triplexmile - Tumblr blog

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Progression Series! I actually have one this time... The drawing is done on a separate sheet of paper and I transfer it to my main paper using a lightbox, which is something I got a long time ago when I was still drawing comics by hand. It's pretty useful. Having the base line drawing as its own thing means I can redraw the image if I need to. Like if I want to make copies or if I want to do a few Rough Drafts before the main project. With this one, I didn't need any Rough Drafts. I managed to pull it off in one attempt, which is pretty crazy for me. My subject is extremely photogenic and she provided me an excellent reference photo, and that helped tremendously. This is one of my favorite pictures I've made, but I promised I'd give it to her, so I'll have to say "Good Bye" to it soon :(

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A portrait of a friend of mine! I may have posted this already on Tumblr, but it was the unfinished version. I started this portrait a few months ago, but got sidetracked, so it's been on the backburner for a while. 9" 12". Graphite Pencil on Drawing Paper -- (I'm still not sure whether or not I like this paper. I hate working with it but I keep finding success with it...go figure)

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Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989-2013)

Poirot & Hastings + being domestic

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Batman by Mirko Colak

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That's the picture I used for reference! How convenient that it popped up in my feed the day I posted this portrait... That's how I decided to draw it. I was browsing Tumblr and this picture popped up in my feed and I was like "That's a cool photo. Why not draw it?" Though, I took out her hands. I thought the cropping would make them look weird.

Millie Bobby Brown

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Behind the Scenes!

There's the drawing, the original version next to the final version, and then the final version. This was the second "major" portrait I did. My computer broke at the end of November, and this was done at the end of December. Up until the point that I made this, I was having a hard time getting the hang of drawing on paper and was about to give it up. My computer was gone, and I didn't have the money to get a new one, and I was feeling pretty defeated. You can see how poor the original version looked. Like, what even is that? It also has fingerprints on it because my hands were dirty when I drew it. It's the work of someone who doesn't know what they're doing, that's for sure. But something clicked with me soon after I finished it, and a week later I had the new, and very improved, version. It's not great, but it's pretty good, and it boosted my confidence, and after a month of struggling, I finally began to think that maybe I had a shot at making something out of this pencil drawing stuff.

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A portrait drawing of Millie Bobby Brown. 8.5" by 11" -- graphite pencil on sketch paper.

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Preview! I posted this one before, but this time it's "official" (meaning that I'm going to post it on Deviant Art and...uhh...other places besides Tumblr and IG )

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Which one of these looks better to you? The top one or the bottom? (and if you don't mind; are you viewing them on a phone or on a computer?) One thing that's frustrating with these is that they look different on my laptop, on my phone, and in hand. For example, the picture I posted earlier this afternoon looks really dark on my phone, but it looks great on my laptop. With my traditional art, I would like to keep the computer's influence to a minimum. I don't wanna get bogged down in computer enhancements, and Smart Filters, and all that jazz. Not to sound like a hipster or anything, but I want to post the image as artistically "pure" as I can... But unfortunately, the only camera I have ready access to is my phone's. It's a big fan of "helping" me with filters and automatic lighting settings. It looks good, but not great. I might have to buy a digital camera, which is going to be a problem since I don't have much money at the moment. The photo on top was taken with a friend's iPhone, which is a much better camera than mine! I didn't have to adjust any filters on it at all! --------------------------------- Also, these images look much better in person. Like 5x better at least. I have one of my portraits hung up on my wall in a frame and it looks fabulous (and I'm not just saying that). If you ever decide to commission one of these from me, keep that in mind!

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Behind the Scenes! This picture was mostly experimental. I did two versions of it (well, 2.5 versions -- I posted all of them). I'm not super happy with the way it turned out, but it's not awful, and I'm pretty sure I know what all I did wrong. Hopefully I will keep all of this in mind for future drawings. The thing is, DOA XBV doesn't have the greatest lighting for realistic portraits. The shadows are very minimal, particularly on the women's faces. Sometimes the shadows don't make sense. Sometimes there will be a hard cast shadow on the woman's neck, but none anywhere on her face. I think they keep the shadows on the women's faces minimal for the sake of making them look as soft as possible. It works for the game, but it doesn't work well when it comes to drawing realistic portraits! So I had to construct my shadows myself, and I didn't do nearly enough studying or preparation work. I also used multiple reference sources, and I should've only used one. Since I didn't do any prep work, and since I couldn't settle on a single reference source, I was doing a lot of edits and adjustments to my drawing as I was working on it. I'd shade something, then erase it. Then I'd shade something else. Then I'd erase that. Then I'd need to move her eyes around. etc etc... The paper I used was a relatively flimsy drawing paper, which can do some cool stuff with textures, but doesn't hold up well to all that erasing and editing. Which is why there are sections of her face that look kind of dirty. Oops! Well, in any event, the next portrait will be better. I really want to get back to doing commissions, but I don't know if my skill level with traditional art is ready for that yet. I can't afford to get back to digital, so this is kinda make or break for me! Any support would be helpful! (I have the link to my ko-fi in my Tumblr Profile) Link

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A portrait of Ayane! I made some mistakes drawing this one, but I learned a lot from it! I'm looking forward to doing another one. 9" by 12" . Graphite Pencil on Drawing Paper.

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Hirō Isono - Untitled, n.d.