Mage Portrait...Please lock

Post by **vonHalenbach** » November 29th, 2007, 4:45 pm

xer wrote:Hmm, I wonder if vector graphics would look nicer that bitmap.

For me it is easier to use a vector drawing program, but for you it would be better in my opinion to look what other artists do and if it is decent work then simply try to emulate it to get a feeling or the eyes/view for portrait making.
Read all available hints and documentations to the subject, which were provided for you by our artists. You need to work some more on your skills, which takes time. You should invest this time, if you really want to be able to draw better.

In the beginning, it is quite hard, because you will fail alot. Start over and over again, until you get better. When you get better, it will be easier for you, because you will fail less and have more fun.

Unnheulu · Post by **Unnheulu** » November 29th, 2007, 5:17 pm

Ok, I'm trying again, started off as a a vector, but I changed it to a bitmap and started working from there.

I havn't got round to giving him arms/accessories yet, but I will after.

Also there is definetly something wrong with his face that maes me want to laugh.

Shadow · Post by **Shadow** » November 29th, 2007, 5:23 pm

Sometimes I ask myself why I'm even trieing it.

Unnheulu · Post by **Unnheulu** » November 29th, 2007, 5:23 pm

So no good again?

Shadow · Post by **Shadow** » November 29th, 2007, 5:24 pm

What do you think?

Post by **Iris** » November 29th, 2007, 5:28 pm

Self-criticism is the way to start, dude.

ShikadiQueen · Post by **ShikadiQueen** » November 29th, 2007, 5:33 pm

Think for a moment, xer. What do you think is actually not good enough, and doesn't allow your work to be compared to the greatness of current mainline portraits?

Unnheulu · Post by **Unnheulu** » November 29th, 2007, 5:33 pm

What exactly is it that needs improvment?

Unnheulu · Post by **Unnheulu** » November 29th, 2007, 5:36 pm

ShikadiLord wrote:Think for a moment, xer. What do you think is actually not good enough, and doesn't allow your work to be compared to the greatness of current mainline portraits?

Easy, it looks all squished up, strange expressions, not all the body parts yet, and much more.

Thats why I need advice on getting it to look right.

Post by **Iris** » November 29th, 2007, 5:38 pm

Jetryl wrote:On the more polite, serious end of things; we appreciate your interest in contributing, xer, but you basically don't know how to draw. We need a professional level of drawing; we can't grandfather in mediocre work. However, anyone, and yes, this includes you, can learn to draw very well.

Drawing is not something that a person has natural, mind-blowing skill at from the outset. You can't just decide you're going to draw, having never really done it before, and expect to churn out something decent. Even neoriceisgood was at precisely your level of skill at one point in time, but he draws all the time, and that's what changed it. The same is rapidly happening with wayfarer. It can be done, but it is not something you do casually - it's a deep, involved skill, just like playing piano or guitar. It has to be a hobby of yours that you put some significant time into.

If you want to learn to draw, your first step is to clear your brain of all your preconceived notions about what things look like. That figure you drew doesn't look like a person; a lot of the features, you are drawing according to "rules" you have in your head about how they look. For example, you're thinking to yourself that the side of the hood curves, and thus you're drawing it curving away from the face in a wide arc, even though from the side, it should actually be hanging straight down, and the whole side of the face should be covered by it. People tend to get a lot of rules like this in their head, and this is why so many people can't draw.

Drawing, in fact, doesn't work like that at all. A lot of people think that learning to draw means amassing a huge list of "recipes" for "this is how you draw X." Drawing is actually a much more general skill, and any rules of thumb you come up with are never going to be right the first time. So, do try to form a lot of hypotheses, but don't hold on to them very tightly at all. The crux of this is that you need to free your mind to see things as they really are.

The best advice I can give you at this point in your skillset is this - There's a great book called "drawing on the right side of the brain". It's a bit cliche, but it does actually have some quite revolutionary, and more importantly, correct ideas to it. Grab a copy, and it can open the big, scary, first gate to "learning how to draw".

Unnheulu · Post by **Unnheulu** » November 29th, 2007, 5:43 pm

Maybe I'll try something else...

Shadow · Post by **Shadow** » November 29th, 2007, 5:47 pm

Or grab a photo and try to copy it.
It is hard to give hints if you just started drawing serious.

Post by **zookeeper** » November 29th, 2007, 6:38 pm

Grab a photo of a person (almost any decent-quality photo will do), then try to draw it yourself. Make sure that every line you draw actually looks like that same line in the photo. If it goes wrong, keep fixing it until it's good.

I'll humour everyone and give this brief example (the attached image). I took this photo, and tried to redraw it (freehand brushing with a mouse). I managed this much in about two minutes. Yet if you look at the photo, you'll see that about every possible line I've drawn is actually wrong and not like the ones in the photo. So, I should have simply used a lot more time on it (maybe an hour, maybe two, maybe more) until I got it right. As long as it's obviously clear that I can do better just by using more time on it, I should do so. Only at the point at which I don't know how I can improve the picture by spending more time on it should I consider it finished (or, perhaps, even ask for advice).

If you ask what's wrong with your latest image, then the answer is simple: a real human doesn't look like that. His right eye should appear smaller than the left. His arm shouldn't be one third of his torso in length, and start from the height of his chest. His face shouldn't widen upwards. He should have a neck. And so on, and so on. You can spot all of these if you just pay attention and look carefully at, for example, a photo of a real person. When drawing something like this, you must try to replicate the proportions and features very accurately, not just draw something which a human eye recognizes to be representing a person.

Post by **vonHalenbach** » November 29th, 2007, 6:42 pm

Can someone lock this thread? I think we will not see much progress from xer in the foreseable future. He has to go and do some serious learning, before posting again.

scienceguy8 · Post by **scienceguy8** » November 29th, 2007, 6:44 pm

Who is that a photograph of? She kind of looks like Rachel Luttrell, an actress from Stargate Atlantis.