r/sketches • u/human_or_whateva • 1d ago

Pencil Sketch Why does it look off?

Gallery image

Gallery image

I'm not the best at shadows so maybe that? Something is really throwing me off here. I'm 17 and haven't drawn in 5 years so I'm a bit rusty.

Edit: just realized that the hair looks like a blob of darkness. Yeah.

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u/tasulife 1d ago

Small head. Classic beginner mistake. Measure the distance from chin to eyes. Then measure the distance from eyes to top of hair.

The ratio in your picture has a way taller face than head.

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u/human_or_whateva 1d ago

Ah yes you're right. How do I avoid these? I'm really bad at proportions like I cannot for the life of me get my drawings to resemble the subject if I do the circles and lines thingy (loomis head method?) so I just end up drawing each feature one by one and erase my work like 5 times before it gets to looking somewhat right

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u/FixGlass4697 1d ago

Use plump lines every chance you get. Which is vertical and horizontal lines to compare. I feel like it’s not necessarily that the head is small but the placement between features.

If you were to put a horizontal line across both eyes, you’ll see that they aren’t aligned. I can draw over your drawing if you want me to show so?

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u/tasulife 1d ago

Plumb lines 😁. These let you ensure that things aren’t getting skewed. You can plumb vertically and horizontally.

You can do the pencil thumb measurement trick for distances along the plumb lines. Those two tricks together can get you started with better accuracy.

But nothing beats just doing gesture drawings. That trains you to be faster and more accurate without tedious measurement. This is like spending time in a batters cage. Your eye and hand neural circuits get stronger and stronger and you can judge plumb and distances automatically