This is a drawing of one of our newest members at our Midrand Extraordinaires Toastmasters club. She recently gave her ice breaker speech and it was absolutely great. I think she has got makings of brilliant speaker, and I’m looking forward to many more outstanding speeches!
I like this drawing a lot because I captured the likeness and the essence of the character captured much better than I used to. It really looks like her! The proportions are good; the values are solid and line work is great. There is also a really nice feel to the drawing as though it is an old photograph, so its got a bit of style there which adds a nice touch. The shading is a lot smoother than my previous drawings which is a welcome improvement.
As much as the likeness is good, it is not perfect; something I still struggle with. I do suspect it’s got to do a little with the original reference being a selfie. That usually seems to throw me off and I’m still trying to figure out exactly why. I’m using the same measurement techniques so theoretically that shouldn’t be a problem, but it still throws me off. I think maybe because the distortion of the selfie gives my mind differing impressions of what I should see, versus what I do see. That’s is still my only major gripe right now; but I am seeing solid improvements, so I am happy.
For the next drawing I actually want to do something different from portraits. I want to draw a comic book cover. Something I feel trepidation about as I haven’t drawn that style in a while, but I reckon it will be a ton of fun too.
Jae Subramoney 
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