Portrait Practice - Please Critique

sonosilens 2017-06-17 21:12:16 UTC #1

Hello! (First post here!) Here is a practice portrait I created! The reference photo can be found here. I am starting work on another portrait, so I would appreciate any advice that I can apply to that one. Thank you in advance!

cstephens4 2017-06-18 21:00:01 UTC #2

I like your control of values and color! The handling of the eyes make them look a little flat though. You could try rendering spheres in monochrome and take what you learn from that experience and put that into rendering eyes and other round forms. Keep it up!

four1 2017-06-19 20:01:50 UTC #3

Hi!

Great start! I found this John Asaro head to be incredibly helpful reference when rendering the face. It's not a prefect lighting match to yours, but for definite the key planes and gauging relative value on those planes, it's gold. There's probably a good 3D one out there that you can orbit around...

Best of luck!

ESL 2017-06-19 20:55:19 UTC #4

Hey, great start! Seems like the proportions are pretty on point, which is good.
I'd try turning it into a black/white image so you can utilize the reference @four1 sent you above! It'll help to understand the planes of the face and use them to light the face. Good luck!

sonosilens 2017-06-22 15:04:10 UTC #5

cstephens4, thanks! I knew something was wrong with the eyes, but I wasn't sure what. That is a good idea to practice on spheres.

sonosilens 2017-06-22 15:06:06 UTC #6

@ESL I did originally render it in grayscale, but the reference from @four1 will help enormously, so it looks less flat. Thanks guys!