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cepickeral — Aragorn
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Published: 2009-11-22 23:42:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 1912; Favourites: 26; Downloads: 0
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Description
Ten hours and 25 minutes of looking at a DVD case is fun and all... but, I am happy to be done with this picture!:-D!:-P! Let me know what you think, please!:-D!Oh, I almost forgot! I did this on smooth bristol paper with a number two mechanical pencil!:-D!
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Comments: 39
I am very familiar with this image- this poster hangs on my wall- and I am comparing this to that as I write this critique. My critiques tend to be incredibly nit-picky, so please do not take it personally.
To start off, there is certainly a general likeness- I recognized it as Aragorn in the thumbnail, and I recognized that it came from the poster. You have a good use of lights and shadows throughout the whole picture, and you captured his eye rather well- he has the right look in his gaze. Nicely done there.
Now for the nitty-gritty details:
Your ref: You mentioned in your artist comments that you went off the DVD cover. If that is the only reference you used, I seriously suggest to not use such a small reference again, unless you have no other choice (and with this specific image, it's all over the internet in higher-rez than what the DVD cover offers). So, in the future, try and get the clearest references you can. Heck, use Photoshop or another editing program to make any digital reference even clearer (there are tutorials here on dA on how to do that). Summary: Avoid small reference pics!
Composition: Plan out your composition before drawing it all out. That way the face won't be awkwardly cropped due to running out of paper. Draw out thumbnails and/or a light outline of the whole composition so you don't have forced cropping as you do here. We really should see his whole face and part, if not all, of his hair on our right.
Proportions: Or, is everything where it's supposed to be and the right size. Again, I'm looking at the original pic (the poster version) as I write this. Neck, our left, should be nearly vertical. Less of a curve/slightly more vertical on the edge of his ear, our top left. A lot less of an angle on his hairline from the ear up (in other words, more vertical). His horizontal hairline needs to be less of a line and more of individual strands coming from individual places; hairlines are not anywhere that perfectly aligned. Eye should be slightly closer to the ear. Face overall needs to be less wide than you have it. His neck, our right, should be slightly more to our left.
Shading: This image has a really strange, grainy texture applied to the whole of it that, when you try and apply it to paper (as I see you did), turns out just looking a bit off. What you want to do is, if you are looking for a photo-realistic portrait (rather than stylized or textured as done with stippling or hatching) is use blending tools such as a stump, shammy, or even a q-tip or tissue, to blend in the different values. Human skin tends to be incredibly smooth and every shadow, again if aiming for a photo-realistic picture, should portray that and the shadows need to blend smoothly with one another, whenever you move onto a new value.
On a final note, I'd recommend to use more values than simply a 2B pencil. You can get some wonderful darks with darker pencils in certain areas (like getting the hair darker, for instance, which it should be).
Recommendation: Just keep on doing more portraiture! I've done hundreds over the past half-dozen years, and I can guarantee you'll keep on getting better with practice. I hope this critique proves to be of some use to you in the future.
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First off I have to say I love lord of the rings and this sketch really caught my eye! You can really tell who this sketch is of and you can see how much work the artist put into it. It felt that the artist nurtured this piece as it deserved and I feel this makes it very special. The artist appears to be pretty good at paying attention to the details, which is great! This will allow them to continue to improve and grow as an artist. Learning to see all the details is often very hard to grasp and once you do then it allows you to move on and also learn new techniques.
My favorite part of this piece is the eyes, I think for using a mechanical pencils the eyes were really well done. I would suggest that this artist is now at a great level to use softer pencils. If they could do eyes that well with mechanical pencil I can only imagine what this artist will do with some professional artist pencils. They also have a good technique for sketching hair, and I think that with different pencil shades this artist would make such beautiful hair in their future sketches e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s… " width="15" height="15" alt="
As for shading, some blending on the face and clothing would have made this sketch look more smooth, but I believe this is not very easy with mechanical pencils. However, I like how you can still see the contrasts of light and dark areas of the shading.
Overall I would say...WOW for being able to do this with mechanical pencils! This artist has some really nice skill sets that I feel will really take off with experimenting with some variety of sketching pencils. I think we should all expect to see this artist grow really quickly considering the level of their skills!
Great job, LOVE it! Keep on drawing e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/b… " width="15" height="15" alt="
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I really love this one! Really well-done drawing!
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Thank you; you are very kind!:-D!
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You are so very kind; thank you so much!!!:-D!
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If you want to know my opinion I think you should have made the skin much, much more smooth. Other than that ot's a good picture
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You are very kind! I will try to do better in the future!:-D!
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Thank you so much! You are so kind!!!:-D!
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This is utterly fantastic! You have such a natural talent. Bravo!!
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Oh my!!! You are so nice and kind!!! I really do appreciate this!!!:-D!
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I am not sure if I can give constructive criticism to you, you have natural talent,
but
Have a look at some of my work first, and if you want my advice AND you think i have something to offer.
Then let me know and we can have longer chats on sketching.
Cheers
Jason
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Thank you for the kind words and the invitation to your gallery. I am going to go look at your gallery now!!!:-D!
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Thank you so much!!! You are so kind!!!:-D! I appreciate your kind words so much! I am not sure that I deserve it, but thank you so much for the encouragement!!!:-D!
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Hey guy nice work. Seeing as how it is posted in a I need help here section and not look how pretty my picture is section I feel some critique is due above praise. Seeing as nobody has given you any critique I suppose I should. But first, Very impressive on first look and even more impressive after reading you did it with a mech pencil. That shall be my first peice of critique. I see how well this is done with a tool it was not intended for. I suggest a soter pencil. I assure it will make a huge diffrence in the quality of your work. Skill is obviously nothing you are short on nor is patience.
Not being at all an expert or even a bonified amature on the subject my next peice of advice is to be taken with a grain of salt or perhaps a sizable chunk. Your attention to detail is quite obvious Looking at your picture however it seems that in this attention to detail you have possibly neglected some of the larger shadows in the picture. However not having the dvd cover I cant really say. It just seems to lack a bit of depth. I am no expert in the field. I am certainly not ripping on your sketch as it is well better than I could ever do just trying to be constructive. Keep it up man well done
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Wow! Thank you so much for your thoughtful critique! First off, I would like to say that I appreciate (and am impressed by) the structure of your critique. Having worked in a professional cartoon editing job before where I had to critique many pieces professionally (even on things as nit-picky and subjective as appropriateness) I feel that I must thank you for the level of professionalism shown in your critiquing style (whether amateur, enthusiast, or professional). You have shown a level of professionalism that is greatly appreciated.
With that said, I will move on to my second movement in this reply: you hit the nail right on the head! Your critic is greatly appreciated! I need to change up my pencils every once and a while, experiment with something new and be hopeful for the results! I have also classically had battles with shading and shadows ever since I could remember, and the observation that this may be made as a sacrifice for attention to detail is a critique well taken and one that I need to keep in mind.
Once again, I appreciate the professionalism of your critique and the underlying tone of encouragement. I am going pencil shopping today! Thank you again; I really do appreciate it!:-D!
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Your welcome guy. That was actually my firs critique ever. I found it really hard to find well anything to say but as it was posted in a I need help section and all anyone had told you was how Fing good it was (and it is) I felt it was my duty to bringsomthing critiquish. Since your an actual real pro you may be able to help me with a painting I have done called the fool. it bothers me something feirce to the point I wish to try at it again but refuse to untill I know what is bothering me about it. And seriously don't try to spare my feelings at all be blunt and honest I really want to know what is bothering me so much about it. thanks and many thanks in advance if you do
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Wow! Your first critique came out amazing; you are very talented in this area for sure. I think that you will find that you are able to open your picture up to accept critiques now (just a funny little suspicion I have). Anyways, I hope to be the first person to critique your work!;-D! You can request critiques on your picture by editing the picture page in DeviantART. Have fun; I look forward to critiquing your work soon!:-D!
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Wow thanks guy and thanks and thanks again. Your a champ!!!
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You are welcome!:-D! I meant to press the "give annonymosly" box, but I forgot to. Ha! Oh well!:-P! I hope that you enjoy it. I really appreciate your artwork and your professionalism!!!:-D! Thank you!!!:-D!
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OMG !!!!!
This is really amazing !!! o.O
I really love the ammount of detail
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Thank you for your kind comment! You are very kind!!!:-D!
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You are very kind! I appreciate your kind words!!!:-D! Thank you!:-D!
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Whoa! That's so good, you did that with a mechanical pencil? That's crazy
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Oh my! Thank you so much! You are so kind!:-D! Yep. I got the pencil from a pack of bic pencils like this one: [link] . I guess it just depends on what you get used to!:-D! Thank you again!:-D!
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You are very kind, thank you!:-D!
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This is so amazingly awesome!! You did such a great job! This is probably my favorite one submitted to DA so far
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Lol! Thank you, my sweetie cutie, and thank you for uploading it for me!:-D!
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