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Some advice on eyes.
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Message
Posted
I think everyone has made correct comments. The bottom of the nose needs to be shifted to the left of the picture to line up with the middle of the lips. She is turning slightly away from us and this needs to be recognised in the proportions of the face. The grid system is good to get it right. Unfortunately with portraiture a very small error really shows up, because we are all very good at recognising people. If the grid system is too much like hard work, you can always trace or use carbon paper. I do this to transfer a drawing to a canvas. Best of luck.
Posted
As someone else who struggles with portraits, here are a few tips that help me:-
1. Start by drawing 2 pencil lines which can be erased later horizontally through the centre of the eyes and vertically through the nose and mouth. If the head is a 2/3 view or is tilted to one side, try to imagine a wire frame model of the head and draw the lines curved accordingly. Tilt your paper/canvas so that the face is straight as you draw.
2. Hold your drawing up to a mirror or if using a tablet, photograph your drawing and compare it to your reference photo. This will show up any errors.
3. Practice elements of faces rather than attempt a whole portrait, eg just eyes or noses.
I hope this helps.
Posted
There is some top advice on painting facial features from Hazel Soan in the techniques area - you can find it here https://www.painters-online.co.uk/tips-techniques/watercolour/articles/how-to-paint-facial-features-with-hazel-soan/
Posted
Glad it's about facial features - not just eyes: most of the problems I see, and make for myself, in portraiture and figure drawing stem from failure to observe the shape a a whole: if, for example, you look at a face, and then concentrate fiercely on the eyes, the mouth, the nose - and forget to fit them all together in the overall shape of the face, the worse the end result is going to be: it's very hard to do that, and that's why portraiture is such a specialized area on which some concentrate exclusively. Get that overall shape right at the outset and things more readily fall into place; but no, I didn't say "easily"; the truth is that if you get the shapes wrong, the bulk of the head and the way it sits on the shoulders, the folds of the skull, you might draw the best eyes and mouths in the world, but they still won't convince. That's why I hate drawing from photographs - so often you have to guess at depth, scale, assess movement from a still image ... use a live model whenever you can get anyone to pose for you.
Posted
Using photographs as a reference is never ideal, Robert has pointed out some of the issues with this.
Jiri Keller produces some outstanding figure and portrait pencil drawings, top quality stuff by any standard, and are definitely worth looking at more closely.
He generally works from life, real sitters that are in front of him, and you can tell!
Alright, he does also turn out a few celebrities and the like which obviously are worked up from photos… but they can’t compete with his life drawings in my opinion.
Of course it isn’t easy finding a good life class to join, my old college holds two weekly afternoon/evening classes and both are well patronised by all accounts - a good place to start as I’m sure many colleges will be offering this.
Another possibility is to encourage your local art group to hold more classes, even if one of the members has to sit for a couple of hours!
And I’ve done it myself on many occasions…not easy!
Failing that, and this is the advice Sylvia always comes out with… sit yourself down in front of a mirror and just draw what you see!
Good advice on the link above from Dawn, Hazel Soan explains how drawing the features of a face isn’t difficult if you follow some basic principles!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
I think the work I have seen is splendid. Eyes can be hard, but so can the mouth. Carry on in the same style. Do not digress! And then the eyes you so much worry about could be part of your style. I draw with a brush, the biggest I can use, boute an inch maybe… go down a little with fine detail.. do what suits you.