# I need you to critique my drawings!



## Marmaduke (Jun 22, 2010)

Hey, I want to know what people think of these as I'm considering advertising myself as a pencil portrait artist. Just to make things clear, I've never had a lesson in my life and I wouldn't consider myself a professional in any way (I'm 17 haha) but I was just going to try to put myself out there as someone who could do portraits as paid work, like for weddings/birthdays etc. What are your opinions? These are some portraits I did as part of my high school projects -

















Thanks!


----------



## TimSE (Jun 22, 2010)

holy crap thats unreal


Thats amazing ...


----------



## Marmaduke (Jun 22, 2010)

haha thanks man that means a lot


----------



## splinter8451 (Jun 22, 2010)

Damn man those are good. Especially that first one. I say go for it.


----------



## Alberto7 (Jun 22, 2010)

Wow, that first one really impressed me! Congrats on those! 
My sister's drawings and technique in general are of the same style as yours, and she has done some work for a few people, mostly friends of our family and people at school, but still did it as a paid job on those occasions haha. She was the designer of the middle school yearbook cover and its design in general. Seeing that your style and technique are similar to hers, I'd encourage you to go ahead and try it out  it's freaking awesome and you'd probably get a few useful bucks out of it.

Good luck!


----------



## Marmaduke (Jun 22, 2010)

Oh that's sweet! Yeah that's the sort of stuff I'd be into doing, nothing like a full time job or anything haha. Thanks for the kind words!


----------



## anthonyferguson (Jun 22, 2010)

You, sir, are a very very talented drawer.


----------



## theo (Jun 22, 2010)

Thats awesome man! .. you should draw a pic of some gnarly guitarists


----------



## jaretthale78 (Jun 22, 2010)

shit man your pretty good...i keep tryin to draw but i always end up disapointed haha, how do u get this good?


----------



## Thep (Jun 22, 2010)

Fucking impressive!


----------



## Sebastian (Jun 23, 2010)

Amazing work man ! Wow ! Really impressive


----------



## Despised_0515 (Jun 23, 2010)

Let me just say, NEVER stop drawing! You've got it in your blood, dude! Not having a single lesson and still, I'm at a darn loss for words on the first one!


----------



## natspotats (Jun 23, 2010)

thats really good. people would definatly pay you money to draw them. 

maybe even try working in some unique backgrounds that reflect the mood of the drawing, just for a bonus


----------



## Marmaduke (Jun 23, 2010)

natspotats said:


> t
> 
> maybe even try working in some unique backgrounds that reflect the mood of the drawing, just for a bonus



Yeah I need to start drawing backgrounds! None of my drawings are ever really finished pieces hah!

Thank you so much for all the compliments everyone!

Alright, seeing as I haven't drawn anything in over a year, would anyone like to give me a picture that they would like me to attempt a drawing of? Anything at all as long as it's a nice big picture and there's some interesting stuff going on in there haha! Oh and the maximum I can draw is A4 because that takes long enough as it is!  I've nearly finished college for the year so I have lots of time and it would be nice to have something to work on!

Again, thank you


----------



## Prydogga (Jun 23, 2010)

Wow, I looked at these and was amazed! Then saw you're 17! Oh my god man, that's ridiculous, you've got great talent dude!


----------



## Deadseen (Jun 23, 2010)

The first two are really really good,. 
Maybe the edges are a little to hard if I'm being overly picky.


----------



## Marmaduke (Jun 23, 2010)

Deadseen said:


> Maybe the edges are a little to hard if I'm being overly picky.



How do you mean man? Like it needs to be more blurry? Sorry I don't know all the real words for this sort of stuff :S haha Thanks for the feedback!


----------



## -K4G- (Jun 23, 2010)

Dude, that is awesome. Especially the first one, really captures the emotion of the subject.
 x10


----------



## jymellis (Jun 23, 2010)

to me it looks like the first 2 where drawn by a different person than the last one. the last one is done in a totally different style with altogether different shading style and lineage.


----------



## thraxil (Jun 23, 2010)

Good work! Great work for a 17-year old with no formal training. 

Now, critique time (you asked for it!).

The first two have that instantly recognizable "drawn from a photo" look. Using photos for reference is fine and drawing from photos is a great exercise to hone your skills. But working directly from a photo always seems to produce that very two dimensional "photo" feel. I recommend spending as much time as you possibly can drawing from life. Nothing else will develop your eye like the practice of turning a three dimensional scene that's in front of you into a two dimensional drawing. 

There's something slightly off with the proportions in the first one too. And I think it comes back to working from a 2-d source. Rendering a head while you're seeing it as a 3-dimensional shape really keeps that kind of thing in line, while copying a mass of 2-dimensional shapes makes it very easy to lose some of that overall shape while you focus on details. 

The next issue, which is also somewhat related is that there is generally no interesting composition here. The second one has decent, if not exciting, composition, but I'd guess that that's from the original photo. The first and third are just kind of "here's something dumped in the middle of a page" with no thought to the overall layout. Even for portraits, where you have such a central focus, how the person is situated in the page, the shape of the negative space in the background, and how the viewer's eye is led around the page still need to be considered. 

Now, since you said you haven't had formal training, you might not be used to criticism. One of the most valuable things you would get out of taking higher level art classes is a lot more criticism, much of it probably meaner than what I've written. You'll need to be able to handle it and make use of it. If you care about your craft, you'll want to take any criticism you get and examine it and really see if you can improve from it. Other people can often see your work in ways that you can't. On the other hand, even very qualified instructors and critics can be full of shit, or just not "get" what you're going for and you need to be able to identify that and ignore them. Ultimately, if you are enjoying drawing and other people enjoy your work, you're doing something right and everyone else can fuck off. 

You clearly have talent and have developed your skills past where most people take it. Stick with it and I think you'll do well. 

(FWIW, my own portfolio is here. I wouldn't call myself a "professional" either as my day job is completely unrelated to art, but I have been published by Fantagraphics and nominated for an Eisner award and I studied under this dude.)


----------



## JohnIce (Jun 23, 2010)

Very good work, man! I agree with Jym though, the last one has a very different style than the first two, which may be a sign that you have one style for copying photos and one style when you're drawing something without reference (I'm assuming the third drawing isn't copied from a photo). This is something to think about, try to learn about light and shade from photos and implement that when you're just drawing from imagination.

The last photo definately reminds me of Keith Wormwood's work, btw:







Keep up the good work man!

- EDIT - Nevermind, I just saw in another thread that the last one is a copy aswell. Then feel free to ignore the last bit.


----------



## teqnick (Jun 23, 2010)

Holy dragon tits batman! You're very talented. In regards to critiquing , I have nothing to say...I'm still a stick figure warrior.


----------



## Marmaduke (Jun 23, 2010)

thraxil said:


> The first two have that instantly recognizable "drawn from a photo" look. Using photos for reference is fine and drawing from photos is a great exercise to hone your skills. But working directly from a photo always seems to produce that very two dimensional "photo" feel. I recommend spending as much time as you possibly can drawing from life. Nothing else will develop your eye like the practice of turning a three dimensional scene that's in front of you into a two dimensional drawing.
> 
> There's something slightly off with the proportions in the first one too. And I think it comes back to working from a 2-d source. Rendering a head while you're seeing it as a 3-dimensional shape really keeps that kind of thing in line, while copying a mass of 2-dimensional shapes makes it very easy to lose some of that overall shape while you focus on details.
> 
> ...



Hey, thanks for the comments! Great to have some feedback from someone that knows what they're doing 

I checked out your portfolio and man I love it! I really like artist that have an immediately recognisable style and feel and I think that you're one of them. Seriously nice stuff! 

Anyway, the first thing I would like to say is that none of these were meant to be finished 'pieces' in any way! We were asked to copy some things to show that we could produce a piece with enough attention to detail/realism etc etc. I wouldn't consider them pieces of art in that way haha, just sketches I guess 

Yeah I definitely need to get better at drawing from my imagination. I've just never really tried that much and if I do it seems to look crappy :/ Maybe I have a sub-standard imagination? Do people study drawing from real life in art college etc, because my classes at high school extended to 'hello everyone, ok now today I'm going to leave you to get on with your work while I read this lovely book and eat my lunch'. At the moment I\m studying Music Technology pretty much full time but I'm considering trying to take an Art A level alongside this if it would be possible.

Thank you again for all your comments everyone!


----------



## MaKo´s Tethan (Jun 23, 2010)

sick man, you are a fuckin artist  post more please.


----------



## CrushingAnvil (Jun 25, 2010)

Awesome work, dude. The baby looks like a zombie though


----------



## Marmaduke (Jun 25, 2010)

CrushingAnvil said:


> Awesome work, dude. The baby looks like a zombie though



Oy! Watch it that's my cousin! haha


----------



## Bevo (Jun 25, 2010)

Nice work you guys have reminded me that I don't draw anymore.

The baby looks like its from the Behemoth video!


----------



## iRaiseTheDead (Jul 27, 2010)

Your a fucking God!


----------



## rahul_mukerji (Aug 6, 2010)

That's very impressive for 17. Not that age matters, but you have a serious gift. 

Carry on the great work.

On a side note I liked thraxil's comments 

And I just fell in love with Keith Thompson's art. I just saw his book the other day at B&N and was fascinated by his imagination  some of his renderings are just disturbingly memorable.


----------



## s_k_mullins (Aug 6, 2010)

Great artwork! Thanks for sharing.


----------



## Zahs (Aug 25, 2010)

I think its good, you do have something but in time, with a little more development and understanding it can be great, as I believe the one that shines from the rest is the the first one. My constructive critique would be get some charcoal or something similar and have a go with that as I can see something positive produced through that medium. Never be afraid to work larger. 

As its a Portrait, backgrounds are not important, I like this unfinished feel also.. 

Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with using photos as a basis, because maybe it can be difficult to get someone to sit there for a while and draw them. But then again... the composition has already been decided for you, unless you took the photo, perhaps going out there and taking some photographs. Museums can be good, with the Roman Busts, for actual observational drawing.

Hope that helps.


----------



## blister7321 (Aug 26, 2010)

rahul_mukerji said:


> That's very impressive for 17. Not that age matters, but you have a serious gift.



actually age does matter 
if you start at 10 and are doing this by 17 your good 
but if you start at say 15 and are doing this your really good 
ive been drawing since i was 9 and doing stuff like this since i was like 14/15 with little to no training then took a class at the college my junior year when i was dual enrolled and came back to public school my senior year and bypassed drawing 1and 2 for drawing 3 because of my skills

the op has some major potential to be really really great 
not that these works are not great they are but think about what the op could be doing if he has some training


----------



## Meinrad (Aug 29, 2010)

You seem to have a very good understanding of how light appears on a person's face, but when you draw the darker shaded parts and the lighter shaded parts there is too much contrast between them - it's not blended together as well as it could be.

Still, you are very good! I think you could definitely get a job doing this.


----------



## Marmaduke (Sep 22, 2010)

Thank you so much for all the support I haven't been back to this thread for ages and it's really nice to read some more comments!

If anyone has some more criticism it would be appreciated, as I am sure that everyone could give me some points on which to improve.

Thanks.


----------



## Randy (Sep 23, 2010)

Just seeing this thread for the first time. Fantastic work and I honestly don't see any room for criticism.


----------



## Marmaduke (Sep 27, 2010)

Thanks!


----------

