still following Steve’s course? I do right now and try to get my head around heads too. I would be glad to see more work (maybe even open a “head drawing” thread somewhere here). I’m just beginning, too, so in no position to give real feedback. For me, I think it’s staying with very basic shapes and getting those right first. Can you draw a simple sphere and box and make them characteristic? I was reminded of this in my own critique here in the forum, maybe it’s helpful for you too.

Hope to see more work from you 🙂 Do you do the exercises in Steve’s course?

[Norman]

Just took very long to load 🙂 Great image, I llike the color style, even though the face feels a little too blue for me? Also the smoke (?) coming from the face confused be a little. I could understand the purpose. The hand feels like it is touching glass – on purpose? Hpe my questions help you.

What I like a lot: The composition, the way that it makes me curious what happend and the clear focus.

Thanks for sharing!

[Norman]

@Tanisha, thanks, yes, I think I can see what you mean. It’s really hard not to get tempted and I always try to get some “likeness” which I probably should not, but rather go with “characteristic”. Thanks for your comment.

[Norman]

I am just starting out with head drawing, so I just try to apply what I think I learned so far. First of all, great work and a very lovely portrait – I like the pose and the emphasis on the eyes, which create a good focus.

I think the picture could improve by some more construction (but maybe that s just because I take Steve’c head construction classes. The nose seems a little off and also the eyes (left eye a little big maybe?) Some outlines are a little hard, while you kept the shadows quite light. I think it could improve by getting boldeer in the shadows (and emphasising form) and having less “lines”. (e.g. around the mouth and on the left contour).

Hope to see more from you. Keep up the great work! Drawing is all about practice (I hope :-D)

[Norman]

Is it only me who cannot see a picture in your post?

[Norman]

Some videos include reference images (i.e. Reilly Method Figure Drawing Week 4: Designing the Head with Mark Westermoe) with images to practice or to illustrate concepts. I believe that’s what is meant. You find them by clicking on “Reference” below the video (next to Lesson Details and Discussion tabs)

[Norman]

Great choice – looking forward to see your progress. I guess that is a really good start – to choose something thats meaningful for you personally and try to tell a story.

[Norman]

I think Glenn’s way of lecturing is really good, I am learning a lot by drawing along and experimenting. Slowly I start to better understand what he is talking about. I think for me it could be even slower 😀

I am working on spherical forms now. Here is my current state of affairs – happy to hear what you see. What parts do you think I should review? I tend to drive it a bit too far than necessary, I think, but it helps me to better see where my forms dont actually work together (and its more satisfying).

From image reference, about 10-15 min each (I took my time)

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Norman.

[Norman]

@josephmossy Great! This really makes a difference – did you create the atmosphere a the very last or did you finish with emphasizing lines?

[Norman]

When Glenn talks about containing or bracketing, he always emphasizes only specific parts of the form (ie the sides?)

I feel I don’t fully understand where to bracket (and emphasize the boundaries of the form, as I understand it)  Often I draw fully through and my drawing becomes a mess (maybe that is OK?) or I start drawing contours instead. That is, I draw exactly the parts of the Form that I can see.

I would appreciate any hint on how to approach this.

[Norman]

I find portrait drawing really one of the most challenging subjects and also extremely interesting. I try to to a lot of quick sketches and have basically moved from the “Who is this?” “Oh just some random person off the internet” (when I was really sketching the person asking) to “Hey, this is xyz! But he looks completely wrong. Why did you draw it like this?” “????%!(!=(!!”

😀

I found it is crucial (for me) to work extremely systematically and measure thoroughly at every stage.

What kind of charcoal do you use? Pencils or sticks or vine charcoal or …?

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Norman.

[Norman]

I think you really made awesome progress – I guess I will work through the beginner’s course, too 😀

Where are you at now? Are you still working on the lessons?

[Norman]

I draw along – in demos with reference,  if I am even more motivated, I stop the video before, try to find my own solution and then draw along to see how the instructor did it.

I guess it is a good idea to review the work afterwards and redraw to practice what you have learned.

[Author]

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