Critique on nose drawing

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This topic contains 9 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by Ji-Sung 2 years ago.

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  • #28050
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    #28055

    First of all, great job on these studies! That's a lot of dedication to draw that many noses, and your draftsmanship and line quality are excellent. You have a really good grasp of the landmarks of the nose, and its 3D form. I particularly like how you differentiate the separate planes of the nose when they're visible.
    My biggest critique is that your noses look fairly uniform, both in angle and proportion. You get better at displaying the nose at its actual more difficult angle towards the end of your studies (compare number 11 to number 27 or 32, you can see the evolution of your understanding of the nuances of how the tilting of the head affects the angle of the nose). However I think you could benefit from more studies of noses at extreme angles, particularly heads tilted down or where the nose is only partially visible because the head is facing the back. You clearly already have a good grasp on how to draw a nose in a neutral position, so push your boundaries and expand on your ability to draw without reference by studying very complicated references that will become part of your toolset in the future.(And remember, if this website doesn't have the photos you are looking for, you can always take your own! Honestly a great exercise is trying to draw a nose (or anything) from imagination, and then taking your own reference image to study where you made mistakes and shortcuts that you took that can be expanded on into a style choice)
    On the second point, your firm understanding of the form and construction of the nose is actually at your detriment here. Your noses lack variety, which in a series of anatomical studies is okay, but if that lack of variation seeps into your larger work it can cause the dreaded "same face syndrome" and suck the life out of both your style and your characters. (And make your more realistic portraits less accurate, because rather than understanding the nuanced differences in people's features, you unintentionally alter them to follow a more familiar standard that your hand is used to drawing.) To combat this I recommend watching some of Proko's caricature series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtG4P3lq8RHEkeRGn6aFRct0kq4oDwwTa
    It's a great resource that teaches you how to see faces and their features as larger, distinctive shapes, and how to exaggerate those to create a more recognizable and appealing subject.
    Overall, awesome job, and keep up the good work! You've definitely got a firm grasp on a lot of the fundamentals, and I think you are ready to branch out into more experimental works if you so choose. Have fun with it, and I wish you the best of luck on your art journey!

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    #28242

    Thank you so much. Appreciate your feedback

    #28246

    Good morning, Ji-Sung, how are you? First of all, greater job on your nose studies. Very harder work and dedication indeed, I see. And second of all, greater use of solid drawing and gesture sketching on your noses from all angles. Very, very, very greater job.

    However, here's my more interesting spin on this more than constructive suggestion: Most of the times, the noses seem or appear a little too even and blander in them. Especially in drawings 2,6,7,17,20, as well as, 21, and of course, 35. Would you kindly free up your shoulder with an online interactive drawing tutorial of faces and expressions, figures, too? The real reason why is because, as a result, you'd much more better familiarize yourself with the fundamentals quick sketching and gesture drawings in general. If you really need to get to know the fundamentals of caricature and exaggeration, then, just as Lorelei recommended,look into this link: Proko Caricatures.

    Good luck to you and your longer journey of drawing caricatures and gesture caricatures.

    #28250

    Polyvios Animations, When you say bland do you mean the nose drawings you mentioned look the same?

    #28251

    Well, thank you for response, but by bland, I mean less exaggerated, less human, and less specific than real people's noses. Everyone's noses look completely different in real life, and in really old caricatures and new caricatures. Here's the link to click on, to really, totally prove my case. Hope this absolutely helps you out.

    #28252

    I just wanted to say that the way you have posted this, with numbering and the reference thumbnail next to the drawing is stellar! This makes it so much easier to critique. Keep it up.

    #28279

    Polyvios Animations

    Oh okay. You are right, I was still getting the hang of it and I definitely need to work on variation. Thanks you

    #28280

    Thestripper

    Thanks. Can't be stressing out the critiques lol

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