Face Practice 04

Part 4 of my continuing face practices, this is the closest Ive ever got to my ref photo, am I actually improving?!

Things learned: Get the face shape and facial landmarks absolutely right first before even starting to detail anything. Previously I didn't pay much attention to it, thinking "Heck Ill fix that when Im rendering the shades". Wtf was I thinking?

Highlights, previously my lips and noses lack strong highlights to sell the idea of a realistic reflective surface. Maybe the super low res pictures has something to do with it but still, a bad oversight.

Eyebrows, erase some parts away and feather the sides to give it a less artificial look. This advice was actually given to me by my mum when she saw me drawing heh.

Erasing outlines in general, I normally draw rough outlines of the cheekbones/noses/lips before I move on to shading. I also usually don't erase them away. Since I'm trying to get it look as realistic as I can, I cannot have strong lines around them.

Lights, be very aware of where my lights are coming from, bounced lights especially. Exaggerate them a bit. Following too closely to the ref results in a less lively look.

Shading, working with the darkest color with a very low opacity works very very well. Also, use a lighter color to describe light, reserve the default background blue for the harshest highlights.

Alot of things learned this time, no coincidence this also took me the longest, around 5-6 hours

Edit: I realized I made another mistake with the eyes, they're suppose to look straight but I've accidentally made them look to the side instead. Whoops.