Opportunity of a lifetime, and get some fun out of it as well!

[Bend The Light]

I'll play...


Movember 1st by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

 

[Compaq]

Jake, this one was fun to do!

 

[Compaq]

That was hard, and this one isn't too good.

 

[Compaq]

Charles

 

[MLeeK]

I always manage to screw up posting pictures...

If this is just starting to do this you are going to do amazing with it. I don't even want to THINK about how horrific my first attempts were.
I don't have a shot of myself, but I have one of my son that will make a nice, basic portrait!
View attachment 15706

Here are a few of mine now. By the looks of these I am guessing you'll far surpass these easily!!! As for animals... I have done a few, but I TOTALLY SUCK at them. The hair gets me every time.

The middle one is drex from here.

 

[Compaq]

Holy hell! Those are superior to mine by far. Your hair is sooooo nice! And they are so contrasty! Mine are flat and boring. Are you using different kinds of pencils? I only have a B, and may be a little limited by that. I'm digging these. What tools are you using?

Man, I need to learn to draw hair!

I got some advice on a drawing forum. They said I need to start taking longer on the drawings, and focusing on sections of the reference at a time. Spending many hours in one drawing, and paying great attention to detail. Get the proportions right, and take my time. If I lose focus, then take a break and start again later with a fresh eye.

Also, I must admit, that drawing is much more rewarding than photography for me at this point in time. After each drawing I'm happy with, I get a sense of pride.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Can you do this pic with a slight glamor flare and leave the shirt junk plain?? This little girl would be VERY happy! She wanted to play with studio lights and we shot a few snapshots, she adores this one

 

[Compaq]

Could you repeat what a glamour glare is?

 

[MLeeK]

Holy hell! Those are superior to mine by far. Your hair is sooooo nice! And they are so contrasty! Mine are flat and boring. Are you using different kinds of pencils? I only have a B, and may be a little limited by that. I'm digging these. What tools are you using?

Man, I need to learn to draw hair!

I got some advice on a drawing forum. They said I need to start taking longer on the drawings, and focusing on sections of the reference at a time. Spending many hours in one drawing, and paying great attention to detail. Get the proportions right, and take my time. If I lose focus, then take a break and start again later with a fresh eye.

Also, I must admit, that drawing is much more rewarding than photography for me at this point in time. After each drawing I'm happy with, I get a sense of pride.

I have found that I really like charcoal for portraits and yes, I use several different pencils ranging from very hard to very soft. It does make a big difference. Believe me, you are doing really awesome. My first attempts were... well... they weren't stick people, but they probably could have been a whole lot better.

I also stop when I get frustrated and go back at another time. If you keep going when you get to that point you'll just make a mess for yourself.
Get a set of drawing pencils or drawing charcoals, a pink eraser, A GUMMY ERASER (like chewed gum, it's pliable) and a regular gum (brown) eraser plus a can of fixitif. Yes, that is spelled correctly. The gummy eraser is my friend!!! I use it for EVERYTHING!!! It can take up just a bit or a lot. If you need to ERASE use the gum eraser and/or the pink eraser. If you get down a layer you REALLY like spray it with fixitif. That makes it permanent so your hand won't blur it and it won't get picked up as you work on the next layer.

Graph paper underneath your drawing paper can help for now. Place a matching graph over the image you are working on. It will help you to get the outlines/basic features in place properly. After that it's a matter of the shading. Once you get your features in place correctly the shading will come pretty easily for you. Just remember that we aren't made up of lines-for the most part. Just shadows and highlights.

 

[MLeeK]

Oh, my trick for hair is to shade first in light layers and finish with the actual lines on the top layer! A white highlight pencil helps, but I use it sparingly. I did use it in the hair on the first drawing and the eyes of the last one.

 

[Compaq]

Holy hell! Those are superior to mine by far. Your hair is sooooo nice! And they are so contrasty! Mine are flat and boring. Are you using different kinds of pencils? I only have a B, and may be a little limited by that. I'm digging these. What tools are you using?

Man, I need to learn to draw hair!

I got some advice on a drawing forum. They said I need to start taking longer on the drawings, and focusing on sections of the reference at a time. Spending many hours in one drawing, and paying great attention to detail. Get the proportions right, and take my time. If I lose focus, then take a break and start again later with a fresh eye.

Also, I must admit, that drawing is much more rewarding than photography for me at this point in time. After each drawing I'm happy with, I get a sense of pride.

I have found that I really like charcoal for portraits and yes, I use several different pencils ranging from very hard to very soft. It does make a big difference. Believe me, you are doing really awesome. My first attempts were... well... they weren't stick people, but they probably could have been a whole lot better.

I also stop when I get frustrated and go back at another time. If you keep going when you get to that point you'll just make a mess for yourself.
Get a set of drawing pencils or drawing charcoals, a pink eraser, A GUMMY ERASER (like chewed gum, it's pliable) and a regular gum (brown) eraser plus a can of fixitif. Yes, that is spelled correctly. The gummy eraser is my friend!!! I use it for EVERYTHING!!! It can take up just a bit or a lot. If you need to ERASE use the gum eraser and/or the pink eraser. If you get down a layer you REALLY like spray it with fixitif. That makes it permanent so your hand won't blur it and it won't get picked up as you work on the next layer.

Graph paper underneath your drawing paper can help for now. Place a matching graph over the image you are working on. It will help you to get the outlines/basic features in place properly. After that it's a matter of the shading. Once you get your features in place correctly the shading will come pretty easily for you. Just remember that we aren't made up of lines-for the most part. Just shadows and highlights.

Thaaank yooouu!

I bought one of those gummy erases today. I've also got a pink eraser. What's the purpose of that brown gum eraser? And, I've read about a nifty contraption you use to smudge the shadows and layers, to make them more realistic. I've been using my fingers, but it's not exactly accurate. I keep rubbing it out of the outline, and then end up erasing that again, which leads to some ugly edges. I don't know what they are called. I will buy a set of charcoal pencils when the pay comes. Until then, I'll live with my trusted B pencil, hehe
Thank you again for great advice!

 

[MLeeK]

Thaaank yooouu!

I bought one of those gummy erases today. I've also got a pink eraser. What's the purpose of that brown gum eraser? And, I've read about a nifty contraption you use to smudge the shadows and layers, to make them more realistic. I've been using my fingers, but it's not exactly accurate. I keep rubbing it out of the outline, and then end up erasing that again, which leads to some ugly edges. I don't know what they are called. I will buy a set of charcoal pencils when the pay comes. Until then, I'll live with my trusted B pencil, hehe
Thank you again for great advice!

The brown gum eraser is much easier to get up a full layer if you want to than a pink gum.
I have done portraits with one hard pencil.
The smudge tools you are talking about look like a pencil but essentially they are paper. I rarely use one, I make a tip with my gum eraser and use that to push and pull shading around.
Be careful to lay soft layers that aren't going into the grain of your paper so you can work with them. You can also use the typical plain old school pencil-they're fairly soft usually and might be easier for you to shade with. Use the side of your pencil too!
You can also use hairspray as a fixatif. Aquanet is cheap as hell and the areosol can works nicely. Make sure the nozzel doesn't get clogged on it.

 

[Compaq]

Okay, so you have the gum erase (the stretchy one??), pink gum and brown gum. Which one did you use to pull shading around? The chewed one?

Never sprayer anything before Does it need to dry? I just spray and keep drawing?

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Can you do this pic with a slight glamor flare and leave the shirt junk plain?? This little girl would be VERY happy! She wanted to play with studio lights and we shot a few snapshots, she adores this one

Could you repeat what a glamour glare is?

uhmmm I typed glamor "FLare"...meaning more glamor-ish than cartoon-ish... sorry if its getting lost in the translation but would appreciate your magic on this one no matter how you do it =)

 

[MLeeK]

Okay, so you have the gum erase (the stretchy one??), pink gum and brown gum. Which one did you use to pull shading around? The chewed one?

Never sprayer anything before Does it need to dry? I just spray and keep drawing?

Yes. The gummy. I pull it to a rounded point and use it to pull and push.
Spray sparingly. Use it only when you have something you know you don't want to take back up or change and you don't want it to change while you are working more layers. Spray when finished. Let dry when you do spray.