Working on a drawing of my son

Allie

Hi Everyone,

I absolutely adore this picture of my son. Here is my first attempt at a charcoal study of him and I would love any feedback before I move on. I need a pair of fresh eyes to look at it!

Once I feel more confident about it, I plan to paint this picture of him. I'm going to change the background of the original picture for the painting I have planned, so please ignore it in the picture here. (Obviously, the placement of the house and light is very awkward). But first, I really want to nail down his likeness. It feels like a really slow process! 😅

GTO

Looking good so far.  It has more of a painterly feel than a linear drawing but I like that about it.
You’ve captured his likeness well.

Allie

@GTO thanks! I really appreciate the feedback 😊

toujours

I agree with GTO.  I had to go back and read it was a charcoal as it looks more painterly.  I like the technique/feel you have achieved.  It looks good and fresh and not overworked.    Great job.

Allie

@toujours thank you so much! I really appreciate it! 💛

KingstonFineArt

@Allie
Great sketch. I'd lighten the background a lot to make the figure a positive shape

Allie

@KingstonFineArt thank you! Yes! That does make a difference. I appreciate your help! 💛

Richard_P

As you do want some C&C Allie, the chin and cheek are too far to the right and the top lip curve isn't quite right.

Hope it helps

Allie

@Richard_P thank you for the feedback! I will have to take a closer look! 👍

tassieguy

You're getting a good likeness there, @Allie. That's what matters.

The freshness of youth. I had smooth skin and rosy cheeks like that once. At that age everything is still possible. 

When you paint it will you make it a winter scene with snow. I think that would work well. 

Allie

Thanks so much @tassieguy The rosy cheeks is one of the things that really drew me in in this pic. That and his sweet expression.  And yes! I am planning on painting it with snow around him. 😊. I hope it comes together. I'm going to take my time with it. 

A_Time_To_Paint

This is really great @Allie.  You are well on your way!

tassieguy

@Allie, for when you paint him in the snow, I have a word of advice. Make sure you don't make the teeth whiter than snow. The brightest touches will be on the right side of his lower lip, on the tip of his nose and just below his eye on the right cheek (our right). There will be no part of him that should be brighter than the snow. He is almost completely back lit and so, with this photo, it will be really important to get the values right. 

You could crop it something like this:



I have gotten rid of the left balustrade (I'd also remove the right) and I reduced some of the glare from the porch light. I would maybe put more snow on the drive on the right.

I think you could make a wonderful winter portrait of this.

Hope this is helpful. 

Allie

@tassieguy thank you so so much!! This is fantastic! I will absolutely take note a out the teeth; that makes a lot of sense and I will definitely keep it in mind. Thx!! I think the values will be a little tricky with his one because he is in a cool light, his skin tone is quite gray. I've not painted a family member before. Excited to give this a try!

Richard_P

I had a go at improving it for your painting. Hope it helps!

tassieguy

That's even better, @Richard_P. The snow is a bit blown out, though. That could be addressed by reducing the exposure in the snow areas, or playing with brightness/contrast or by selecting the snow area and juggling the levels. 

Richard_P

Opps, missed the snow issue! Thanks for pointing that out

tassieguy

Cheers, @Richard_P. I'm learning, very slowly, how to use image editors like Affinity Photo and Photoshop. I'm amazed at what can be done to improve a photo once you get to know how to use these programs. But I think it takes almost as much effort to learn how to use them as it took to write them.  I'm still at a very basic level.

Allie

@Richard_P Thank you so much! That is so very helpful!!! You can really see his eyes and the beautiful colour in his cheeks!! I'm so excited to use this as well as @tassieguy edits to my picture. It really is helpful to improve the reference and I wouldn't have known how to do that on my own! Thanks for taking the time

I do not have photoshop but have heard very good things about gimp. I will have to download it and spend some time playing around. Which program did you use? 

Richard_P

I use Affinity Photo, it's much much cheaper than photoshop yet does nearly everything it can do.

tassieguy

@Allie,  I use Affinity Photo and GIMP. GIMP is free and does pretty much everything the others do. With all of them, it's about getting to know how to use the functions and the only way I've been able to learn is by playing around with them and by looking at how-to videos online. There are heaps of these free videos for GIMP, Affinity Photo and Photoshop. I don't use photoshop because it is a subscription that will keep charging my credit card every month forever. I don't like that so I bought Affinity for about $60 and GIMP is free. Affinity has a slightly nicer graphical user interface than GIMP but they're pretty much equal except that GIMP is free. That has to be a big plus for GIMP. How they could write such a wonderful program and make it available for free I don't know. But I love them.

Allie

@tassieguy Thanks! I am actually downloading GIMP as I'm typing. I've heard really great things about it! Excited to play around

MichaelD

Good work @Allie, 

I’m looking forward to seeing it when you have finished. 

pcstaples

Amazing work @Allie! I’m so impressed and inspired! That’s an excellent likeness ! I’m sorry I’m just responding to this now!