The other day, I received my copy of Ann Kullberg's new book, "Colored Pencil Secrets for Success: How to Critique and Improve Your Paintings".
The reason that I bought this book, is because her book, "Colored Pencil Portraits" is one that really helped me to improve on my portraits. I still pull it out quite often to reference it while I'm working on a portrait. I would say that I have definitely gotten my money's worth out of that book. More than that, though, I got this book because I am always showing my work to my mom, and asking her to critique it for me. Someone else can always see something that you don't see. But, with this book, I hope to be able to learn to critique my own drawings, so that I don't always have to rely on my mom.
So, as a start....using a tip from the book, I have checked my cousin Greg's features and found where I am off.
If you look at all of the lines, you'll see that the red lines line up pretty well. The features seem to be placed correctly across his face. I think I may have his face a bit wide, so I might shave off some of his face on the left side of the drawing.
But take a look at the yellow lines. (You can see better if you click on the picture to view it larger). If you follow the lines across from the drawing to the reference photo (and I actually did this backwards, I should have had the photo on the left and the drawing on the right) you'll see that I have my cousin's eyes up to high. And his nose and his mouth are also placed slightly higher than in the photo.
So now I know what I need to do to correct the likeness of this cousin. I hope to have some time to work on it tomorrow, but we have to help my fiance's family move tomorrow, so I may not. I did, however, take a couple of days off next week, where I will try to catch some things up around the house, and this drawing should get some attention in that time. I'd like to finish it because my aunt is coming into town, and it would be nice for her to see it, and maybe take it home with her if her transportation allows.
On another note....my wedding shoes came in! I ordered them from Famous Footwear (to assure that I would get a nice clean brand spanking new pair that had never been tried on before). Aren't they pretty???
I apologize for the picture quality. I completed this portrait on Monday night at my grandmother's house, so that my aunt could take it home with her on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home, and had to take this picture using my mom's camera, in dim lighting. But I suppose it's ok, because I got good pictures of the progress, so you were able to see most of the detail. The cloud in the middle is not nearly as bright as it is in the photo. My aunt was happy with it, and promised to send me a picture of it when she gets it hung on the wall. I look forward to that.
If you look at all of the lines, you'll see that the red lines line up pretty well. The features seem to be placed correctly across his face. I think I may have his face a bit wide, so I might shave off some of his face on the left side of the drawing.
Do you see it? That distinct line, darker blue on the right, lighter blue on the left? Well, that used to be an even shade of blue. I had the reference picture for my oldest cousin clipped there, and the easel happens to sit close to a window. This is a lightfast issue. Some of the colored pencils are not lightfast, and they fade when exposed to light. You do not want to hang colored pencil artwork in direct light. (Or any artwork, for that matter....)
