[tilokani]

I used reference for the face from an entertainment magazine, and played around. Just pencils and a stomp, no other contraptions used.


Well, the mouth is messed, but other than that, C+C?
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girls like shining

[MoleculeMan]

I like the way you drew the back, but it otherwise doesn't look like laura flyn boyle (or however you spell it). whenever you do any more portraits, you should test it by covering the name at the bottom of the portrait and then asking someone who that is (if they are famous). If they don't know, you need to go back through and pick out the features that make them distinct. It doesn't have to look exactly like them if you are able to capture their distinct qualities. I woudl always reccomend (more!) drawing classes to anyone as well.
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Jake A.

[tilokani]

Well, you see, the picture of the face of which I used the reference from, that picture itself didn't look like "her" and yeah, I already mentioned the face was off.
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girls like shining

[Thanatos]

Try not to work from photographs if you're just beginning to learn to shade and draw. Think of it this way, you have two eyes... Cameras have in effect one eye. When you close one eye you lose sense of depth. Cameras take a 3d image and makes it 2d. If you copy from a photograph you're going from 2d to 2d, so it's likely the result of your drawing will also look flat. No model? Buy a mirror and do load of self-portraits. They're very healthy for you.

Other than that...

I'm not fond of the heavy black outline, but that's just a matter of personal taste.

Something my art teacher always tells his beginning drawing student is, "Don't be afraid of the dark." When you push the contrast on your drawings they'll really begin to pop and have a nice sense of depth. Another thing is to remember is try to get a full range of value. It looks like you layed down a value and then smudged it with your finger. By doing that you lose your values and the picture can look "dirty".

If you really don't want to do a self portrait from the mirror, or you're really interested in drawing famous people I suggest you find a photograph with a good light source and cast shadows. You'll never learn anything useful about rendering doing timid drawings like this.

Try to take this post with an open mind, I'm not trying to be mean or evil at all. Challenging yourself is the best way to get better. Your ability to take criticism is also crucial too.

Um so yeah... Time to go back to lurking.

edit- Nooooo! I'm a Junior member again! Le-sigh.

[Fafnir]

"ah! what was that?"
"you sat on lara flynn boyle..."
"..heh, i have a boyle on my ass"
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blah