02-15-2019

Mx. Abi February 18, 2019 4:56pm

Your general expressions are on the right track, your proportions are off.
I think there are few things that are leading to this.

1. Your conservation of paper size. I get it. I too am a thrifty artist and try and conserve my paper. IF you use newsprint in your practice then you are not spending as much. And practice is NEVER wasted. I would strongly reccomend that when you get to 10 minutes give yourself a new page, give yourself more room to work.

2. In the 30 seconds to 1 minute do not try and get the entire head in there. Focus on what will give you the most expression. Do fewer lines.

3. Your eyes are pretty good, there are still some development needed on mouths. one of the things I have done myself is I did multiple practice sessions where I only focused on eyes, then the nose, then the mouth. For these I did 30 minute practice sessions, I didn't want to spend 25 minutes on a nose.

This was really helpful to me because it helped me realize just how much the nose moves and is an important part of the expression.

1

leofelco816 February 18, 2019 6:17pm

Thank You, HornetOfJustice. I really appreiciate your advice. It is very helpful! I wanted some clarity on Number 3. Are you recommending I use the 30 min sessions (10-30sec, 5-1min, etc.) to focus on one part or are you recommending 30 min on one facial part (30 min on a nose). Please respond. I greatly appreciate the feedback. It will help a lot.

Mx. Abi February 18, 2019 6:55pm

I am reccomending doing a few 30 minute sessions where you only focus on one part of the face.

Do a 30 minute (30 second, 1 minute etc. . . ) just on mouths.

Then do it again just on eyes.

Then just noses.

I like to rotate. I got stuck on my progress for a while and couldn't find a way through. And my girlfriend suggested I draw something totally different. So I did an animal study. And then the next time I did a portrait study I totally broke through the block.

I am on FB and Instagram.
Hornet of Justice Art on FB and

Hornet.c.a. on Insta you can see my practices.

I was unhappy with my mouths and did several mouth studies and it really helped me a lot. I also do a 10 minute sketch most mornings. Again rotating through the subjects. THey help me stay artistically limber. :D I haven't done much in the past month due to illness but I'm getting back on the horse.

1

leofelco816 February 18, 2019 8:12pm

Thank you for the recommendations. They were very helpful. I will see you online.

Pochik February 22, 2019 5:39am

Great sense of expression in these pieces. I especially like the drawing on the bottom left as the shape of the profile is very bold. The harsh brow line particularly enhances it and you did a great job of tucking away the furthest eye behind the nose, rather than allowing it to stick out too far.

To continue your study, you might find it useful to use horizontal lines to plan out the nose, eye and mouth height. You can also add to this by planning out vertical relationships. For example, in the bottom right drawing, the mouth is looking too wide. You could avoid this in the planning stage by noticing where the corners of the mouth sit in relationship to the eyes and drawing vertical planning lines. The edges of the mouth usually roughly line up with the centre of the eyes, so that is a relationship you can often plan in advance.

In the top set of studies, you do a great job at portraying emotion through the eyes. I love the way you use the bottom lids to add to the expression and imply movement in the cheeks.

1

leofelco816 February 23, 2019 2:21am

Thank You for your comments, Pochik. In future drawings, I will attempt to plan eye, nose and mouth positions. This was good advice. When i am drawing these pieces, i am always aware of the 30 and 60 sec times so i have a tendancy to rush the drawings. I will be using Hornet of Justice advice to focus on one part at a time for those pieces. I appreciate your constructive advice.