This is iLoveNantes's art thread!

[IloveNantes]

Firstly, my name is now spelled with a lowercase 'i', not an uppercase! So shut up on that, mm'kay.

Anyways, here is a portrait I did of Colin Firth after one and a half months of not drawing and instead reading from an art book, because some assholes on Deviantart tried to make me quit for good. Curse those low-lifes.

"She is not handsome enough to tempt me... barely tolerable." BLAH! Anybody that reads that book and loves it is a total tool.

[IloveNantes]

Added: I lost interest so didn't shade everything else and didn't care that the hand was disproportionate, sorry! :(

[Fifty-50]

I have to say this portrait is quite a decent piece of work Nantes. (I know there's another user named Nantes but what the hell.) The crosshatching looks rather lovely, but it would have been at better detail if you were able to use a pen. The strokes need to be a bit thinner and cleaner but that's okay, practicing will get on that.

[IloveNantes]

At 8/30/11 04:54 PM, Fifty-50 wrote: I have to say this portrait is quite a decent piece of work Nantes. (I know there's another user named Nantes but what the hell.) The crosshatching looks rather lovely, but it would have been at better detail if you were able to use a pen. The strokes need to be a bit thinner and cleaner but that's okay, practicing will get on that.

Well, thanks for that! I'll work on that, but honestly, I'm terrible with a pen. I always make the ends of the lines the same thickness and I used a prismacolor pen with the thinnest tip. It ran out of ink though.... :(

And dear god, look at this. LOOK AT IT.

[DemocracyFTW]

At 8/30/11 05:30 PM, IloveNantes wrote:

And dear god, look at this. LOOK AT IT.

The hair seems to sit a bit high, and the chin a bit big. If you are referencing these, could you link us to the picture you're using? It'd help out a bunch.

[IloveNantes]

At 8/30/11 09:10 PM, DemocracyFTW wrote:

At 8/30/11 05:30 PM, IloveNantes wrote:

And dear god, look at this. LOOK AT IT.

The hair seems to sit a bit high, and the chin a bit big. If you are referencing these, could you link us to the picture you're using? It'd help out a bunch.

That's an old sketch--the one at the top is my updated sketch. Here's the reference.

[IloveNantes]

I'm apparently still horrible with full-view portraits... I tried doing one today and it was very badly done, the anatomy was awkward and the face skewed. Any idea how to avoid that?

[J-qb]

At 8/31/11 05:36 PM, IloveNantes wrote: I'm apparently still horrible with full-view portraits... I tried doing one today and it was very badly done, the anatomy was awkward and the face skewed. Any idea how to avoid that?

What do you mean with full-view? What I tend to do is take relative measurements; see what the size of different parts are (i.e jaw is as wide as the outsides of the eyes) or what stuff lies on lines (i.e. the inner side of the right eyebrow is right above the side of the right nostril) etc.

[J-qb]

Also: please post stuff you draw in here, even if it didn't work out the way you wanted it.

[Kumakun4]

I think you've been told a lot to use guides in your previous threads but, no matter how much I darken your image, I don't see any. This would probably really help you. Any artist worth his salt would tell you that to jump into details right away is a big error because you lose sight of the bigger picture.
Sketch out rougle the shape of his skull, where his eyes are, his nose, width of his chin, cheekbones, etc etc.
Then, once you feel you've got everything placed more-or-less correctly, then and only then can begin to add details like hair texture and clothes folds and hatching.
I understand it's hard to illustrate this so I've gone a head and shown you with a basic framework how you made his skull too vertically long and jutted his face out too far forward.
It's the kind of mistake you could avoid with just a bit of underlying framework.
Hope this helps.

P.S. Glad to see you haven't left any hateful reviews since you came back :D

[Kumakun4]

At 8/31/11 07:23 PM, Kumakun4 wrote: Sketch out rougle the shape of his skull

I just... wow.
I don't even know where that came from.

rougle.

I meant roughly. Roughly.

[IloveNantes]

At 8/31/11 07:23 PM, Kumakun4 wrote:

I changed my ways. I decided that hateful reviews weren't really going to get me anywhere if it wasn't deserved, and besides, I'd get literally hundreds of pageviews on Deviantart for posting scathing criticism on people's artwork and no matter how true it was, people'd always come back to the age-old comeback that my art was shitty. I think the portrait I did in my OP is a really good one for what I'm capable of doing right now but it took me unrealistically long to complete it, I had to spend seven hours on the face alone. :/ Now I see the problems with it, I feel like a fool.

And I know, I know... I have been trying to use guidelines, but I always make the eyes too small to fit in the second line's space, the nose too big, and the lips too far down the last line. It's very frustrating. I've also been trying with the 'don't rush details' thing, but... :( I don't know what to do. I have talent, sure, but I don't know how to handle it the right way so I've been stuck for a year now ever since I began drawing. Everything looks flat and ugly.

Oh, and here it is for forgotten-name's-request... :/

[IloveNantes]

Also, I DO use guidelines, I use a 2H pencil and erase them when I'm done. Is that bad?

[IloveNantes]

Elizabeth Garvie, or whatever her name is. Some insignificant British lady. Did this in under a hour and half, pretty much just a sketch, and I'm not particularly proud of it. But at least now you can see the guidelines even if it's not very obvious, as I used a HB pencil this time.

Here's the reference.

[Ramatsu]

At 9/1/11 05:17 PM, IloveNantes wrote: Elizabeth Garvie, or whatever her name is. Some insignificant British lady. Did this in under a hour and half, pretty much just a sketch, and I'm not particularly proud of it. But at least now you can see the guidelines even if it's not very obvious, as I used a HB pencil this time.

Are you gonna finish it? I'm liking the outcome of it so far. Please tell me your not done with it.

[IloveNantes]

At 9/1/11 05:33 PM, Ramatsu wrote: Are you gonna finish it? I'm liking the outcome of it so far. Please tell me your not done with it.

Gaaahhh, I may, however the hair will be long to do. Doable, but long and boring. And there's still some mistakes on the lips and the right eye. At least it actually looks like she's tilting her head to a slight angle....

[mega-supreme]

love the last one, you should really finish it.

[IloveNantes]

Since everybody on NG and Facebook wanted me to finish it (I have no idea why, though), I gave it major tweaks and shaded the hair, the face, and everything else.

This is Elizabeth Bennet, as played by some British lady with a very interesting face. I made her prettier here, obviously. The face isn't proportionate, but some of that lies in the fact that she's looking up slightly. Spent about two or three hours on it, and I remember my last attempt at this lady's face ended up into me cursing loudly at the paper... it was horrible. Then I realized that if I went into Paint and figured out the guidelines for the reference's head, I might have a better chance at doing it well the next time... and I guess it worked. I like the hair more than the face.

Oh, and it's marked '80 because that's when the show was made.

[IloveNantes]

Whysomangry

Download/Read this

http://www.ryman.org/currentstudents/pdf docs/Loomi s.head-hands.pdf

Read the entire thing, DO NOT SKIP ANYTHING.

Come back a much much much better artist.

You're welcome.

[someplaceelse]

You can't become a better artist by reading a book.

You have to use your own observations and practice, the book will only give you advice.

[IloveNantes]

Yeah, I know.

[Ramatsu]

I wish I could draw more realistically, well I can but I find it tedious and I lose all interest in drawing it before you can actually make out the figure. I praise anyone working in that style. I tend to stay with the non-realistic stuff. I epically fail, but kudos to you miss. I like how that picture came out, do you ever put color in any? I would like to see that :).

[IloveNantes]

At 9/4/11 02:45 PM, Ramatsu wrote: I wish I could draw more realistically, well I can but I find it tedious and I lose all interest in drawing it before you can actually make out the figure. I praise anyone working in that style. I tend to stay with the non-realistic stuff. I epically fail, but kudos to you miss. I like how that picture came out, do you ever put color in any? I would like to see that :).

Thanks! And nope, I haven't done that because I suck with Prismacolors and my rolling smudge paper thingy doesn't work well with those pencils. No idea why.

[IloveNantes]

Studied Loomis's book all day long for about six hours straight, here's the eye part. It wasn't too hard to do, I guess, but I still need practice.

[IloveNantes]

Here's the mouths! I had fun doing some of them. I'm still having some difficulty placing the teeth and outline of the lip folds, though.

[mega-supreme]

how do you do teeth? i can never get it right. Do you have any tips or something?

[IloveNantes]

At 9/4/11 09:23 PM, mega-supreme wrote: how do you do teeth? i can never get it right. Do you have any tips or something?

If you're looking to do them realistically, first rough out the basic jawbones, then where the teeth are, and then do your thing, and... you know what? They're often too in-depth. Well, I solved that problem by letting the gums indicate the thin lines between the teeth. Honestly, it wasn't hard for me at all, and I can't really explain it too well but refer to the ending of page 49 of the aforementioned book.

[IloveNantes]

Is it bad that I'm not seeking to acquire a new style right now?

[IloveNantes]

I think I found my style, even if it's pretty generic....

Had fun doing this. Doesn't mean I'll give up my sweet assortment of pretty, historical things.

[Ramatsu]

At 9/4/11 10:54 PM, IloveNantes wrote: Is it bad that I'm not seeking to acquire a new style right now?

It is not bad at all just find new ways of acquiring ways of improving the one you use now.as long as you can stay motivated and interested in what you do. ( cheesy wise-man words.)