How's this Outline?

[kelii]

I'm drawing this picture for my mom, so I want to make sure nothing's wonky. Can you please critique my outline before I start shading?

[Velocity Kendall]

heres a comparison it might help

[kelii]

Thanks so much! My art might actually get better now. When I ask other people how my stuff looks they all say it's perfect, and have no critiques. Looking at the above image, I obviously have a ways to go

[Velocity Kendall]

Thanks so much! My art might actually get better now. When I ask other people how my stuff looks they all say it's perfect, and have no critiques. Looking at the above image, I obviously have a ways to go

youre on the right track! youll know youre learning if its dificult and annoying, thats a good sign. its like the burn you get in your muscles working out, as they respond to excercise and grow bigger. think of it like a fitness regime and within a few weeks or months, your stuff will show big improvements.

[JeffX99]

Please tell me that's a little sister and not you?! 'Cause if you're this good at this age already...wow!

[JOvictory]

i see that you struggle a bit with understanding the features correctly (eyes, mouth, nose) you should study them and break them down to different shapes

[biglebowsky]

Use Your pencil as a measuring tool. Google will help you to find some materials about how to do that.

[Elwell]

The photograph you're using has a lot of lens distortion. You're unconsciously trying to correct it in your drawing, that's where your problems are arising. Even if you do a very accurate drawing from this photo, it may still look odd because the expectations we bring to a drawing are different from those we bring to a photograph. If you are taking your own photos, you'll have better results if you step back and zoom in, rather than getting close up. (More detail on how distance/focal length effect things here: http://gizmodo.com/5857279/this-is-h...ur-pretty-face)

[kelii]

Please tell me that's a little sister and not you?! 'Cause if you're this good at this age already...wow!

Lol, no, it's my daughter

[JeffX99]

Whew! Ok...big relief! And yeah, what Elwell said about the photo.

Oh and, since you seem to be interested in portraits I would highly recommend Loomis "Drawing Heads and Hands" or "Figure Drawing for all it's Worth"...along with William Maughan's "Complete Guide to Drawing the Head". Both good for understanding structure, planes, lighting, etc. - and in slightly different ways.

[kelii]

The photograph you're using has a lot of lens distortion. You're unconsciously trying to correct it in your drawing, that's where your problems are arising. Even if you do a very accurate drawing from this photo, it may still look odd because the expectations we bring to a drawing are different from those we bring to a photograph. If you are taking your own photos, you'll have better results if you step back and zoom in, rather than getting close up. (More detail on how distance/focal length effect things here: http://gizmodo.com/5857279/this-is-h...ur-pretty-face)

Thanks!

[kelii]

I decided just to push forward with this one after all. Is it looking any better?

[sone_one]

heres my take on this...

if you want to do a study, do something youre not emotionally attached to. theres all kind of possible pitfalls, like not wanting someone to be disappointed how he/she is portrayed, wanting to heroify/beautify/idealize your subject, and so on*.

imo you should ultimately want to go for thruthfull expression, which is contradicted by the points mentioned above. look at norman rockwell... those characters aint pretty, but they speak to us. they are alive. go for exaggeration of certain key-elements rather than accuracy.

here's what would be my (very sketchy) take on it...




*) ive struggled for a long time wanting to do a portrait of my gf... dont want the master to be upset, you know. so i rather avoided it. at some point i had to go for it though, because i couldnt afford the money to do anything else as a present.



turns out to be one of the few pictures im proud of, because its depicting the character of my subject well.

all that babble aside... go for the characteristics instead of the idealized and accurate.