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OHHHHHH God! I just wrote this huge thing then accidentally closed the tab. UHHHHHHGGGG, all right. Let's try again.

First of all, you are incredibly talented, especially for your age! You seem to really like emphasizing the contours of the features. This can lead to some pretty interesting areas to explore, such as William Beckman, David Hockney, or Alex Katz. One are that could really make your contours shine is to focus on the structure of the head, as opposed to the features.

Suppose I take your source photo into Photoshop and layout the Cutout Artistic Filter. As you can see it really breaks down the subtle variations of the structure of the face. It is really difficult to notice this with the naked eye and takes practice. That is why we tend to shoot straight to the individual features of the face. The features tend to have nice, sharp contrasting values that make the lines whereas the structure tends to be more subtle gradients in color and value.

Laying out the structure of the head with loose general shapes can really make the drawing go pretty easy. Here is an example I quickly threw together from your photo. You'll have to excuse some of the proportional errors of my drawing because I didn't want to dwell to much on that. But you can see that once the structure is laid in it is easy to then come in and start highlighting the contours or the values if you choose. This way your contours won't just trace around the features, but will actually work around the whole shape of the head. A good way to train yourself in this area is to try to drawing the head with only straight lines. /u/drawnlikefrenchgirls is fantastic at this, as demonstrated here and has an incredible skill of composing figure structure (a good book on this is Bridgman's "Drawing from Life").

Topographical shading can also be used to build more structure as well. Take for example this self portrait by Rembrandt. Notice how he shades according to the shape as opposed to the direction of the contour. This is key, focus on shading ACROSS the form, not along it. You started to really get that going on the cheekbones of your drawing. This will also help the lips recede into the mouth smoothly. I found it really helped when I didn't think about shading so much as cross-hatching but as a combination of cross-hatching and topographic lines.

Anyway, that's my two cents :)

Edit: Oh yeah, if you want to play around with photo's but can't invest in photoshop you can always try Gimp. It is free and open source.

Oh wow, great questions! Umm...

1. Watercolor, cotton hot-press paper, painter's tape, and sometimes a quick sketch underneath. I add eye highlights with white ink, and sometimes use black ink too. Each painting is built up from several layers, light-to-dark. They take anywhere from 30 minutes to 6 hours, depending on my energy level (unpredictable internal weather) and how many layers the piece wants. I try to stagger multiple paintings at once since I have to wait for each layer to dry before doing the next one.
   
   
2. I would say this one, because it was a real breakthrough moment, in learning to let go and take the photo in a direction I want.
   
   
3. Oh that's hard, like picking a favorite author... off the top of my head, megaswan kicks some digital ass!
   
   
4. Don't change anything, lol. Maybe creating an easy way to find other contributing artist's blogs/dA/etc?
   
   
5. I discovered it probably through the links at /r/sketchdaily
   
   
6. Read Art and Fear. And draw every day :) It's just like practicing any other skill; time and patience are rewarded.
   
   
7. High contrast photos are easier to work with, and 3/4th head shots are more interesting, so I always scan the new submissions for those types of photos.
   
   
8. redish and yellowish brown ;) Source: venus and mars

Hi - thanks! Yes, this was drawn with an H and an HB and maybe a B pencil, I think.

Edit: Actually it was an H, HB but mainly done with a Dixon Primary #1 pencil.

I found a book called The Pencil by Paul Calle in the 7th grade and have been in love with his style ever since.

Here are some examples of his work as found on Google. His work is just beyond awesome – it's just so awesome, unbelievably great work.

> my 'gram

That's great, I love it. You're drawing is just about as adorable as that little fence lizard.

I was just looking through your other work and noticed all of your hand studies. You might want to check out this book. It was my bible when I was studying the fundamentals of figure drawing. I still consult my old charcoal dust covered copy. Note: I don't work for the book company or anything, just a friendly tip from one artist to another.

Anyways, great work. Keep it up.

Thank you! I just purchased some watercolour pens and I'm still getting used to them, but they're a dream. They're made by a company called Akashiya SAI. Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/Akashiya-Sai-Watercolor-Brush-Pen/dp/B000VZB51C

I also have a set of Winsor & Newton watercolour pens, but I honestly like the SAI ones better. (That and they're cheaper.)

Hehehe "tips"... I just read a blog post about people asking for "art tips" that happened to ring pretty true, although that guy presents it in a more grouchy way....

I just draw every day and take an active interest in art. Here are some of my favorite books:

McCloud

Loomis

Animator's Survivor Kit

Lately my big epiphany has been to stop punishing myself at every turn and just let go and finish something. So keep that in mind to have fun with it!

"I'll love you forever

I'll like you for always

As long as you're living

My baby you'll be."

It's from I'll Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. It's a story of a mother who sings that to her son at different stages of his life.

Fascinating! I like it. Reminds me of the cover of this book: http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Doesnt-Love-Us-Anymore/dp/0802141471. I'm glad you didn't draw op's Dad's head exploding though.

Can I recommend "Drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards? The neurological stuff is a bit washy but the overall concepts and teaching to draw what you see are the most valuable thing I have found for general drawing skills.

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/dp/1585429201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406140554&sr=8-1&keywords=drawing+on+the+right+side+of+the+brain

It will take you a long way in a short space of time.

I would like to see some original cover art for the book "Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt" by Dr. Chuck Tingle.

^^^Yes ^^^it's ^^^a ^^^real ^^^book

i use a graphic tablet - older wacom bamboo

makes everything easier ;)

Thanks, this was done with a regular black Sharpie and a Zebra grey midliner highlighter.

​

I buying it. I'm buying it. Settle down. I just started reading comics again this year after like a 15 year break.

This is where I start right? http://www.amazon.com/Hellboy-Vol-1-Seed-Destruction/dp/1593070942/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408649778&sr=8-1&keywords=hellboy+graphic+novel

• The artist
  
  
• The original image
  
  
• The book

Yep, just pencil and paper. I also used these blending stumps to get the shadows to be a bit more subtle.

http://www.amazon.com/Copic-Markers-MLB2-Multiliner-Inking/dp/B000MRSUZ8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395531731&sr=8-2&keywords=copic+pens

It's from that one book, right? I can't recall the name but I remember the pictures. Something about an alphabet.

Edit: Aha! Found it.