5 Helpful Tips to Improve this Graphite Drawing

One of our members, Susan, sent in her graphite drawing and requested some tips to help improve it. Susan writes:

Hi Steve,I'd love for Colin to give me feedback on my Graphite drawing. I can't seem to get the drawing to look like the reference.Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I have included some tips on areas that could be improved below. I hope others find these helpful too.1. The eyes are slightly out of alignment.2. The ear on the right is a little larger.3. The corner of the mouth on the drawing turns upwards.4. The hat on the drawing is too small for the head to fit in.5. The areas ringed would have been better darkened.Although it is thought by many that freehand drawing is the right way draw, in the case of portrait work it is very risky as Susan has found out. Using the drawing grid system would have helped to avoid these problems.I hope this is helpful to students. If you would like tips on your work, please have a look at our membership here.