critique on faces? 30sec - 10min

hello ! i find myself struggling alot with faces and they always look somewhat awkward.. looking for some feedback to work off of :)

https://imgur.com/a/K4CPz36

Hi Jerber!

Great drawings, I don't see this awkwardness you speak of. I think you have a solid understanding of the proportions of the face and are well on your way to being very proficient in your face figure drawings.

I would recommend comparing your drawings to those of professionals you admire, as well as those you don't. Find out where you think your drawings are lacking and maybe see if there are ideas for stylization or rending they have you can take from them. Taking this seriously and learning how to look at other people's work like this is a skill that will benefit you greatly in your art career!

Besides that doing construction drawings to gain a better understanding of a subject is very boring but it works.

Very impressed by your drawings, Especially your quick poses have a lot of skill and character! keep it up

got it, thank you so much !!! ill definitely be looking into other peoples works and see where i can go from there!

Good evening, Jerber, and welcome aboard to line of action, I'm Polyvios Animations and how are you? I must do say that your shortest and longest studies are looking like you've done the greatest job as you could, but you're definitely have lots of room for improvement.

Just as what Ontevreden, then if you are looking forward to some of the most highest standards that you could and would reach, then you can and will look into this link on head shapes here. It's from John K. Stuff, the oldest blog for artists, animators, cartoonists and creatives and entertainers available. For example, there's some of Basil Wolverton (MAD) who did the funniest but ugliest faces and the zaniest abstractions featured in that link there, because we could use those for gesture drawing inspiration. If you could warm-up to those sketches, then I suggest you give them all you've got.

Hope this thing helps you out so much.

thanks so much!!!! i really appreciate the link as well, i'm always unsure on where to find sources to reference so this is super helpful. totally gonna be looking through it!

sometimes i have the same feeling. I have seen your drawings. I found many great ones among the 1 min 5 min and th 30 sec drawings. Lines are confident. the faces are vivid. the 3/4 backward portrait has its own life whatever the original looks :) keep practicing on a daily basis if you can :)

• Kelemenzoltan edited this post on November 29, 2022 9:38am.

Hello! I checked out the post you made, and I have some thoughts for you. I love love love how you've been able to sketch the face shape and features within the 30 second times. One thing I personally struggle with is the size of every piece of the face, compared to the face shape itself. You seem to have gotten pretty good at it in your practice pieces, and I can see you learn more with each one. Your one minute sketches are really nicely done, with great features. You clearly have the ability to capture the emotion of the face, which is wonderful.

I think, for improvements, I can really only think of two things. I'd suggest focusing on the eyes for a few sketches. You've got placement and size down, but the pupils and irises, as well as where they are looking, is something that we tend to capture better in the longer sketches versus the shorter ones- which means less practice in general. Not that you're doing them wrong necessarily, just that you may want to add on the practice. The other thing is shading. Your shading is really well placed, but it does not vary. Consider focusing on different shades within the face, especially in your longer session faces.

Other than that, I think you're doing great! Keep up the good work, and keep doing the 10 minute sketches, the one you posted in this gallery is wonderful!

-Abel :)

Hey Jerber, i really like your drawings:) I think they have a nice flow and looseness to them and one can tell, that you already know a lot about drawing the features of the face.

And i think you already have been given some great advice in this post.

I would agree with Ontevreden in that, you should give a little more attention to your construction. Right now i have the feeling, that you do your construction lines only because everybody is doing them and not so much to help you find your proportions, planes and angles.
For example: Your horizontal construction line is sometimes on eye level, sometimes below eye level and sometimes above.

Flamingogh had a great point regarding your features of the head. I too think, that you draw every single feature in a great way, but not so much as a great whole. I would suggest to don't just draw the face, but try to draw the whole head.

And lastly a minor point: be careful to have enough space left on the page, so you don't squeeze your drawing in the available spaces. Otherwise the space left on the paper will determine your proportions.

I admire, that you tried yourself at the 10 minute pose. that is a really hard pose to get and i think you where on the right track. and i am impressed, that you didn't give up and tried 3 times to get a grasp of that pose! (plus the cat is super funny! mow!)

i did some drawings to make my points more clear, i hope they help you:)

https://i.imgur.com/0x5dRsd.jpeg

And if you are looking for good reference sources:

You can look at most of Loomis (an awesome fashion illustrator from the 50ies) Books online for free here: http://www.alexhays.com/loomis/

have a look at some youtube channels, i think proko https://www.youtube.com/@ProkoTV or david finch https://www.youtube.com/@DavidFinchartist would be great sources for you.

and lastly: if you want to practice drawing the head from different angles, it is great ot use a 3d model of a simplified head to start. you can find them on artstation https://www.artstation.com/artwork/GX3Ax1 or on sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/planes-of-the-head-andrew-loomis-method-19424b7aa2fc4a4d8987efe4bdb62395

All in all i think you are already on the right track and just need some more practice:)
Keep on drawing and have a nice day!

Hey, moritzbludau, nicest constructions, gestures, and spaces of the facial sketches, but it all seems not too organic enough, but how would you like to go for 6 minutes of 2 minute sqwiggles of expressions and faces, all done with your pen held underhand. As a result, your faces and heads will become the least stilted and the most spontaneous, but alive yet solid. For most details, please also still try out the links you've sent us, for which they have be a complete and total help to us in their own ways. Please look into the Nancy Beiman animation book for the chapter on head shapes of people against animals.

Hope this critique has been completely and totally helpful, encouraging, and supportive.

hey Polyvios Animation, thank you for your feedback and the resource tipps. you are right, next time i will warm up more, so my lines are more loose and organic.

have a nice day:)