Tried a Portrait Advice Needed!

[barcode1973]

Hello it's me again the serial poster!
I tried to do a sketch of a pic of my 2 sons and woudl like some feedback? I never done portraits before and my shadings ropey I was just trying to get the basic outline?

 

[fahey1981]

hi. i love doing potrait drawings myself. ya can go to my page and check some out. see what ya think. looking at your drawing i would say ya have the foundation. but the line work is really only a quarter of the overall picture. if ya look at anybodies face in real life, you will notice straight away there is no dark outlines. the outlines you have put down are just a guide for the overall picture. the most important part of any potrait is the shading. the more shading, and blending you put into your picture, the more appealing and realistic. so get stuck into the shading. really look at all the different areas in the photograph and see how you can put them in your own work. can take long, sometimes boring time to get somewhere but the end result should be great. hope some of this can be helpful. lol.

 

[barcode1973]

Thanks very much. Shading is my downfall unless its really obvious or laid out for me. Any tricks or teqniques for a shader virgin?

 

[fahey1981]

really its just a matter of trial and error. really look at the photo. look at the dark spots which is obvious but also the light spots on a pic. not good enough to just shade darker areas. need to fill pretty much all the areas whit dark descending to lighter. leaving only the parts that are really bright unshaded. this will give the picture a more 3d and photo realistic. look. hope this makes sense

 

[Pastelman]

Portrait shading

Thanks very much. Shading is my downfall unless its really obvious or laid out for me. Any tricks or teqniques for a shader virgin?

Hi there nice outline, when I am painting a portrait using traditional art -soft Pastels, I screw up my eyes to look at the picture this helps to pick out the darker area's in the photograph, the highlights in a portrait tend to be in the centre of the forehead down the bridge of the nose ,top of the lip, depending on the light.

 

[WilD]

Hi, if you can photo copy or print out the photo in black and white it will really help you to see where the light and dark areas fall.

If you can use the photoshop tool on here you could transform to black and white - then maybe chose chalk or similar technique and this will give you a more basic image to work from.

As the previous member said, try half closing your eyes when you look at the photo and this allows you to see the lighter/darker areas. Not a bad go tho!

 

[fahey1981]

hey, thought if i was givingout advice on this thread i should try and back up my words. lol. it inspired me. here are a couple of potraits i have done of recent. its all about the light and dark and getting the right shading. im quite happy with the outcome. just takes time and effort. hope im not sayin this and everyone comes along and thinks they shit lol

 

[WilD]

Don't think anyone could say anything other than wow! They are really great portraits! excellent - love the Angelina and the style you have used for that one - very photo real. Can't say portraits are my strong point but will search out some of my drawings and you can critique my work!

 

[mxtattoo]

software

Hi there are some realy good photo to sketch software packages on the net "free software sites" that will turn your photo's into pencil, charcoal, pastel etc google them there are quite a few. easy to use and easy to adjust light and dark to what ever suits you. give em a try:thumbsup: