Tribute to Ray

[rico]

Hi Everyone,

Here's my portrait tribute to the great Ray Charles



Comments, suggestions, and critiques are welcomed.

Thanks,
Rico

[Larry]

Very nice Rico. I'm a big Ray Charles fan and you've paid him a wonderful tribute. The movie "Ray" is a very worthwhile film to see if you are a fan of his or even if you just are curious about his life. A lot of the critics panned the movie as being too long (among other reasons as well). Well, I say "yeah, the movie was long, and I wish it were even longer"; that's how wrapped up I was in it. At most movies. I'm either asleep after the first 15 minutes (no lie) or I'm squirming in my seat after 30 minutes, hoping it will end soon. This move was different, one of the best I've ever seen.

[toonMom]

Rico - great job on this! The only comment I can make is that the values are too close to the same. The drawing doesn't "pop". I wish I could offer some advice as to how to fix that, but I suffer from the same problem. I believe it is caused by a lack of really dark darks? My art teacher tells us to find the darkest part of the subject and make it as dark as you can get it with a really soft pencil, then do the next darkest based on that value and so on. You really captured the essence of Ray here, you should be proud. Your drawing is very solid, the way you did his glasses, with a slight rendering of his face behind them, very cool effect, you really pulled that off!

[Caricature Shop]

Rico,

I think you have a wonderful piece. I just spent a couple of minutes trying to work the file a bit. Please do not be offended with what I've done here. I've just tried to work with hue and contrast to make Toonmom's point. After you have commented I will remove your artwork from my site. Just trying to help:

[donpinsent]

i agree that the likeness is dead-on, proportions all intact. i think another problem with the shading is the very common mistake (i used to do it all the time) of thinking that all shading has to be blended. there doesn't have to be a gradual blending of darker shadow areas to highlights. closer analysis of black and white photos will reveal that sometimes dark shadows lie right next to areas of bright "light" with little or no shades of grey in between. putting this effect into a black and white portrait can really make it , as toonmom says, "pop". blending every transition from dark to light (done by many artists by smudging with a finger- big mistake) can make the drawing look dirty and accidental sometimes. another thing you did do right though was to resist the temptation (okay, maybe it wasn't a temptation for you, but many artists make this mistake too) to put in a background, even just a shadow. sometimes, like in your drawing here, the best background you can have is none at all. really calls the attention to the subject. overall, very nicely done.