Given your past work, I think it's understandable to skip a few points in this second round. Those are nice exercices, you got the main structure from all angles.
Yeah I'm just mainly trying to get to the point where I left off while still reviewing all the previous stuff to refresh my memory and get the juices flowing again.
Oy those are all very nicely rendered! The eyes are captivating.
Yup as artist we are always learning something new even if we have learned it before you never stop learning which honestly can feel very daunting haha
@daceronine Thank you! I do enjoy drawing eyes on most days... I say most since sometimes my hands dont know how to eye, but it's all good xP
@uggievang Yeah... there are even times where I'll watch a guide or tip video on youtube and I'll be like "Damn ok so that's how it's supposed to be drawn" even though I already am pretty decent at drawing said thing... it's like I'm learning but not at the same time ahaha...
Term 2 - Anatomy 1, Part 3
Assignment 4: Draw the full head with shading when comfortable
This one was drawn from memory so the planes of the face could be incorrect in some parts. I tried using a hard brush with no opacity to fully try and understand the plane changes that are happening in the face.
I will be stopping my lessons for a bit and will be doing a bunch of drawings of just heads for a little bit to fully understand the planes of the face and the expressions of the eyes and mouth. Will be studying hair as well. I want to really get it down this time before I move onto the other lessons.
Looks good! Can't really see any glaring faults at all. Shading is really nice looking too.
@daceronine Thank you! I tried my best xP
Term 2 - Anatomy 1, Part 4
Yearly Redraw
Since I'm on the topic of portraits and the anatomy of the head, I decided to do another redraw of a portrait that I have been doing over the past few years. First attempt was back in 2017 at the end of my middle school years. Time sure does fly...
I think there was a noticeable improvement in all of the redraws, but this year I don't think there was any improvement between 2022 and 2024. It's to be expected though since I was away from drawing for quite a while, but it's good to see that I'm starting to regain the skills that I've had previously!
Not sure i agree with your assessment. I am seeing more detailed shading on the structures of the ears, better representation of the volumes on the cheek, better details on eyes and lips, more voluminozatiom of the glabella and nasal mound and better use of value (you are starting to go darker). I would double check to see of you can add some lighter highlights for my dynamic range in value, but its definitely improving
Cheers
Edit: forgot to mention my observations. Be careful with having multiple perspectives when making heads. Looks like that happens to you on the nose and the figure’s right eye. Also not sure if the right brow is supposed to be asymmetrical (people can have facial asymmetry) but i notice the right brow is lower then the left
I see! It's good to hear a second opinion since I am not able to see much of the diffference. And I'll take that observation into note. The asymmetry was not intention ahaha... and yeah having multiple perspectives for the right eye, nose, eyebrow was always something I struggled with when drawing faces in a 3/4 angle. I will look more into it as I do more studies. Thanks for the help!
I definitely see improvements for example your lighting has improved tones from the ambient occlusion on the hair and skin and the hard and soft shadows used to really emphasize the form of the facial structures. You might not see it yourself but those small things that you learn really add up to make more rendered piece
Have to agree with the othrs, there is some clear improvement even with 2022 and 2024. Mostly better shading from what I can see. As for face or body components from angles, for now I just keep using references, and in case of CSP, I frequently use the 3D heads to set my initial construction. Rarely will I keep the original reference or 3D head structure, but it provides a good base for angles. I also very frequently take photos of myself posing to get an idea of how the body or face works from different perspectives. Or expressions. Photos are very silly, but it gets the job done.
I see lots of improvement between 2020 and 2024 
ther'es a lot more detail and a lot more range in values!
Great work! always cool to see others' improvement progresses!
20 days later
Hiya it's been quite a long while. I was on a trip to Japan, so I wasn't able to get much done, but I am back again with a newly developed mindset(?) sort of to speak.
But before that, I'd like to get this out of the way first. I did another redraw of the portrait that I did a few weeks ago while focusing more on lighting and the observations made by @snakker ( Thank you btw! ) I really like how it turned out.
Indefinite Hiatus from Social Media
TL;DR: I'm going to be 100% focusing on art school and original art for the time being rather than working on fanarts for my socials.
I have been super demotivated to draw lately and I've been struggling very hard to locate the root cause of this problem. But it hit me a few days ago when I just so happened to open up free art requests on twitter. And someone asked me why I was doing it. I initially thought to myself that I was just bored in the moment and wanted something to draw, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that I wasn't drawing out of boredom. It was for validation.
The need for validation of my art has been sprouting up in me for quite some time now after I've started to receive some attention on twitter and now it's just grown into this toxic virus in my system where I don't want to draw anything if it means no one will see it and give it a reaction. And honestly sometimes I even post on HERE for the same reason. Posting not only for a critique, but a reaction.
It's got me thinking about why I started drawing in the first place. I just wanted to be able to express myself through beautiful character art. Validation from others was never a reason as to why I started drawing. So I've decided to leave my socials behind for the time being and focus on improving my art for the sole purpose of improving to reach my goals and not for the goal of getting more likes.
However I will still be posting on here because I do want to continue getting feedback and also give feedback to fellow artists that are trying to improve alongside me. But this time with a newly found mindset of doing it for myself and not for the validation of others seeing my art. There will be a lot of artworks that never make the light of day on here as well, but I think that's for the better. I intend to only post when I'm doing assignments or when I am in need of critique from now on.
Cheers mate, I like that mindset! Portrait is looking very good
good luck with the assignments!
Yea this was me for a while too but then recalibrated myself and realized the person i really wanted to please was myself. so so long as I liked it - that was good enough for me. and ofc posting here to get feedback is great since it helps make my art even better for myself I can look at it and be proud of what i created instead of being unsatisfied.
Nice work on portrait!
Good mindset! I've been there too. It's good to make artworks just for yourself that noone will see
No worries everyone's art journey is different I went 3 years without drawing a single thing. sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and take risk and if leaving social media for a while is what you think you need then all the more power to you. in my experience I have learned to basically incorporate drawing into my schedule instead of it being a hobby I just so happen to do if my free time. for example like how you wake up and brush your teeth every morning if you miss one day you feel kinda icky. Make drawing part of your lifestyle will 100% keep you focused on it from my experience. do what you have to do to make it feel right and then everything will become natural. Just be sure to make sure you are still having fun with it learning new things will always feel awesome. I always looked to this quote as an inspiration to not just art but also going to the gym "It takes 21 days to build a habit, and 90 days to build a lifestyle." I hope this helped a bit and Cheers
Yo, that potrait is fire man. Really good values. I didn't even notice what @snakker said initially when I saw the drawing, but looking back I now see the changes. Well that and the hair in the bun xD.
To a point I think it's natural to end up being dependent around validation when we first get some appreciation in social media. Others see our art, they like it, we feel good about it, get some dopamine, and it can become addictive. Most of us have been there and needed to adjust correspondingly.
I still think it's important to share online or with others, since comments like what @snakker did for this potrait helps us notice errors we hadn't notice before and helps us improve. I strongly believe it's beneficial to be part of an art community to continue growing and just interacting with other fellow artists can be motivating. While at the same time, as you said, it should not be our main motivation factor, otherwise it does become toxic. As with everything in life, there has to be a blance to it.
Take your time, we all have different ways of going at it, you just need to find what works for you, but I do believe this is a great step in the right direction. To be able to self-analyze, be sincere with yourself and look for a better way to go at things, now that you did it this time I think you'll be doing it more, and be better for it.
It reminds me of a good quote:
All that said, it does still feel good to recieve a pat in the back and know you're doing well, so keep at it mate, you're doing great! Cheers!
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