[dalickwid aka Magdalena R]

okay...here is the picture:


here is my humble attempt at reproducing it:


which fails horribly...i made her look like a battered spouse

the challenge is...i consider myself a comic book penciller...so i tried to reproduce the beauty of this girl's face as close to the photo as possible using ONLY discrete pencil lines...though granted i did use marks of different tonal values ^_^;;;...but i was just curious cuz i know there's a lot of skill on this forum...could one of you reproduce this girl's face using only lines so that it's as beautiful as the photo?...i mean...relatively speaking i guess...it's hard to explain and i realize it's not possible to get it exact using only discreet lines and beauty is relative...but there's just a certain something about her face that's really awesome and i was just curious as to if it's even POSSIBLE to capture all of the important visual information about her face that makes her beautiful and represent it with only lines...could someone help me out...i just want to know it's possible...and could you show a zoomed out and a zoomed in version so that i can see how you did it? it doesn't matter how many hatch marks you make or how big you work...i just want to see if it's possible and marvel at the fact that someone was capable of doing it...please id appreciate it!!!...thanks

-Brandon

[ February 11, 2002: Message edited by: dalickwid ]

[CyberArtist]

May I start first by saying ... *prrr...*



Photoshop, partially a trace job, but you get the idea.

[Lunatique]

If you are concentrating in comics, you should be well acquainted with the various talents in the industry? Just one visit to the comic book shop, and you'll be bombarded with awesome art that can easily represent the kind of look/style you are shooting for.

[jasonN]

Sorry, I don't consider myself good enough with the pencil to reproduce something like that.
But OMG she is beautiful....
What's her name? I wanna find more pics of her!

[turnip]

That's Rachael Leigh Cook
Was trying to draw her the other day.

Is it rachael? she has the eyes definitely, and the lips too.

[Lunatique]

That can't be Rachel. Rachel is not that tall, and her face not that long. Take a closer look.

This girl looks like your average stunning fashion/glamour model.

[java]

Her name is Kate Groombridge .. and yeah, she is stunning

[Frog]

Here's a sample from a character I'm working on at the moment, she's going to be a virtual TV presenter, at the moment she is still at the rough stage.



I like to create very clean line drawings when I'm going for this particular style, and how I go about it is by getting lots of reference, form magazines and the net etc... When creating a character I usually amalgamate several diferent faces, picking features I like from each. Doing a strait likeness is a diferent task, to which there is only one approach: observation.

I learnt to draw likenesses by simply getting my friends to pose for me and sketching them with pen and paper, it takes time to get good but if you do it a lot you should make progress within a few months. You just jave to learn to look really hard, that's the only trick. Once you can do it from life photos will be easy.

For the rendering of my "clean" drawings I draw with a Wacom in illustrator, it gives the cleanest lines whilst still having a hand drawn feel. The other major benefit is that you can still edit the lines as vectors, which is great for tweaking details. I'll do the preliminary sketch on paper, fairly loose and rough and then "ink" it in illustrator. I spend a lot of time fiddling with the lines until the face is attractive enough for my tastes.

[dalickwid aka Magdalena R]

cool cyberartist!...her face looks a little wide in yours though...but id rather you guys not just trace over the pic on a computer...heh...i mean i could do that myself...hell i could just put the picture through a photoshop filter and make it look like it was hand drawn for that matter...that defeats the whole purpose of proving that it's HUMANLY possible to do this...thanks so much for giving me her name though i was wondering what it was so i could get more pics of her too...so...anyone else?

-Brandon

[BooMSticK]

okay, this is a very rough sketch... But I think it illustrates well what I like to do when I draw in a comix-style.

I try and find the interesting lines, simplify ie. loose those lines that really doens't add to your image. Find the light vs. shadow areas and make it as graphic as possible while still maintaining a feel for form etc. And then simplify some more...
Also, I think about curved vs. straight lines. And when using a photo ref like here I deliberately try to capture the essence of the pose, adding atmosphere and drama, which is just about totally absent in photos like this imho, anyway.

Also think about this... Do you really want to draw this figure again and again thoughout a whole comicbook? Trying to go in realistic approach is probably not the best way for yourself, when speed and continuity matters... Allways tell yourself to simplify!

...Hope just a little bit of this can help you.
,boom

[swampbug]

Boom.. really cool perspective liberties you took... I like

[gutsack]

How about this? Just keep it simple. When rendering girls in the comic style you only need to hint things. Simple crosshatching will do. Hope it helps.

[CyberArtist]

Dalickwid - My use of both photoshop and tracing was for two reasons. First off, to show a possible method of drawing her face using only descrete lines. Secondly, I still suck at drawing humans on my tablet, so I'd much rather draw it in pencil, but my scanner isn't hooked up, and the geometry on the monitor I'm using is all f'ed up so I would have to print out the picture too, and my printer isn't hooked up. (I'm in limbo at the momment between moves and jobs.) Besides, it saves time. Anything that can be traced can be drawn.

I think both Frog and gutsack just prooved that last point for me with their posts.

As for her face looking too wide, oddly, it's actually slightly thinner than her real face. Thick lines and lack of shading can really change the way one percives width.

[BlackPool]

Well I don't really know if this is what you were wanting or not, but here is my quick attempt with a dull pencil:

[dalickwid aka Magdalena R]

WOW...those are awesome...blackpool's is the closest...but it's just missing something...like she looks like she's smiling a bit in yours blackpool...i hope you guys don't take offense or anything at me critiquing your pics like this...but...im still looking for the perfect reproduction of her face...im so sorry i hope you're not mad at me...and i have really enjoyed all of your pieces...and cyberartist, i understand that whatever can be traced can be drawn, but i kinda wanted one of the masters on this forum to wow me with their own skill at just eyeballing the pic and reproducing it while still only using discrete lines...heh ^_^;;;;...oh but in answer to your question yeah you all do have the right idea of what im looking for...in the discrete line comic style drawings and stuff...ill try to just say what i was looking for again...

im basically wondering...if it's possible for someone to reproduce the face of the girl in this photo by hand...using only discrete pencil lines...like...the exact image in the photo...expression and everything...facial proportions...just like...so that it's kind of a caricature of the face in this picture...argh...it's so hard to explain...but you guys seem to have the right idea...it's just im sort of looking for perfection i guess...in the reproduction of the features and proportions and shapes...and it's a hard thing to do from this photo because the proportions are so small...but...thanks so much for all your help so far guys i appreciate you helping me out in this selfish curiosity i have ^_^;;;

[J-D Leon]

my turn...
this pic took me forever. cuz the scanner really not working for me. so i have to do soo much clean up.

and here WE GO.!! if u dont satisfy. i will do it again.....!!!!!!

http://somsay.8m.com/bika.jpg

http://somsay.8m.com/bika2.JPG

icq 5374812
/******************************************* http://www.fortunecity.de/anlagen/yacht/232/
*******************************************/

[surferboi]

btw did shane glines forum go down or his webpage?

[BlackPool]

Ok, I see where your comming from now. To answer your qustion, yes it is possible. But here's the irony: When you reproduce a face (which has no hard edges) with lines, it simply will not give you the exact same impression of that person as does the picture for obvious reasons. In reality we see shades, tones, colors, values that all play an important part in what our eyes base our recognition of not just people, but everything on. And here is something else to think about, the fewer the lines you use, the more abstract your interpretation becomes and the more people your drawing will look like. Try this if you have Photoshop and reduce the picture to a line drawing. I think you will be suprised at how little this drawing looks like this woman. Then use your masking tooks and remove lines until you have just enough for it to still be recognisable and you will find that it now has only a vague resemblence.

When we look at a line drawing say in a comic book and intantly recognise it at a particular person, it is more then that the artist got the lines at the right angles. This is key-- The artist captures what we most remember about that person from seeing them in motion.

However, I must add something else here. That is it is still subjective. An illustration--particularly a line drawing--may look like someone in particular to you, but it simply doesn't mean it will look like that person to everyone.

So what is there left for the artists to do when thier work can be misinterpreted no matter how dead on they are with a copy? Nothing but allow your own personal interpretation of the subject come out and when you feel that you have expressed yourself adequatly, then move on.

So to answer your question yes it is possible, but the results will not be what you are expecting I don't think.

[dalickwid aka Magdalena R]

hmmm...you might be right...i never considered that...but JD Leon's is closer somehow...it seems like he got the proportions right...it's just...her jawline seems more curved on either side to me...whereas his is more straight...argh...i think in theory it should be possible to put as many lines there so that ANYONE would get the same impression of her face from the line drawing as they did from the photo...it's the same principle as what caricature artists use...you just have to pick out that important visual information...then just...exagerrate it...argh...it's hard...

like in cyberartist's...since he traced i can tell that the proportions are really close to the original face...but the way he's done the line weights...there's too much of the whites of her eyes showing...and on both sides...that's not how it is in the original pic...plus the lines are a little shaky and it probably helps that her face is framed by her dark hair...im gonna have a go at this again myself soon

[J-D Leon]

let me clear this out.
i did no tracing !

i drew this on paper and i scan it.
but because the quality of the scaner, i had to clean the dirty pixel all over the image. that took me like 2 hours.

i am pretty sure that i can do it better..
but there is something stopping me doing so.

anyways i think that the picture i drew worth 80% and the other 20% is because i coudln't & didn't find a good way to express that deapth at the area between her noce and lips...

try it again. i wanna to see how u do

[dalickwid aka Magdalena R]

ill try to find time to draw it again but right now im busy with school...someone on shaneglines's board (where i got the pic from) drew her though and he did a bang up job...take a looksie