Drawing Process

[NinjaPandaK]

Hellllooooooooooooo
soo ive been away quite some time >_> lol life has been quite busy and stuff
but things seem to be back to normal now! Ive began drawing again, and have started practicing my shading!! I only started 2 days ago lol, and this is my 2nd drawing

So i wanted to show everyone, the steps to my drawing, and i would love some critique on the shading, drawing, everything basically, so i can improve further!

Step 1!
I more or less line out my drawing, i don't really sketch it roughly out so much, all my lines stay pretty precise and i kinda know what i want to draw before drawing the line, this usually takes 15-30 min, depending on what i am drawing




Step 2!
Basic shading of parts i want some shade on them or places i feel like there should be shading, hair, certain body parts.. etc




Step 3!
I go in a lil darker, as it starts to look more like the finish product




Step 4!
I sit and look at the drawing for awhile lol and just fix up or add more shading to certain areas and keep looking until I'm happy pretty much lol




Step 5!
When I'm happy with the drawing, I scan it into my computer and begin to erase and clear out all unnecessary smudging, mainly where my hand was rested or where i accidently smudged with my fingers lol, and then i give the drawing a lil touch up and Im done!




This whole process takes about 2-3hrs lol which i think is quite a long time for something so small.. but I'm only starting out so i will be patient and hope that i get faster and faster as i get better! haha

Any tips or help will be greatly appreciated!! ^_^

[Coy]

I'll give you my honest feedback. I'm not here to hender you in any way but to hopefully help you out.

I think your shading for starting out is ok... I see alot of areas where the gradiations need to be fine tuned a bit.. like the arm with the cig in the hand and the bottom of the hair is much to dark IMO..

I think you need to work on the hands some but hands are really hard to draw.. but we do have someone that posted a tutorial that may help you with that. How to draw a human hand ..

The face is really bright compaired to the rest of the drawing and could use some shading it just stands out and feels a bit flat.. adding some good shading to the nose would also help it look less like it's broken or off center.
here is a link to a post with some tutorials on eye it may help them pop a little more maybe? drawing eyes. as they are just a bit lifeless.

I do like the highlight or "sheen" from the hair that you did and think the type of blending you used there could really help if done throughout the entire drawing.

I usually don't draw people cause I'm really critical about it exspecially for myself.. Out of maybe 100 real life people type drawings I have drawn; I've only been please with may one or two.

keep up the good work and keep at it.

[NinjaPandaK]

I'll give you my honest feedback. I'm not here to hender you in any way but to hopefully help you out.

I think your shading for starting out is ok... I see alot of areas where the gradiations need to be fine tuned a bit.. like the arm with the cig in the hand and the bottom of the hair is much to dark IMO..

I think you need to work on the hands some but hands are really hard to draw.. but we do have someone that posted a tutorial that may help you with that. How to draw a human hand ..

The face is really bright compaired to the rest of the drawing and could use some shading it just stands out and feels a bit flat.. adding some good shading to the nose would also help it look less like it's broken or off center.
here is a link to a post with some tutorials on eye it may help them pop a little more maybe? drawing eyes. as they are just a bit lifeless.

I do like the highlight or "sheen" from the hair that you did and think the type of blending you used there could really help if done throughout the entire drawing.

I usually don't draw people cause I'm really critical about it exspecially for myself.. Out of maybe 100 real life people type drawings I have drawn; I've only been please with may one or two.

keep up the good work and keep at it.

Thanks a bunch! this is exactly the kind of feedback i was looking for its hard to improve when everyone else i have showed, just says it good.. etc lol
yeah portraits are really difficult, i purposely left the face unshaded in this one, and i dont remember why nemore lol but at the time i was drawin it looked like a good idea ^^ haha

i think the hands are the hardest part of a portrait and i try to avoid them as much as possible :P haha but yeah the proportions are off with the fingers

do u know of any good shading tutorials, that talk about direction of light? shadows etc?

thanks alot for the help, hints and tips )))

[Coy]

on thing I try to do when shading and finding a light point. Is simply make a small dot where I want the sun/light direction from then in your mind deside is it behind or infront. or even directly beside the image.
You can image or even light sketch small arrows helping you see the direction..

I'll see if I can find a good tut for you.