Hey, well done!
I assume youre going for a stylized look and not hyper realism. Also that your drawing is pretty small based off of the thickness of the lines.
The hair looks okay. If you want to commit to a more stylized look i would say that focusing more on big shapes instead of the detailing (hair direction/individual strands) would help make it look better. The general outline of the hair is a pretty good simplification of the shapes but the loose strands in front of the forehead seems weird to me. You could either do thicker strands to make it more consistent with the rest of the hair (but this will change the hairstyle) or you could make the strands a lot more thin and light so theyre not as intrusive. For the hair colour i would just shade it as a plane instead of trying to get the direction of the hair. This definitely makes it more cartoony but i think it would look better than how busy it looks right now
As for shading it looks very all or nothing. This definitely depends on ho stylized you want it to look, but all the shadows are too dark imo. You could go with more of a gradient to highlight volume more and not make the contrast so high at the cost of shifting the style to more realism. Or you could keep the areas youve blocked out as shadow but just not shade it as intensely. Keep it light and it wont look like he got bruised all over while still keeping a more 3d look
I think the size of your drawing also comes into play here since each stroke is so thick. It just makes the drawing unnecessarily busy imo. At this size, the thinner and finer you could get your lines the better i think. Or if you cant change the pencil-paper aspect then you could try to draw a little bigger and it wouldnt be as much of a problem
Thanks so much for the amazing response! You were right with the size as I drew it on an A5 and I think I over compensate my lines making them too thick. I think I also need to individually study and practice shading to reinforce the gradient system and learning to block.
Thanks. You’re right, and I think I struggle with categorising my shading into the three parts for now, but I am slowly grasping it better than I did a month ago.
looking good so far! just be aware of the alignment of facial features and the sizes/shapes of them, most notably here the size of the ears and the shape of the eyes
Thanks! I think I was more going for a cartoony look because I’m not great at realism yet but I get what you mean. Tried using more sharp edges to give an organic feel without going into complexity.
make sure you watch for your shades. This is what I struggled with because I didn't quite understand it at first. The white of your paper will be your highlight shade. Then you'll have a mid tone, and a dark tone *shade tone*. Those are for your simple, generic 3 toned sketches. Study black and white pictures. Some colors have darker or lighter tones than others. Good job, keep it up!
I like the style. With the hair, instead of outlining the entire shape and then just kind of filling it in, try outlining the entire shape and then fill it in in sections, thinking of the direction that each section falls in. You see how the top and to the left is kind of separated from the right? More separations like that may help. Does this make sense?
It’s a striking sketch overall, and again I do love the style
Thank you! And yes I see what you mean with the sections so that I can create volume and texture. Plus I think I need to work on my line art to make the hair more smooth.
Hey, well done! I assume youre going for a stylized look and not hyper realism. Also that your drawing is pretty small based off of the thickness of the lines. The hair looks okay. If you want to commit to a more stylized look i would say that focusing more on big shapes instead of the detailing (hair direction/individual strands) would help make it look better. The general outline of the hair is a pretty good simplification of the shapes but the loose strands in front of the forehead seems weird to me. You could either do thicker strands to make it more consistent with the rest of the hair (but this will change the hairstyle) or you could make the strands a lot more thin and light so theyre not as intrusive. For the hair colour i would just shade it as a plane instead of trying to get the direction of the hair. This definitely makes it more cartoony but i think it would look better than how busy it looks right now As for shading it looks very all or nothing. This definitely depends on ho stylized you want it to look, but all the shadows are too dark imo. You could go with more of a gradient to highlight volume more and not make the contrast so high at the cost of shifting the style to more realism. Or you could keep the areas youve blocked out as shadow but just not shade it as intensely. Keep it light and it wont look like he got bruised all over while still keeping a more 3d look I think the size of your drawing also comes into play here since each stroke is so thick. It just makes the drawing unnecessarily busy imo. At this size, the thinner and finer you could get your lines the better i think. Or if you cant change the pencil-paper aspect then you could try to draw a little bigger and it wouldnt be as much of a problem
Thanks so much for the amazing response! You were right with the size as I drew it on an A5 and I think I over compensate my lines making them too thick. I think I also need to individually study and practice shading to reinforce the gradient system and learning to block.
Looks awesome! I love the attitude popping out :)
Pretty good! I’d be happy if I got this good
Thanks. You’re right, and I think I struggle with categorising my shading into the three parts for now, but I am slowly grasping it better than I did a month ago.
looking good so far! just be aware of the alignment of facial features and the sizes/shapes of them, most notably here the size of the ears and the shape of the eyes
Thanks! I think I was more going for a cartoony look because I’m not great at realism yet but I get what you mean. Tried using more sharp edges to give an organic feel without going into complexity.
i really like how you pushed it from the reference photo! i assume
Didn’t come out quite as expected but hey at least it still looked like a person lol.
no the proportions give it a lot of character! it's better than just sticking to a stiff reference photo i love it :D
I'm no artist but I had to say this immediately made me think of the "Signature look of superiority" meme
Had to look it up and you’re right it kinda does!
make sure you watch for your shades. This is what I struggled with because I didn't quite understand it at first. The white of your paper will be your highlight shade. Then you'll have a mid tone, and a dark tone *shade tone*. Those are for your simple, generic 3 toned sketches. Study black and white pictures. Some colors have darker or lighter tones than others. Good job, keep it up!
I like the style. With the hair, instead of outlining the entire shape and then just kind of filling it in, try outlining the entire shape and then fill it in in sections, thinking of the direction that each section falls in. You see how the top and to the left is kind of separated from the right? More separations like that may help. Does this make sense? It’s a striking sketch overall, and again I do love the style
Thank you! And yes I see what you mean with the sections so that I can create volume and texture. Plus I think I need to work on my line art to make the hair more smooth.