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Portraits - a learning curve
Harry [HayTay] kindly suggested I make a thread of these images. I hope they might give hope to those, like me, who are not naturals with paper & pencil. :) Like everyone here, I've done lots of doodling with XXP but I wanted to attempt something a tad more creative. The images are not traced, they're made with lines and shapes via the shape editor tool [& sometimes the Freehand tool], feathering & transparency. I usually use a pic as a model - to one side of the page - and occasionally draw a rough grid of guidelines over salient points which I then clone and shift over to where I'm drawing. I don't claim any great skill or talent of course and I don't think more highly of these images than I should [Ye Gods, look around TG!] but nearly anything is possible in XXP with concentration - which is very therapeutic in itself I find. The images are in chronological order so any progression - or regression - on the learning curve will perhaps be noticeable.
I will - hopefully - be adding to this thread as and when. Any comments, suggestions, helpful criticisms gratefully received :) Thanks to those of you who've made confidence boosting comments already in the Stop & Post threads - much appreciated :-bd
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John,
They are more than exellent.
Congratulations, I really enjoy this thread
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Thank you very much Javier :) This one is the last for now ...
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Sorry, I disagree with this thread entirely John..
These are not portraits at all, they are very good traits :D
I can see a marked improvement, keep it up and where's your website then?? ;)
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;)) Thanks very much Steve, appreciated :) When I saw that you'd posted I thought, "ooh 'eck, I've posted in the wrong place and it should be elsewhere ... like outside TG " :D My website has been dismantled and is being re-thought. I did one [in XXP5] for my cousin's dog that's better!;))
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Excellent John, you certainly reflect the face of the image.
Rupert
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Those are great, John. They're all terrific but my favorites are Laurel and Hardy, John Wayne and Orson Welles.
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Thank you Gray :) It's the images copying black & white, shadowy stills that seem to come out the best!
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Great work John. I very much like your style and your capturing of likenesses in such a few objects is excellent.
Regards
Su
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Thank you Su :) I'm Googling around for another victim - errr subject: you may notice that most wear hats till now, must find a way to do hair :D
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Thanks for taking my suggestion to heart, John, and giving your portraits a thread of their own.
May I offer a suggestion for a portrait of yours? What the heck, I'll offer it anyway. Since you want to migrate away from hats but don't want to jump right into the 'hair thing' It'd be interesting to see what you can do with a subject that doesn't have much of either one. If you wouldn't mind, I'd really enjoy seeing what a 'neodized' version of Alfred Hitchcock would look like.
Again, that is only if you're interested.
I look forward to many more,
Harry
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Thank you for thinking them worthy of their own thread Harry :) And suggest subjects as much as you like. In the past few years I've put on about 4 stones [long story] and I've mentioned a number of times to people that since I got my hair cut as well I've found my reflection, when I'm walking past shop windows, looks disturbingly like Alfred Hitchcock! :-O None of those people have agreed, but none have disagreed! So this is either Hitch or ME!
Mind you, I never wear a suit so it must be the former ;)
PS I've found I quite like drawing hats ... should I be worried ?!?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
neodeist
I've found my reflection, when I'm walking past shop windows, looks disturbingly like Alfred Hitchcock!
Well, to convince us you're going to have to revisit an old on-going topic and do better than this John ;)
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'Good e-ven-ing', John. I can hear the theme to 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' playing in my head already. You've conjured up a striking likeness to the master of thrillers, suspense and mysteries. And quick, too! Mr. Hitchcock is a childhood hero of mine, along with Charlie Chan, of course. I have fond memories of staying up late, sitting on the floor with our dog and watching the ol' black & white television until I either fell asleep or programming ended and the test pattern appeared. Those were the days.
Thanks for that,
Harry
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Thanks Harry :) It took about 3 1/2 hours I suppose. Almost daylight here now! Yeah, he was creepy in those shows, wasn't he! Had a few books 'edited' by him as well.
BTW, I've complied with Steve's insistence above to post a pic ... a night of horror all round! :-O:cool:
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Great thread and Great samples of Images John, congratulation. i like the images with your simple drawing technique.
Once again Great great work.
Regards BP
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Thanks BP, I appreciate it :)
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One of the most beautiful women in films ... so I apologise to her :D
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Very beauty portrait John, I started to draw portrait for a woman face, but i can not use your technique, i have to draw with complix shapes and colors. when it finished i will post it in the gallery.
once again you did a great job, like it.
Regards BP
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Thank you BP, I really appreciate your kind words. I shall look forward to seeing your portrait - when I've tried to do complex shadings, especially in colour, it all goes horribly wrong! :D Have you seen Valery Kouleshov's work, this one especially? He shared some .xar files with us too.
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Yes i saw his work, but i try to draw in my style, have no problem with draw complix shapes and colors, the problem only the hair, i still learning how can i draw hair and how make my own technique to draw the hair of portrait.
Regards BP
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Black Panther
... i try to draw in my style...
Quite right too and you do it extremely well :)
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Thanks John, i know that all my drawings in Xtreme are complex drawings, sorry for that, but I donīt learn any thing about graphics or portrait, only learn by doing in Xtreme in my style.
However, I like your technique in draw portraits too, one question please, you draw your portraits with the mouse or tablet pen?
Regards BP
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No need to apologise for drawing complex, I wish I could! I use a mouse [Logitech MX 600 cordless laser]. I do have a Wacom Bamboo tablet but struggle with it. One reason is the same as with pencil & paper ... I know what I want to do but my hand won't follow my brain :D I got it to help me learn how to draw on computers, but I should learn to draw first ;))
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Thanks John, itīs the same by me too, i have the tablet and pen, bu still using the mouse to draw, after learn the step (redraw an image) i mean trace the image with the mouse, i will go to the next step, how can i draw from my mind. or like you, only see the image and try to draw it, without using Hand trace or bitmap trace, it well take more and more time until this step.
Thanks again for the Informations. and good luck with your drawing technique.
Regards BP
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very nice gallery John :)
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Great to see them all in one thread, John. A few suggestions, or even requests:
Phil Silvers, Yul Brynner, Patrick Stewart, Sinead O'Connor, Homer Simpson and to round off this theme of famous baldies, Aeschylus - the ancient Greek playwright who died about 500 BC when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his bonce. It is said that the eagle mistook the playwright's bald head for a rock.
Saludos,
Bob
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Thanks Bob - if I can find that photo of Aeschylus I had I'll have a go :D Isn't he the one who had a Golden Ass?
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I've never seen him disrobed, John! ;))
Saludos,
Bob.
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That's lucky cos I just checked and it was Apuleius after all! :nerd: Thanks for those hairless suggestions btw :)
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Very nice "Mary Poppins", John.
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John your drawings are really an inspiration to me. I want to learn how to do this, and thought I could start by downloading one of yours, and "MESS" with it.
Well you can imagine the surprise when i loaded it and it was nearly all BLACK! How can I get it to look like yours(not ALL BLACK)???
What am I doing wrong? Or NOT doing right?
TIA Bill
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@ Bill 1 - thank you :)
@ Bill 2 - Hi, welcome to TG - thank you for the kind words. Some of the images are very black :D Which one was it?
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Well it turns out it was the way I downloaded the images. When I selected "save target as" in IE and then loaded with WE they are just fine.
I tried to drag and drop from another program, and for some reason it turned the images into very dark ones.
Now I have them and I'm off to trying to duplicate HOW you created them.
Thanks again for the neat drawings...
Regards,
Bill