Light (Patreon)

It's been a long while since I've done a photo study. Harder than I recall but I've improved so much since my last attempt. Perfect likeness is never the goal - it is always to capture the person with correct proportions and value while fighting the little habits we so often use when we are drawing without reference.

I have a very specific way of drawing eyes that often leads to losing a lot of the detail of the eyelids. In this, I can't tell you how many times I fought the urge to simply darken the lines of the eyes and call it a day. Even though it is not intensely detailed, I didn't go my usual route of stylized eyes (though they are slightly larger than life, oops!).

My goal here was using subtle values to really make parts of her pop. The light against her neck and the bright white collar really make the rest of the piece feel darker. To the left, the light dies out and it almost swallows the left shoulder - and this was intended!

I'm trying to think more about how shapes can blend together to make more interesting features in the image.

What are you studying this week?