LadyJudgement

Yes I realize the premise of the thread, my point was, and I guess I didn't make it very clear, what did his example have to do with the name. Where does the name come from (other than the computer term), that is to say why THAT name, and why this look as an example IF it has nothing to do with the SG or the name...

IF CAD, was military based, his example (pointless or not) would make sense... but if they're not military like, and the black gold thing isn't some X-men offshoot, 70s throwback, door man look, is there something else to go on, for any of us wanting to help him out... Or is this just for his SG input, in which case I'll shut up.

This is actually a proven fact, and the reason why MOST adults draw like children. Because for most adults who are not in the day to day artistic fields, the last time they drew was as kids. The brain like any muscle that isn't exercised, only remembers the last time you did it. Thus the child like lines...

That being said, 2 decades later and you have a better handle than most.

So it's only a matter of getting back into your groove.

Lousey is right, structure would help your composition... but remember passion is what keeps you going.

My suggestion would be 2 things, enter a search into Google on "drawing a face". And hit the video search tab... you will see a variety of styles, but most of them show "the basics"... it's nice to input that visual data on how others draw. It will add to any book technique you see, the idea is not to emulate, but to absorb and output...

Also, be aware of your paper's edges since you are doing things traditionally. Give yourself an invisible 1 inch margin all around and try NOT to go outside the margin with your composition, UNLESS you have to.

By keeping things inside the invisible margin, you prevent your composition from becoming lopsided. Which is the problem I see in your first drawing. It looks like you wanted to include the ear, but it was somehow waaay outside the margin for you and off the page.

With an invisible margin, all your elements or facial features stay inside and within proportion of one another, and the margin itself is used for things such as background, hair, clothing, other body parts, etc...

Also prioritize when you're composing your piece. Is this a drawing of the complete head, did the shoulder have to take up as much space as the mouth to nose area? In a face, the expression is of utmost important, then I would argue comes light, where it hits, what shadows it casts.

Block in lightly on your page with very faded lines, where your edges are, and your elements are gonna be. By edges in this case, I would have marked the hat, the shoulder, the left and right side of the face, the left and right side of the hair. If you are copying from a reference, this measuring distance of elements in relation to one another will help plan your overall composition, and prevent the face from become compressed.

I actually have the reverse problem that you do, I elongate naturally anything I draw. In a digital program, you can flip the face left to right to see if your proportions are lop sided. Traditionally, we have to do some place marking to make sure we don't go too wide or too long.

I hope some of that helps. Keep posting, this is definitely the place to get some feedback...

LJ