Art Archive The Fan Art Studio Class: Version 4.5 (Assignment 3 now posted)

Oh dear, seems like I won't be able to make something for this assignment. Been to busy with birthdays, university and things like that.

Now then... feedback... Considering everyone who has posted so far are better than me with portraits it doesn't quite feel like I should give any feedback, but I'll try anyway.

Nidrail: Very good likeness; there really is no doubt that it's Anakin. I'm especially impressed by the volume the shades create around the eyes and nose. Good rendering of his hair too, but maybe it would fit better with the rest of the drawing if it were a bit darker.

Theonlyjediprincess: Nice job. Great volume and skintones. His eyes just needs to be a bit more in proportion to each other. And with a little more shading they would look great. Really good drawing.

BigFatty: Nice capture of Palpatines headshape (even though I think it's slightly to thin, but I might be imagining), and his expression is really good too. Would be nice to see this drawing with a little more shading.

Falconfan: Really FF! I bet making so good drawings is illegal somewhere. Can't find anything wrong with this drawing. So no feedback, sorry.

 

Ahhhh I'll have mine posted tomorrow. Maybe late tomorrow. But it will be tomorrow.

 

Ah, I don't think I can make the deadline of today. The drawing is half done... but I have sooo many things to do today and tonight, I can probably post it early tomorrow morning (since I'm up all night anyways) or tomorrow afternoonish, depending on when I finally finish it. I'm not slacking, I swear!



(And apologies for the double post as well)

 

Did you manage to finish it, SithLordGunray??

And thank you, Fenrisulven for the feedback! I probably will go back and darken his hair further. Thank you!

 

Unfortunately, no, I did not. I'm posting it anyways though. Real life has suddenly become incredibly hectic within the last few days. I got to work on it a bit more, but it's misproportioned at parts (jawline, eyes slightly crooked), and I don't have time to fix it.

Hopefully it's enough for some kind of criticism. You can generally see what I was going for. I think.

[image=http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/8535/anakinyj9.png]

 

Wow alrighty!!!

Falcon Fan, I just LOVE your drawing!!!
However
I took it in photoshop and overlayed it to the real photo. I know I know, thats almost overkill.
So...
Here's my EXTREMELY nitpicky critique. BOY did I have to look hard.

when put one over the other, in the real photo Palpatine's face is longer than what you drew it. Not by much, however.
His mouth was pulled a little too far up and long on the left side of the drawing... again a slight change. Also his face is rounder in the drawing, also the wrinkles on his head are straighter in the photo, and both of those elements contribute to the longer face look.
Under his right eye (left side of the drawing) the 'bag' under his eye needed to be popped out of the picture more... not sure quite how to explain that one. His eyes themselves drooped down a bit too far in the drawing, again a very slight difference.
Also the right side of his mouth (his left) is more 'straight' than how you drew it... also the cheek right there needed to be slightly higher.

And I think that's the end of Palpatine's critique... his hair, nose, ear, clothing and neck are really incredible... What an awesome pic!!

And as for anakin,
Again a wonderful drawing!!
His eyebrow, the one in front, needed to come down a little sharper more, giving a more troubled look.
His nose might need to be shaded a little differently to make it look more round...
The shading under his eye, the line, whatever that's called, in the photo its more rounded and doesn't come down so far, and also it curves straighter.
His upper and lower lips are just a smidge too big... the lower lip it is just the last portion that's a bit wide, however the upper lip is too large.
Lastly the nostril lines on his nose, in the photo they are more rounded and not down quite so far. Again a very small change.

His hair, face, shading and all that are incredible!! And even with all those little tiny tweaks, there is no question who these people are. And you did an incredible job with the lighting!! so once again I am in awe!

TheOnlyJediPrincess
Hey not bad!!!
You got the face shape good, and the general shape of the mouth, but
on the right side (my right) of his mouth it curves down to far-- he didn't look quite THAT depressed
In the drawing the eyes are a little bit crooked, just a bit of work on them should fix that!
The cheek bone line that runs from his nose to his mouth is a little too far up oin the drawing and also a bit too pronounced.
Looking at it again, his chin on the left side of the pic could be 'thinned'...
also the cleft in his chin, the right shading line on that needs to be made more 'round'
His nose is pretty good! the nostrils both need their ends moved up a bit, also his nose is slightly smaller in the photo.

But good!! for not drawing in a while that's great!!!

bigfatty

lol Palpatine again!!
Great!!
The picture would look a little more three dee though if you used the shading on the forehead and the right cheek 'round'... that is follow the curves of the face itself--cheeks, forehead etc. That would make it pop out quite a bit more! Also his mouth, if you softened the shading lines, make it 'blend' into the face more, it would be better.
The wrinkles on his forehead need to be more shaded into his face to give the appearance of
craters/canyons a little more, and also his nose is a bit too thin--again shading will change that.

Overall its good! Just shading really would help allot, and using the shading to portray the shape of the face.


Wow, SithLordGunray, I wish we could see the finished Vrs of this!!
The parts you have shaded in are Really really real looking!!!!
I think you've pretty much noticed the parts that needs to be changed...
I did that so many times with mine as well!!!
Awesome!!!


Awesome work everyone, and I can't wait to see what everone else spots in mine

God bless!
~N

 

Okay--time for critiques!

In order of posting, I'll start with Nidrail's Anakin:

First and foremost--bravo for a beautiful portrait! The likeness is unmistakable--there's no question as to who this is--and the fury is captured very well. The shape of the face and placement of the features is excellent, and this is what defines the likeness. The shading on the face is wonderful, but if the contrast was a bit more defined (the difference between lights and darks), the forms and planes of the face (bridge of the nose, swell of cheekbones, brow ridge) would have better volume and depth. The general tone on the skin is good--you simply need to go for a bit more contrast between the lighter areas and the darker shadows. This is where "unfocusing" your vision when looking at the drawing and reference photo can help: it allows you to see the shape and degree of the darker and lighter areas, which then allows you to better define them (i.e., get them as close as possible to the reference) in the drawing.

This technique ("unfocusing") would be a great help in better defining the hair here, which lacks the realism of the face--by unfocusing the vision, you can see that, in that mass of curls, there are specific dark shapes, specific light shapes, and other areas that fall between those values--rarely do we see single strands of hair. So rather than drawing hair in specific strands, one at a time, it's much more effective and lends a more realistic look to sweep in those dark areas, bordered by the medium-toned areas, leaving the lighter areas unshaded or only lightly shaded--you can then blend them a bit with some pencil strokes and add some "kneaded-erasered-highlights." Anakin's hair is really hard to do, because of all the curls (and thus the many and varied shapes of the light and dark areas), but the time taken to do this will yield huge results in the realism of the rendered hair. (And now you know why I love drawing straight or slightly wavy hair, rather than hair like his! )

The clothing looks just wonderful--good texture and shape, with excellent shading. There's really so little here to critique--but the items I mentioned could really help, I think (read that as I can't wait to see your next portrait!). A beautiful portrait and likeness of Anakin/Vader!!

FF

 

WOW, thank you FF and HS29!!
FF your description of the hair should REALLY help me out. I've never
looked at it that way!! I will definately spend more time working on that.
HS29-- I'll have to look at the two pictures overlapped again-- I tried to get the shape as perfect as possible so it could be more of a shading problem. Thank you for noticing!!! I will look at it and see if/what I can fix on it.
Thank you both again, I appreciate your critiques so much!

God bless!
~N

 

...Have to do these in stages--the board won't let me post otherwise!

Next, we have the Luke drawing by TheOnlyJediPrincess (and is that username a reference to Leia, btw...? ):

Before getting to the drawing, I'd like to welcome you to the forum, and commend you on taking part in the Art Class thread! It's always tough to put your stuff out there that first time, and to do so in this setting, knowing you'll be receiving specific critique on the work, is very courageous! I don't think I'd've had the guts to do this, and I admire you greatly for it! I totally understand and appreciate the "artistic slump" problem--it hits me on a regular basis!--and I certainly hope you'll be up to posting some more work in a thread of your own very soon! Again--welcome!

Your portrait of Luke is very good--this is a rather difficult photo to work from (it seems so for me, anyway--stray "hair shadows," that steeper downward tilt of his head), and you've done a good job of it: the general shape of the head and face is great, and the placement of the features is correct. His nose appears a bit wide at the bottom (the upper part and bridge look fine to me), but I also think this is something that could easily be corrected with some deeper "darks" on the "downlight side" of his nose. His eyes look a bit pulled up at the outer part, and his right eye appears a bit smaller than the left--if you look at the photo again, you'll see that the lower lids of his eyes curve upward only at the outer corner, forming against the round eyeballs. The positioning of the eyes then makes each iris appear as though its aimed in a slightly different direction--because the iris will only appear round when the subject is looking directly at "the camera," it's important to note that in any other direction of gaze, the irises (and pupils) will appear elliptical in shape to "the camera;" how sharply elliptical will depend on the extremity of the subject's gaze (how far away from "the camera" they're aiming their gaze).

I really like the shading you've done on the hair, though some deepening of the "dark areas" on the sides would give the head a bit more volume. Overall, the application of shading is wonderful, but as with my own stuff most of the time, greater contrast (between lights and darks) would give the planes of the face more relief and definition. His mouth does droop just a touch at the left (his left) corner, but I actually think this adds to that dejected look (and capturing expression was one of the goals in this exercise!)--and considering how difficult I find Luke Skywalker's mouth to draw, I think your version looks quite wonderful: you captured that pouty lower lip in shape and shading, and did a great job of carefully defining his soft upper lip as well.

For not having drawn for a long while, I'd say you've done a superb job with this portrait! It's really quite wonderful, and I certainly hope you'll be starting a thread of your own soon, so we can admire more of your work!

FF

 

Next, we have BigFatty's portrait of Palpatine:

As I've already observed in your own thread, I like that you've gone for some deeper contrasts in this--and including the dark b/g really makes Palpatine stand out, as he does in the photo. The shape of his head appears to be skewed very slightly, as though there's a slope outward (...forward...?) from his forehead to his chin... This is ever-so-slight, though, and doesn't really detract from the generally good capture of his likeness.

With the features--be careful about relying on line to define them--of course we must outline in our initial sketches (otherwise, what would we work from?), but after that, it's important to further define them in the drawing with gradations of shading rather than just line. The original sketch lines for features should eventually disappear into the shading, if that makes any more sense: those soft "guide-lines" should be your "guides" as to how to shade in the features, rather than the lines themselves defining those features. You did a good job in shading his nose here, but the mouth and eyes are in need of the same attention: remembering and studying the shapes of facial features (the roundness of the eyelids as they surround the spherical eyeballs, the peaks and swells of lips, both upper and lower) will really help you in determining where the shading needs to go (depending, of course, on the direction of the light source(s) ). This is a tough one, mouth-wise: Palpy's lower lip is almost invisible here, sort of curved up under his upper lip, with only the shadowing there to suggest its presence rather than a well-defined line.

In general the shading is wonderful--it could be darker on the "downlight side" of his face (I had to go back several times and darken the shadows on Palpy's face in mine, too {and it's still a bit too light}--sometimes it's easier to go back and darken again later--takes less "nerve" than to just "go dark" the first time! lol!), and the forehead and mouth creases on the shadowed side of his face could be a little more defined. Darker shadowing would naturally force that, of course.

Your choice to further emphasize the different colors of his cloak vs his tunic was a good one, I felt--it gives a little more interest to that clothing (something mine lacks as a result of the uniform coloring/gradations).

I think this is a wonderful portrait of a difficult visage in difficult lighting, and that you did a great job with it! I hope this helped some, and that I didn't seem too critical for you--and I hope to see more drawings by you in your thread and here in Art Class!

FF

 

Not too critical at all, thanks for the help. I really was trying to keep the don't draw with lines thing in mind while drawing, but I guess I was only thinking about it when dealing with his nose. Thanks for the help.

 

Skipping my own (of course! ), I move at last to Sith_Lord_Gunray's Anakin (and yes, there's enough to give some critique!):

I personally like the "features-only" portraits sometimes--focusing so closely on them and the expression can really punch-up the emotion of a piece--especially one like this, where the rage is so raw and so dark. I realize you were going to finish this up (and I very much hope you do!), but truly--the emotion is still right there, with the features so well-done.

You mentioned yourself some proportional problems, but they're actually pretty minor--I have absolutely no difficulty recognizing this face. The outline of the face appears to be slightly too narrow for the features as drawn, but at this stage is something that could easily be changed. The contrasts in your shading are luscious--beautiful darks and touches of highlights--I notice this especially around the nose. Very well done with that. Here again, we need to be careful of where the eyes are "aimed"--they must both be looking in the same direction or it throws off the appearance of the eyes. Shape-wise, your eyes are correct--but in his right eye (the one on our left), if you shaded in more of the inner corner of the eye it would balance the position of the irises in both eyes (keep them looking in the same direction). It's a very minor thing, really--but with my own obsession with drawing eyes, it's something that is apparent to me. On that same note--you did a superb job getting the "catch-lights" in both eyes--this is very important to giving "life" to drawn eyes and making them look "wet" and round. They really are quite wonderfully done. I think his mouth needs to be just a slight touch wider, to balance with his eyes more (check out the first page of this thread for this assignment, and look at the "Face Guide" our mod put up--the mouth has a specific relation to the placement of the eyes).

This is, on whole, a beautiful start to what will surely be a great portrait when done (you are going to finish this, right?)! Thanks for getting in what you had, and we'll certainly be watching your thread for the completed piece! Looking forward to seeing more!

FF

 

Q: Any idea when Assignment 3 will appear?

 

Ehhhh...?

 

I want to try at the third challenge...

 

That's alright!! It certianly is difficult to think up a subject for these. I wait!

 

@Sithlord Gunray

The picture already is very good, BUT... and here is the little but important but: The mouth is too far away from the nose, which makes the face a lil too long in general. Bring the mouth up a little higher and shorten the chin... then its perfect and your own style

What I like best: The way you drew Skywalker, with that bit thinner and longer (but not too long) face makes him look even more like Anakin Skywalker how I thought him to be... I like that! Please post the final version in here!

 

Perhaps if I ever go back to it. Someday I'll make a thread with my work. Unfortunately most of my stuff isn't Star Wars.

 

How about a drawing with Chewie or an Ewok, something with hair, alot of it...and then we each give tips on how to draw the perfect hair...?

 

Here is an idea for the next assignment. hands. I was drawing Jacen holding a lightsaber and I am really strugleing with his hands. They are not easy.

 

AAACK!!!

Hair and hands?! Two of the toughest things to draw??

**thinks**

Well...maybe those are good ideas--this is "Art Class," after all...



FF

 

Ugh, Hands! The Horror! Still, as FF said: this is the artclass after all... Heh, I remember I tried to draw Chewie once, but didn't get anywhere since I didn't know where to start with that big mass of hair/fur all over the place.

Suggestions I can think of for next assignment: Action Poses (like Obi-Wans stance before the Grievous-fight in Ep. III or some random pic from any lightsaber-duel for example) or something concerning light and shadows. Maybe lightsaberhilts is good for that. Lots of shadows and reflections in those little buggers.