K.L. Sketchbook - critique and advice is welcome!

[K.L.]

Hi!

I always wanted to learn how to paint, and by the end of last year I decided its time to finally fufill that dream I've read "Drawing on the right side of the brain", a bit of Andrew Loomis, watched all the videos on proko.com and ctrlpaint.com, I've been lurking around the forum as an unregistered reader for quite some time now... And now its time to get dirty I wanted to post some of my work, get the necessary critique and ask for exercises to improve on everything I might be lacking (most probably, that will be everything).

Ill start with posting some of my digital work that Im fairly content with, commenting on the flaws my friends already pointed out. Ill try to include my reference photos wherever possible. Any other comments will be welcome, especially advice on how to improve. Soon, when I get my hands on a scanner, Ill try to post some of my work done on paper, and after that Ill try to keep you up to date with my current work

[K.L.]

I hopethe res isnt too big...



As for the first painting, I can see I missed the jawline. I feel that its the main reason my picture does not look like the man in the reference (the photo is a result of a google search for a B&W "male face"). The brows and eyes seem to have a different shape too. I couldnt paint the facial hair to look fine, so i skipped it altogether.

As for the woman (it was actually painted before the man), the reference comes from lovecastle.org/draw. While I painted it, I couldnt see it, but once my friend pointed it out, it hits me like a truck. The nose is way too big, and the part from nose to chin is way too small. The forehead looks kinda flat, and the hair lays unnaturally on the arm/chest. The mouth is on a wrong angle, making it look sad.

Those are the mistakes I am aware of, but Im sure there is plenty more to be found by an experienced eye Please feel free to comment! All help will be appreciated

[K.L.]

A few pencil studies of skulls I did lately

[K.L.]

And a few portraits I drew. I used charcoal and pencils, but the format was quite small (B5 sketchbook). That would be pretty much everything I drew till now that Im not THAT ashemed of

[K.L.]

A new piece of work to share This time its Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones. Any critique, advice and comments are welcome.

[K.L.]

Next is Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones.

[StrawberryJan]

You should post some life drawing stuff, I'd like to see how you draw 3D objects rather than photographs. And it helps when there's more than one subject, it helps you get a feel for proportions.

Your digital stuff looks great, and i think you know more than anyone else about where you went wrong with the proportions. Do you sketch their faces first before going in with a big brush?

I would try using harder brushes as well, right now your paintings are very blurry which look great in some areas but they say the best painters know when to use a soft line or a hard line. Like in your Tywin one his jawline bleeds into the dark part of his neckscarf thing. And you have a good grasp on rendering and shading and stuff, but I'd like to see the right side of Tywins face be much brighter than the left side. I would just hard brush white all over them areas, his temple, his cheeckbone, his jaw, the higher parts and tips of his ears - I should be able to see from 2 metres away from the canvas that there is a major light source coming from the right side of the painting.

Keep updating, guy

[K.L.]

Thanks for the advice!

I will try to post some life drawings once I find a willing model

I do try to make a line drawing before I start to paint, but it may be Im too loose and careless doing that. In the Tywin drawing, for example, I made the chin too long, put the eyes too low etc. I noticed that quite a while into painting, so I had to do a bit of lasso work, select whole areas, move them and fix the resulting gaps. I will try to make a great line drawing next time, and only then start painting, when im totally satisfied with the linedrawing

I'll try to keep the rest of the advice in mind too - hope to post some pics really soon!

[Conivii]

Hey there!
I think this thread is a very solid ground to start from. You already can handle values to some degree, just the placement could be better and there's nothing that couldn't be improved via training.
Sketching on the train/bus/etc - places where you have to be quick (and doesn't look like a creepy guy) - could really improve your sense of seeing things. Try to divide your painting in different shapes
and values. Don't think about drawing an eye, just be like "aah there's a little light grey spot formed like an apple..." and so on. (sorry for the bad example haha). Just divide everything in shapes and stick to it.
Some guys, especially artists who want to paint photo-realistic push this kind of seeing to higher extremes and begin to think almost like a printer and paint very small spots step by step..
This is just what's worked for me, and to some extent it improved my drawing/painting. I'm not very experienced yet, but my teacher and some guys on the interwebs think that that's a good way to keep moving..

Make sure to keep uploading some stuff!

[K.L.]

So I tried to have in mind all of the advice. I started with a line drawing and I was quite satisfied. But now, as the painting is done, I see a lot of mistakes :/ Ill try to post a time-lapse "making of" video a bit later. For now, the piece itself - Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in the Game of Thrones.

[K.L.]

The making of my last pic. As you can see, I took a LOT of time refining the linework and all, and I really tried to do my best. Still, the results are not satisfying...

[BlackDelphin]

I think your problem at the moment is seeing the planes, where the angle of the plane is changing.
Look for the asaro head, perhaps it will help you a bit. Also look for hard edges, vs soft edges.
Looking at your video, I can see that you can "read" the bid soft shades, but try looking for the
little ones as well. Also, I think you do to little construction when applying paint. If you don't do
the construction in your sketch, you'll be doing in the painting. But when painting you have other
issues to consider, so you might want to construct your sketch more.

Also be careful with eyes. They have a lot of hard edges, as well as the area around the lips.
Look for them.

On the other side, your drawing came out pretty good, considering how little construction you did.
You're sensing the right shapes, which will help you in the long run. Also it will give you that feeling
when something's still missing or isn't right yet.

Keep getting better, cheers.