WIP - Portrait of Dad

[DSiwek]

Hello everyone!
So I seem to be a little bit over my head here; My grandmother saw a sketch I posted on my Facebook profile, and pretty much begged for a portrait of my father (her son), and I couldn't really turn down grandma I am really rusty on my painting though...

I know she's wont really be critical of how it comes out, but I still want to do my best. Figure I'd get an early start on critique now so I can catch any major issues when they're still correctable.

Anyhoo, just the sketch so far, beside the ref photo I'm working from. It's going to be painted with acrylics. 11x14 on gesso board.



Mostly I'm unsure on how to handle the shirt. I don't really think the stripes would be a good idea...

Anyways, thanks so much to anyone who took the time to read that Any advice or critique would be very much appreciated!

[arenhaus]

Pay more attention to the eyesocket structure. The way you interpreted it is likely to cause problems with painting later, because you haven't really defined the bones, planes or folds.

Don't forget to step back and check the likeness. Tracing by squares increases tracing speed but does not guarantee accuracy; you have to tweak the result to get a better likeness.

[Chas]

Its a good drawing. The likeness is good. I think there is some funny business going on where is left brow emergesfrom the forehead. Also,its a small thing but the crest of his right cheek is rounder in the ref and it looks like it may be a little too low in the drawing (not sure bout this one). The only other thing I can see, and again its hard to say at this point because of where you are at in the drawing, but in the ref we can see the 'under plane' of his chin, which it does not appear you have shown in your drawing.
As I said, so far this is looking quite good. I'm interested to see your progress on this, so get working, and posting.

[Giacomo]

Mostly I'm unsure on how to handle the shirt. I don't really think the stripes would be a good idea...

Why not? You'll need to give the shirt some kind of 3D form and the stripes, in my opinion, define the contours and break up the space perfectly. If you don't use the stripes, I'd strongly recommend you shoot another photo with more contrast in the shirt (i.e., lighter-colored fabric) so you can have better reference for the folds and wrinkles of the cloth.

The contours of the drawing here are quite good but--as Arenhaus noted in his inimitable way--you're going to have trouble getting convincing 3D forms out of that photo, especially given its soft lighting. If it were me, I'd try to define and exaggerate the "shadow" areas with some kind of tone before you go charging in with the paint.

As always, just my two cents.