It’s immediately recognizable as Emma Watson; great job! I think there are some issues with certain facial proportions, for example, the forehead area seems too wide compared to the rest of the face, and there’s a disproportionate size to both eyes. I think the grid technique is incredibly useful; it allows you to achieve the proportions exactly as they are. Excellent work! ☺️☺️👏🏻

Well done!!

Hi Martin

You might check out the exercises on the “Pencil Drawing Masterclass” in the Academy. There is an exercise on Drawing Hair and also the Final Portrait exercise, which is excellent for proportions, shading and facial details.

I hope this is helpful for you.

Hi Martin 😊

Good effort on this one, and I can see you’re really trying to understand the forms. I’ll point out a few key things that will help you improve faster.

The main issue is value separation. Right now most of the face is sitting in similar mid tones, so the structure looks a bit flat. Try to push your darks more, especially around the hair, under the cheekbone, and near the eyes. This will give more depth.
Second is edges. Some areas like the jawline and nose need cleaner, sharper edges, while other areas like the cheeks should stay softer. Controlling this contrast in edges will make it more realistic.
Now about proportion mistakes. The eyes feel slightly misaligned, one sits a bit higher than the other. The nose looks a little shifted to one side, and the distance between the nose and lips feels slightly off. Also, the face width around the cheek area is a bit narrower compared to the reference, which affects the likeness.
You can fix this by lightly checking your guidelines, measuring distances, and even flipping your drawing to spot these issues early. You’re improving with each drawing, so keep going. Focus on values, edges, and proportions in your next piece and you’ll see a big difference 👍

Hi Martin
I am still reluctant to build up strong values in layers. I feel that I am making things way too dark and I am going to ruin all that I have drawn up until that time.
I watch Ali in the drawing exercises lay down a light layer, then dry brush it then lay down a dark layer over that, and my thought is that he really messed that up by making it way to dark. But then, out comes the erasers, and walla, every thing just starts coming alive. He uses the perfection eraser, the Mono Zero eraser and the kneaded eraser and the three dimension value just magically appears. I am finding that the smallest of details have a great influence in the resulting drawing.

above all points are be followed for sure. martin ,need to practice proportions ,obersevations skill on reference pic(light and shadows),smooth transitions dark to light required.

Hi, What I saw immediately was that the chin and nose are extremely pointy in your picture, but if you look at the real reference, her nose is actually rounder and the chin as well. 😊 Just my two cents.

Hi Martin,

I’m new here and yes I see the some points that everyone has said. Bravo to you though as I think I would really struggle with this portrait myself as there are alot of dark areas and different values. Well done. Can’t wait to see your next project.