[quaternion]

I tried to paint Sophie Ellis-Bextor from reference. I'll better not attatch the reference here to avoid copyright issues, but here's the URL (Wallpapergate):
http://www.wallpapergate.com/data/media/880/Sophie_Ellis_Bextor_001.jpg

How could I improve, and how could I improve the picture?

Q.

[quaternion]

Hi there,

if I want to make a portrait of someone like Sophie Ellis-Bextor, is it "the wrong way to work" to put the ref pic beneath the painting and to help with the lines this way? Because I feel that this is a fun way to work, and it gets me relatively fast-paced results. I also feel it's more fun doing the shading, because that gives things shape. I don't know if I actually make progress technically working this way, but I think so. I guess it does teach one how to draw noses, lips, eyes etc.

What do you think? Is that a lazy way to work, or is it OK if I make technical studies from time to time (which I do, I use a book by Burne Hogarth)?

Q.

[ninmonkeys]

(I'm a newbie, here's my $0.02)

My first thought is the reference is compressed a lot, artifacts making it hard to learn from it.

It looks like you could use a larger, more opaque brush to place the values down. Then after that, you can use a smaller more transparent one.