just the sketchbook of a 14 year old girl...

**Royzy** · January 10th, 2010, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by witcrack

You have photoshop, right? have the original photo (the reference) scanned and saved. Open in PS and desaturate it (ctrl+shift+u, or cmd+shift+u for Mac). Now, compare the b/w version with the color version, understand and make note of what colors (in color version) are of light values, mid values and dark values (in b/w version). That's a first step, there's a lot more to it actually, but that's a start. If your reference is already a b/w photo then group the tones to 3 basic values (light, middle and dark), again, make note and understand them

Waiting for next update here, studies perhaps, doodles, ideas or anything?

I agree with Witcrack, though I hope he doesn't mind if I suggest a slight alternative to part of it. Rather than Desaturate, use the Channel Mixer and click 'Monochrome'. It is supposed to give a truer greyscale, and you can tweak the channels appropriately for the image if you know what to look for (I don't know much about that last part, but a lot of digital photographers swear by it).

BUT I actually tried both approaches with your photo, and the difference is almost non-existent in this case. So I guess that bit of info wasn't as useful to share here as I initially thought it might of been... haha

But for future reference! Give it a go

. Desaturate is perfectly good for what we are talking about. In fact I probably should just delete this comment...

**Selina-Mei** · January 10th, 2010, 04:28 PM

great help

thanks for taking your time

**Selina-Mei** · January 10th, 2010, 04:44 PM

everyone here at ca is so helpful

thanks!

**witcrack** · January 11th, 2010, 12:01 AM

Reply us here with art, Sel! We want art!

Oh and, that underlined bold text in my signature is a link to my SB, in case you're wondering ;p

**Selina-Mei** · January 13th, 2010, 01:01 PM

hey there, thanks alot, yea dont worry they'll be more coming soon!

ha, and yes I got the hint!

Great SB, its lovely

**Selina-Mei** · January 24th, 2010, 09:41 AM

Okk everyone, as requested, here's some more sketches and drawings...

The one of me is the most recent. It was a quick 1 and a half hour sketch in " brown conte pencils." I can see the right sided eye is a bit off, but I was told to not over work it, and to just leave it as it is - for learning's sake. Any help and tips are always welcome though.

The second is one i've been working on for a couple weeks already, and I've probably spent about 4 hours on it so far. Its of the Royal Academy in London, which is now known as something else I think. I can see some of the lines are off. Straight lines aren't easy to draw without rulers. (Which I wasn't allowed to use.. ha).

Thanks