Jussi Tarvainen portrait progress

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Okay so here's my go at it for daily self portraits. All of these will be made by looking at myself from the mirror. No photo references. I would love to hear some creative criticism and you can be as straight as you want with me

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Here's the first batch back a couple of days.
July 15
July 15
July 16
July 17
July 17
July 18
July 19

[algenpfleger]

Aha! So you've been doing those in secret and now throw all of em at us at once! Surprise!

Great to see you doing this man. Really digging the different mediums and the lines, especially #4 has nice flowing lines.

However, I'd suggest you concentrate more on the bone structure of the face and facial muscles than the features themselves. that makes a huge difference (not that I'd do that right, but yeah you get the idea ) Keep it up man!!

[xinranliu]

Great for keeping track of your improvements (in a few months, that is). If you keep this rolling, you will harvest what you've sowed. Don't stop

cheers

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Hah haa, naah I actually had these at my "learning process" thread but decided move them here so it was easier to follow the process.

Thanks Algenpfleger. I'll try to use different mediums except I'll stay away from colors.
That's a good idea. I think I'll start by drawing my skull first and then draw everything on top of it.

Cheers Ronald! I will definitely plan to keep this up forever can't wait for the 365 drawing

[Jussi Tarvainen]

So here's yesterdays portrait. 40min, at night with natural lighting. Need to use artificial light so I can get stronger shadows and it'll help me learn.

[Jussi Tarvainen]

So todays portrait has the skull underneath. Thought I'd draw the skull first and then the skin on top of it. Upper half of the head is too small though. This was a fun exercise and I'm going to learn the muscles next and use a tracing paper. Firs draw the skull on the sketchbook, then put tracing paper on top and draw the muscles with red and at last put another tracing paper on top and draw the skin and hair on top of the muscles. Will be interesting. There's so much to learn and I don't want to get too frustrated so it might take a bit before I'm going to try this. Need to learn the skull and muscles first.

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Yayo, busted out another one. I really like doing these mixed portraits where I draw the skull first and then on top of it I draw the skin. Though the results aren't the best cause I don't have muscles in between but I'm looking into that tomorrow. Need to get tracing paper too so it's easier to draw the different phases. Pikaboo there's the ear too. I've always been afraid of them but it was actually very interesting to draw the ear as well.

[algenpfleger]

Aha! You see, there's a lot more "firmness" in those faces now. Keep going while at the same time studying the structure of the features too!

[Jussi Tarvainen]

70 min.

Thank you Algenpfleger!!!!

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Okay this is probably 80minute one. I learned a lot during making this one. I laid out core shadows first the started working on it. Had a bit of a problem with the eyes though and again forgot to look at it from the mirror until I was done. Need to remember to do that. This is on A3 size paper.

Any feedback on this one?

[algenpfleger]

Wooow, these look a lot more human! Keep going man, look at that progress!

[Demo]

really like how their comming along i only have 2 suggestions sometimes your eyes and mouth end up on the same plane and the eyes should be deeper in the skull but u seem to b fixing that and your eyes either seem too high up or the skull isnt round enough. but u seem to be getting the hang of it keep it up

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Algenpfleger: They sure are, thanks a lot bud! I'm actually surprised myself of the improvement and I think the biggest reason is that I am spending more time on each piece.

Hey Demo I never in million years would've even thought of that! Thanks so much for pointing it out for me. I definitely need to think of the different planes! Cheers mate.

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Okay here's todays one. This took me over 2 hours but wasn't putting enough concentration to it though. Again, much learned. Remembered to check the drawing in the mirror twice which made me notice the other eye was too big... and still is. I tried making it smaller and smaller but it's still a bit too big. I also noticed that I tend to get the eyes too high, so need to work on that. It was a fun crosshatching this but I still couldn't get it dark enough.... I'm scared to make it darker for no reason. Okay enough babbling.

[SoufMeng]

Yousa, have u ever read a bit of Loomis book about drawing the head and hands?

I know the whole selfportrait thing seems like a lota fun but if u havent yet, study loomis book on the human head construction, at least in parallel to this.

I hope ull trust me and do it.

Im currently studying this book and im in total love with it, Andrew Loomis was, i believe, a great man.



Good luck to u!

[Jussi Tarvainen]

S.M: Cheers mate, I actually just printed one of his books yesterday and it's waiting on my desk to dig in.(hate reading from my computer)

I assume it'll help

[SoufMeng]

Yeah not long after posting i saw ur last post in demo's sketchbook, so nevermind my question.

I printed all the part related to the male head construction too and it really helped me start studying it (when it comes to read i find it way more comfortable to do it with actual pages).

So yeah im sure it'll help u alot with ur selfportrait mission.

[sketcheth]

You're really making some progress. It's so cool to see that, even within one page. Keep up the good work. Watch the proportions...try picturing lines running down your face to align the features...it'll help things not get out of hand. You have a tendency to exaggerate the size of your eyes it seems...
Great stuff so far, keep going.

[Jussi Tarvainen]

S.M.: Yayo! Working on it

Sketccheth: Thanks for the encouragement. Yeah I definitely need to put more attention to the proportions, you're right. And thanks for the heads up on the eye size. Now that you said it and looking back at my drawings I also see it. Thanks a lot, will put it to my list to watch out for

[algenpfleger]

Haha, I printed out those Loomis books too Really helps.
Last one is gooood, rendering is getting a lot better, the whole thing has more structure because your hatching follows the form! Yay!

But doooo wait with rendering until you're sure about the lines. Eth said it all already Keep it up!

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Damned it took a lot of ink hey

Tru tru, sometimes I get a bit too exited and forget about the basics for a minute which I don't yet handle a should be concentrating on... but that's why I'm so happy that there are people like you guys helping me out!
Thanks for everyone for all your help, really!!!

[Kurjuus]

The Loomis book will truly help, mostly in understanding the head better in perspective. I see a problem in your work in that way, for example in your last one it looks like the nose is seen from a bit beneath it but the mouth from above (because of the upper lip). It surely isn't one of the aspects a beginner should learn at the very beginning but it's better you get a grasp of that early on. Understanding of the solid mass is therefore very important.

What you could do next is rather than drawing the whole head again, concentrate on single aspects of the face like lips and nose and draw them from several views to better understand how they're built. It's always better to understand what you see and draw than just draw what you see

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Alrighty, trying to do some catching up so I could still call this daily portrait thread. Had birthday the other day and then studied loomis all day yesterday.

So here's some portraits. Trying to learn the face planes with the help of Loomis. Critique welcome. On the second one I eraser the eyes so many times. It seems like the eye on the side of the face that shows more is my biggest problem and it's always too big. But now I know it and can be prepared for it.

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Man I just love you guys here. Without you my progress would be slim and none! Seriously. Kurjuus, big thanks for your advices. That totally makes sense. I will jump into those at once That's why I'm having so much problems drawing the eye, eyebrows and lips, definitely!

Awesome, big thanks mate!

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Here's a quick one today. 20 minutes pencil. Little off but good exercise to quick sketch.

[algenpfleger]

Duuuude I love how you modeled that cheek bone there. Hey I think you should do one where along the mirror you also use a book depicting all the muscles and bones, meaning you look at your faces, then at the book, think "What is this I see here, why is it there, how does it act?" and once you understood it, you reconstruct it on paper. Do not bypass your brain (though I'm not saying you did that so far)

[pandahund]

I really like the two in post 24. You can definetely see your improvement. Keep it up man

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Algenpfleger, maybe it's the things I've learned slowly starting to kick in
That's a great idea! Big thanks for that. I'll try it out for sure! Yeah I definitely by pass my brain and take the shortcut to just draw a shadow there. Need to think more what's underneath and behind.

Thanks for the encouragement pandahund!

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Okay here's yesterday's stuff.