Night Elf- World of Warcraft

Alright i had a good look at the reference before i began writing this critique and i gotta say that's a pretty fair attempt for a 5 hr drawing, however you've done a couple of mistakes due to a lack of fundamental basics which i will attempt to point out as clearly as possible. I hope this critique proves to be useful and aids you in further developing your skill and gaining a greater knowledge of the basics which could help your art's professionalism increase by a great deal.


Ok firstly if you are still a beginner it is always recommended to use symmetry lines before you begin drawing so you can have a better visualization of the shape and size of your drawing before you begin putting in all the detail. The reason I've pointed this out is because after looking at the reference it is clear that the width of the face is way narrower than the original. This mistake may affect many things in your drawing changing how the realism of it, the eyes could get distorted and the overall proportions of the face may buckle. Try using symmetry lines just for the first steps and eventually after practice your mind will get very accustomed to copying and having a good photographic memory and you wouldn't need the lines anymore.


Secondly the shading seems to be another major problem in this drawing. I'm not positive about this but it looks as if you've only used one pencil tone like a light tone such as H or 2H for the entire drawing hence why it seems so dull. To enhance the skin texture and make it look a little more realistic you must have a dark pencil such as a B or 2B.. if you don;t own an entire pencil set, and use that pencil to make layers of tones. Firstly you make straight strokes throughout the entire face lightly and gently as to get a really basic light foundation tone like the one visible already in your drawing. After you've done that you blend it all using a soft tissue in circular motion.
After the first tone has been made you begin to shade in the darker areas by stroking straight lines in the area again only this time pressing a little harder on the pencil to produce a darker tone..once that is done you carefully blend it in with the lighter tone, not too vigorously, just slowly around its edges as to create a nice gradient, making it look more professional. You do that a couple of times till you've acquired the right tones in the correct areas.


Thirdly is lighting and highlights. It is a lot easier to leave that part for last, after you're done with the shading you get an eraser and sharpen it to the size u desire and use the edge to erase off the shade where you want lighting to appear.. in this case in the middle of the nose for example.. or in the glow of the eyes. You would notice in the reference how thin the highlight on the top of the nose is, try and do the same.


The hair also needs some improvement, however i myself do not have much knowledge in that matter and am still learning so i will leave it at that.

You've done a pretty good job, i only recommend you take the fundamentals I've explained above into consideration and give yourself some time to practice.

Good luck
Petrous