Here's a portrait of Marilyn Monroe I drew today for a Christmas gift. It was done with charcoal pencils. Some of it got cropped in the scan. It's only the second full piece I've done this whole year and I haven't practiced at all so all crits are very welcome. Thanks.

Here be the shit:

I know you already heard this from me but it bears repeating, that's pretty damn good Ktulu!

Would be great to see some of you other stuff.

Holy fishcakes! Your sketch is awesome, Ktulu baby!

Nice. Very nice Ktulu. :)

Looks good. Probably just needs some tighter blending

I noticed that rezo :(

I would've liked to work on it some more but I ran out of time. I foolishly started on it around 1, thinking "hey I always work fast with charcoal." I had to leave for the post office with it by 4:30. I let myself get distracted a couple of times with stupid internet stuff, then *boom* it was 4 pm and it wasn't quite ready. Shading was the last thing I did so you can really tell some of it's rushed. I did however try really hard to atleast get the likeness down. Hopefully that's there.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

The likeness is fine! Post a pic of the photo you used, maybe?

I hope you sprayed it with fixative before sending it!

Looks quite impressive to me. Good jorb.

Impressive....... Most impressive.

Is it just me, or does her cleavage look kinda strange?

The whole thing looks fantastic though. I can't believe you did that with your hands, let alone charcoal!

It's not just you. I only really looked at her face when I saw it before, because the full image isn't visible on my screen.

I just copied the picture I looked at exactly guys. I thought it looked weird too but I didn't dare change it because I figured then it'd be "wrong." The way her chest looks is due to the lighting in the original picture I imagine.

I'll try to find the picture, I remember it took me forever on google to find one I liked though so I'm not sure which wording I used, I'll have to go through the process again.

I'm really worried the picture's too flawed to be liked by who I sent it to now :(

Impressive....... Most impressive.

Is it just me, or does her cleavage look kinda strange?

Agreed.

Is it just me, or does her cleavage look kinda strange?

Yes.

I think it's fantastic. The eyes and nose are really well done! Keep up the great work.

Except the cleavage.

To anyone else who feels the need to agree that the chest is horrible, I get the point so ease off. Thanks for bothering to express this to me twice NeonZ.

Here's a comparison. Obviously I did not get it exactly right but as I explained earlier I did not spend as much time on it, particularly the shading, as I should have due to my procrastination. It's no secret that I'm not some master artist but I still think I did ok with this. All the comments about the chest though really make me worry that it's not good enough to have pleased who it was for.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a243/HostedByChrist/ktulusucks.jpghttp://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a243/HostedByChrist/106-00864.jpg

yeah, the chest is a blending problem. Your transition is from really dark, to a light midtone to almost white in three steps instead of being a smooth gradient. The cleavage shadow gives the appearance of being above the chest as opposed to a part of it.

You shouldn't worry about the person liking it though. It's not a terrible flaw by any means and you already know going into a project that it won't come out perfectly. What matters the most in a portrait is the likeness of the face, and that's solid.

Blending :( I notice it as well like I said. I guess I was too cautious not to make it all seem so dark that I ended up making it look goofy. Then I didn't really even notice how badly that part was done until I saw the scan either. Bleh

Anway thanks on the likeness