# opinions on a wip?



## Sophdraws19 (Nov 7, 2015)

Hi, I'm currently working on a portrait of an old woman for an art competition (Texaco's children art, you might have heard of it). Not too sure about the skin texture, it looks a bit scaly to me but idk so I'm asking for opinions here. Thanks!:biggrin: (I've included the ref pic for comparison).


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## Susan Mulno (Apr 13, 2015)

So far, so good, it is difficult to know how accurate it is with so little done. But looking phenomenal at this point.


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## leighann (May 10, 2015)

I'm no expert for sure. It looks like you have almost nailed it, but maybe it should be blended more, or a little softer? I can't quite put my finger on the exact issue. 

Hopefully someone with more experience can help you fine tune :laugh:


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

I think this will be a phenomenal drawing. Yes I do think there is something about the skin texture that just seems a little off, it looks to me more like it's burnt than just old. I don't know much about drawing honestly but my intuition says just a teeny tiny smoothing would help it. 

Oh and welcome to the forum.


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## PMMurphy (Feb 20, 2016)

Looks fantastic so far, can't wait for it to be fleshed out alittle more.


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## Mel_Robertson (Feb 23, 2016)

If it were me don't focus so much on detailing every inch of it, if you can make the middle - index fingers and headscarf blurred bringing focus to the face because for what I've seen you don't lack the skill to replicate, but replicate is what you don't want to do...
good luck in the comp!


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## ChiKevin (Feb 23, 2016)

Well here I go again. I think it's all the years of teaching that make me critical, but helpful I hope. So here's my take on it; first of all, obviously GREAT work. My one bit of advice though is the same thing I used to tell an old student of mine that loved to work in pen and ink. If you first shade the areas out in bigger sections so the shape and depth, of the head in this case, and all the features are in, in your case with a finer point or lighter touch to keep it soft, and then add all the details later, you will find yourself not having such issues as you are experiencing. The skin of that women is as old and crackly as you made it. However, since you created that surface texture on a white piece of paper it is messing with your overall vision. Pick a small section of the face, and on another piece of paper try this out, shade and shape the object first, nose cheek, whatever, then add the hairs and skin cracks, etc. I hope this works for you. Marsha Levine, who is still in the pen and ink art business 20 years later, my student, entered a competition after mastering this technique and I promise you she walked away with first prize. She gave me the artwork with the ribbon on it afterwards. I wish such luck for you. Great work so far.


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## ChiKevin (Feb 23, 2016)

Marsha did a portrait of me in pen and ink so I painted one of her in return.


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## ChiKevin (Feb 23, 2016)

So I can't figure out how to start a thread and share a picture but I can answer a thread with one? I wanted to be able to show a wedding portrait I was commissioned to do and here I can? That's weird.


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## ChiKevin (Feb 23, 2016)

Sorry to step on your toes here Soph. I thought I finally had this figured out and was sending that last post to Terry. But all the same now I guess, that's a couple of my pieces. You may notice the first one was done in 1987. The wedding portrait is new.


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## ChiKevin (Feb 23, 2016)

One more bit now that I did post this on your response board. Notice how even in my own painting I take the same advice I gave you. If you look at the "making of" pictures you will notice I first shade the areas that create large shapes, like in the man's shirt, before I add the details, in this case the stripes. I hope this helps you out in the future.


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## Mel_Robertson (Feb 23, 2016)

fantastic work kevin especially love the shading and skin tones on the lady who won the competition, thanks for sharing


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## Susan Mulno (Apr 13, 2015)

For future reference @ChiKevin, if you go to the forum, open a thread, say for instance, "Oil Painting" at the top left of the list is a small box that says "New Thread" click on that and you get a message window. This is the important part, if you don't put a title for your thread it won't load. Hope that helps.


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## Sophdraws19 (Nov 7, 2015)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I blended it out a bit more and it looks way better now. Thanks for the method chikevin! Works much better than trying to copy it out detail for detail (think I was trying too hard to make it hyper realistic >.>). And no problem love your wedding portrait! The competition deadline is in 3 days so I'm pulling an all nighter today to try and finish it ^^. This is what I've worked up to ~


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## Susan Mulno (Apr 13, 2015)

Wow! I am impressed!


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## leighann (May 10, 2015)

Wonderful :vs_love:


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## Sophdraws19 (Nov 7, 2015)

Thanks everyone! I finally got it finished^^ Had to rush but managed to submit it like 30 mins before the deadline xD. Definitely going to choose an easier subject for next years comp. Btw does anyone know any other art competitions open to the UK for all ages? This is my first one and I want to enter more but can't seem to find any :S.


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## Susan Mulno (Apr 13, 2015)

That is awesome!


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## dickhutchings (Oct 6, 2015)

Well done. Looks like a bit of work. Any idea how many hours you have in this?


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## Sophdraws19 (Nov 7, 2015)

dickhutchings said:


> Well done. Looks like a bit of work. Any idea how many hours you have in this?
> 
> 
> Umm not too sure about that, I've been working on it for about 2 months on and off putting in around an hour a day so I'd say around 40-50 hours total. Though I tend to procrastinate a lot so most of it was done over last weekend


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