After Anthony Ryder

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Hi Ngaire,
I think your drawing is getting better and better.
There some topics in the forum about measuring which you should examine, the secret is to practice, practice, practice...

[Terri Ficenec]

Hi Ngaire!
Aside from the drawing/measuring considerations. . . you might want to check your dark values. Especially in the more detailed darks, like where his ponytail gathers towards the nape of his neck, I find the original has the detail rendered within a tighter, darker range than in your version. It's easy to get involved in the details and lose sight of that overall dark effect.

[Patricia Joyce]

Hi Ngaire,
I agree, your drawing skills are developing nicely. Don't you love Anthony Ryder's book? I attended one of his drawing workshops and learned so much about measuring, and how the light falls on the figure, and about washing of graphite. I also came way convinced of how important the paper is which you draw on . Tony uses Canson MiTientes (sp?). It has the perfect texture for pencil.

Everyone is giving you good advice about measuring. Let me add my two cents worth. It does take allot of drawing to develop your eye. Do not hesitate to use measuring tools. Until my eye developed well enough and I really learned general relationships, I copied drawings from books to identical size. I used rulers to measure all kinds of distances in every direction. To check my accuracy I did not hesitate to lay tracing paper over the original drawing, trace edges and then lay the tracing paper over my drawing to see where I was off. I learned that I made the same judment errors over and over (i.e., I always "saw" the nose longer than it is, for example). When you are just practicing, this is such a good learning tool. Do not worry that you are cheating (see other posts regarding this subject - they are good).

Keep drawing, every day, if possible. You are really improving and will continue to get better and better!! Besides, isn't it fun?!!

Good luck -
Patty