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markstewart β Step by step portrait 4
Published: 2011-12-05 13:19:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 5709; Favourites: 92; Downloads: 188
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Description
The final stages.Part 1 [link]
Part 2 [link]
Part 3 [link]
Finished piece [link]
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Comments: 28
I love your drawings!! Thank you for sharing these!! As somebody who has just started out do you have any advice? Also could you check out my terrible drawings (they really, really are) and Β give me some feedback?? Thank You
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Thank you and you're welcome. Looked at your page, we all started Β out at the beginning but it's all about the passion for it and the wanting to learn ... wanting to learn so bad and putting in the work but always enjoying the ride. My advice would always be push yourself and take on the difficult drawing projects that may feel intimidating and too hard because no one will ever improve by playing safe. Getting it wrong is just as important as getting it right because we need to know both to improve. Experiment constantly with techniques and tools and have fun and always draw for yourself and you alone and stay true to it at all times, don't be tempted by popularism as it will drag you down and you will learn nothing, do this and the rest will fall into place and improvements will happen, doesn't get any easier though. Have fun and good luck, i wish you well with it, because if you want it bad enough you can take your art wherever you wish, no such thing as natural talent just hard work
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for me, as a bloody newcomer in art and painting as a whole and not even once trying a drawing with pencils so far your description of doing your art was just mindblowing and made me realise that there is propably no end of way in improving. and you can choose to spread your skills into many different directions (like trying different styls by creating each piece) or to go deeper and deeper in one direction... in both cases i think there is an endless possibility of growing!
thank you for letting me sneak a peek into your deepness
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You're welcome. There is always room for improvement and so much to learn so i try to approach each pencil portrait drawing in a different way. If i haven't gained something no matter how small from doing a drawing then it was a waste of my time. I try to carefully choose a reference to suit my needs rather than drawing just for fun .. it's all just drawing exercises and learning experiences and pushing myself to not play safe .. never learn anything that way
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...as long as it is still fun the way of arting doesnt matter Β
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Just finished reading and studying all 4 parts of this tutorial and my only disappointment is that they have ended
What I admire the most id the discipline you have on sticking to a plan - your plan may not be written down, but you know the way your going to 'attack' a piece and you do not waver from that. Β
There seems to be two extremes of 'realism' pencil art, the one style requires you to emulate/copy each tiny mm of a reference finishing each square cm at a time - I am sure you have seen this style being used on DA with great effect (but somewhat lacking in emotion?). Β Your style is the other end of the spectrum, with the tones, shadows, textures created by laying down layers of graphite on top of each other, and taking a very well trained (or gifted) eye to recognise when to stop
I guess my 'style' if you can call it that! is in the middle, however if I want to move onto the next level, I need to choose a path 
Thanks for sharing these Mark, you have inspired me to try out some new techniques, proving it is never too late to learn
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Thanks Paul. To be honest my style is very heavily influences by the art tutors i have had the pleasure to work with over the years, from technical illustrators to fine artists so it's definitely about training. I can't work square to square .. i did try last year but gave up in frustration. It became about rendering small abstract areas of tone rather than what i was drawing and i did not get any real satisfaction from it. I suppose we work in a way that feels natural to us and Β thankfully we are all different. I'm honoured that you think so highly of my work and i appreciate that a lot and it gratifying to know that you understand what motivates me when i draw. I always try to aproach each piece differently in some way and always push myself as hard as i can .. I'm honoured that you placed me in good company too, those guys are inspirational to me also
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Please can you do a tutorial for the hair? thank u
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Yes i will, the next time i find a good reference i will do one.. soon
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What a really great description of your process! I draw very similar. Being right handed I can't do the "work from top left to bottom right thing" like a lot of graphite artists. Could you tell me the exact Fabriano paper? I have only used bristol smooth.
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Thanks bud, I was taught by fine artists and I can't do that right to left thing, tried it once .. Never again. I use Fabriano Artistico watercolour paper, it's a heavy paper and off white in colour. The Fabriano and Bristol are polls apart and I enjoy using both.
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if you say your skill level is too low for something then i don't think ANYONE'S skill level is advanced enough. You are AMAZING!
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Thank you, i appreciate it
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I've read through all four stages of this. Fantastic. You are in a completely different league of skill to me so I can only pick up certain bits here and there but this still made for a really helpful and most interesting read.
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Thank you, i'm glad you enjoyed it
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What a fantastic and invaluable resource this is, I'm pretty sure most of us graphite artist will learn something from all this and thank you for taking the time to make these tutorials.
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Cheers bud, i really appreciate the feedback
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I've submitted all your tutorials for inclusion in the Tutorials of the Masters in Graphite-Gods. As with all Masters folders they will require 3 votes to be accepted and are just waiting for another 2 admins to accept. After this it will just require you to accept the request should you be happy for them to be there.
Gary.
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Nice one Gary, thank you. Great to know they may help somebody in some way. I read them back a few days ago and had to redo some of the typo's in there
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Amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing, I learnt interesting and useful things from your experience too. It's very hard to know when you really finished a piece. There are always details to refine and when you are checking older works then you find mistakes you didn't realize at the time.
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Thank you, i think that we never truly finish a piece .. we just take it as far as we can at that time. I usually stop when i find myself doodling with it and not actually achieving anything useful. It's nice to see old work that needs refining, i think it shows we have improved a little with the seeing, we just hope the hands have improved with the doing as well
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Yes! 
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Thank YOU so much for this extensive write-up! I know it must have been time-consuming, but oh so helpful to many here including myself!!
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You're welcome and thank you, that makes it all worth while
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Thanks for sharing your great talent man!
This is great!
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