A Little Smile

[Scriblingfool]

I did a lot of experimenting with this one: new kind of paper, diferent ways of using the colored pencils, and a different blending method. All of that gave it a look that's unfinished to me (even though it is finished), but some people I've shown it to like it. Since just about everybody who posts here is beter that me, I thought I'd get some informed opinions.

[dogfood]

As you shift from line art to more rendered work, realize that most of those lines you used before were merely representing value shifts (though some were thin values in their own right). When you leave in the lines and do the rendering, you're bowling the viewer over. Identify the shifts in value and consistently represent them (depending on what method you're using and how you're supporting the focal point).

[Scriblingfool]

Thanks for the look.

[CarolineBradley]

I agree with everything dogfood said.. listen to the man in the tin, he knows what he is talking about (that sentence feels like such deja vu)..

Anyway, the big thick black lines are really distracting, try to use contrast and value to show the different planes in the girls features.

The blurriness makes it REALLY hard to focus on whats going on in the hair area, Is is a scanner problem?
Picking out some individual hairs in clumps will make it look more... hair like. long singular strokes will look better, than either flat colour or back and forth scribbles.
Just general work on your values and contrast will really improve your work.... squinting will help uncomlicate the value, if your are finding it hard to pick

You really need to observe, drawing quick sketches very fast.. (like no more than a few mins at a time) of people will help train your eye and brain to drink in all the information and overtime this should (hopefully) improve your skills.

Good luck with it, and I hope some of that helps.