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Close To You- Experience my drawing revision process


I thought it'd be really fun to share with you the stages of my revision process, so for this piece, I literally documented the steps to help give you a better idea of the meticulous process and a look at what goes on in the studio and inside my head while drawing. Hope you like it!
 

Time: About 30 hours over four days.
   
Attempting to study and assess drawing to image comparisons... numerous modifications to the forehead, nose and lower curvature of the eyes have already been made. Time at this stage is 2 days. 

On the morning of the third day, I've gone back about 20 times, revising and scrutinizing details and overall structure of this piece, although when comparing them side-by-side in thumbnail, larger and similarly sized images, I see many differences. I've tried correcting the curvature of the nostrils and nasal folds and then spent an additional 2 hours reshaping the forehead... but I also see that the placement of the eyes is higher and the chin is slightly shorter. I'll need to make specific adjustments to compensate. 
My girl has less forehead space and a longer/more area exposed neck, so I removed the dark corners on the forehead to add and create a sense of height. Added deeper vertical line shading to the neck. Because of the differences in forehead placement, I wouldn't actually see the shaded area I just removed anyway. Rescan. Reevaluate. 2 Hours later. I'm not sure what else I can do at this point, particularly because the charcoal isn't as forgiving after a while. Overall, she's looking pretty good. 
Walk away.

Day four. With the multitude of adjustments, I definitely feel I'm closer to my goals of realism with this piece than with my last. Progress. Rescan reevaluate. Aaaaahhhhhhhhh! Fuck, within five seconds I already spot things to change! Just tweaked the forehead again, and I noticed she needed larger/thicker eyebrows... also more defined and heavier shading on the neck would be better. Rescan with side-by-side comparison. 

Hmmm, okay. Some of lines at the inner canthi of eyes are off a little. WHY!!!! Rescan with side-by-side. There's still something about the eyebrows that seem off, so I'm thickening and reshaping inner edges. Reevaluated the neck. No changes. Rescan with side-by-side. 
Additional highlights added to inner canthi. Minor shading to bridge of nose. The lashes should probably be darker. Highlight curvature under left eye. Darken shadow. Add minor shadowing under right side of nose. Rescan with side-by-side. 

One hour later, and again with the lashes. Rescan with side-by-side. Fuck, the lashes were longer on one side. Adjust and rescan with side-by-side. Dear God, let this be the last time. OMG DONE! 

Comments

Alex said…
This is an amazing post, baby! So cool.
3:46 PM
Anonymous said…
Great post, you have inSANE talent... I'm in awe!

FJM
x
5:33 PM
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