hi, thanks for the very nice comment. I tried hard to make it look nice.

your from Venezuela? awesome. i tend to like people from there. maybe we'll talk again sometime.

thanks grace.

quote : "WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS DRAWING IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TEACH ME HOW YOU DO IT!!!!!!!!! I'D LOVE TO IMPROVE MY SKILLS TO YOUR LEVEL OF SKILLS...I ENVY YOU!"


hey, thanks for the nice comment. I really never think of my work as that amazing; i see plenty of flaws in my work, there is always room for lots of improvement, but thank you kindly for liking it a lot anyways.

Im looking at your sketches and they are actually pretty good. Im not sure if i cant teach you in just a few sentences all the little things i do to make my sketches look extra nice, but im sure you are very capable of most of it easily enough.

personally, i love to use Black pencil crayons along with normal pencils- though this isnt proper technique. I just find that adding a LOT of contrast to my work makes it look all that more real- black pencil crayons are darker then most sketching pencils. Don't be afraid to make some parts very dark, and others very light, even with shading. Maybe you can practice this by doing a sketch where you purposely make a strong contrast with the shading. Does that make sense?


Also, when i do a portrait, i keep a big black and white picture that i printed out next to me as a reference. My good portraits are mostly somewhat identical to a picture i found online somewhere- drawing a portrait straight from my mind without a reference printout is tough and doesnt look very realistic and detailed in the end. Since I draw with black and white, i make sure the image im drawing is also in black and white to help me better guess how to shade. As well, i dont rush my work at all. I take a LOT of time making sure something is perfect when i draw. Sometimes a full day or two working on a sketch is what i need to draw something thats very nice, at least a few hours though. proportions is another very important part of sketching. You dont seem to have much of a problem with that though. um... Often, sharp lines are a bad idea. Try to avoid sharp lines and instead use shading(contrast) and smudging to get the same effect. For example, around lips, dont use a line to highlight them, but instead use contrast and shading without the lines to define them.

Lastly, use a scanner to scan in images, dont use a digital camera if you want it to look that extra bit nice. Once scanned in, use photoshop to fix up any mistakes you made, and use photoshop also to adjust the gamma/contrast/brightness/etc until it looks perfect. Photoshop can often make a sketch that doesnt have much


check out this example: [link]
I took one of your sketches and added lots of contrast to it using photoshop. I tend to find it makes an image look better. If you add this contrast in while actually sketching instead of with photoshop, it will so much better- at least i think so.


But anyways, i hope what i had to say was interesting. You're artwork is really good. keep it up.