I know that feeling.
I've been doing portraits in the past. Usually I did spend 20+ hours on them. My problem was, many people wanted portraits too but didn't want to pay for them. Eventually I got bored from it, portraits are fun every once in a while, but especially when you go for realistic you can't add your own imagination in it that much. Gotta stick to how it looks on the photos.
Just tell people you don't draw portaits anymore :3
50% of my commissions are portraits! I enjoy drawing realistically because it let's me rest from my usual stylized drawing! But when someone asks me to draw them... IN MY STYLE??? YES LAWD! It makes my whole day! I think it's because people see me do the portraits I do for school and what not and really like them so they keep asking for them, even though I almost never post them on social media.
TL;DR: I like portraits!
If they're paying me, sure!
If they're one of those annoying "You're an artist? OMG Can you draw me?!" types, hell no. I'd be inclined to ask what they do and demand free services from them right back. "OMG you're an accountant? CAN YOU DO MY TAXES?!"
I get requests from people occasionally. It makes me really uncomfortable because it's hard to say no to insistent people without coming across as rude. I tend to brush them off with humour, e.g.: "Well, I'm a little busy with my webcomic right now, but if you're willing to wait another couple of years for me to finish it…"
No one asks since I think after telling people i'm in 3D they just have no idea what i'm talking about. As for drawing I can do a portrait pretty fast under a few minutes. Ask me to do a full landscape plus figure in oil then I'd be pretty pissed.
i really like painting them, but sketching them is my enemy :c
Portraits r really good digital coloring practice imo, but i can see y u hate em c;
I used to hate doing them. HATE them.
Then one day our art teacher taught us a class in high school on portraits and . . . I dunno, something snapped. After that point, I started to enjoy drawing them, and got pretty dang good at 'em too. I'm still not a pro but portraits - and character faces in general - are one of my admittedly stronger skills. I love drawing faces. I love drawing emotions. Eyes, mouths, noses, everything that makes up a face is its own piece of art that's part of a bigger composition, and they're all so much fun to draw. Maybe it's because every face you draw can be unique - the possibilities are endless (ESPECIALLY when it comes to comics). I love sketching them, shading them, painting them, rendering them, etc. just aaaauugh i love them lol AND I DON'T KNOW WHY there was literally nothing special or different about this particular lesson, I had taken it a few times already in previous years, but something this time around just stuck with me and I haven't been able to shake it since; and frankly, I don't want to lol <3
I don't get asked for them very often, and when I do, I don't really mind doing them. It's not my favourite activity - they're kind of a sensitive thing, since you want to be sure it turns out well or you might upset the person whose portrait you're painting, etc. Also, unless I'm provided with really good photos for reference, my mental face-scramble thing can trip me up; I can't paint specific people from memory. But I don't hate them. I mean, I like drawing characters - drawing portraits is kind of similar!
Also, portraits are the easiest way for non-artist people to parse the whole "artist" thing. It's often the only context they have for it - they know portraits are a thing artists do, so they naturally assume that's what you do, if you're an artist! It's the same way 90% of non-comics people in Sweden respond with "Oh, like Donald Duck?" when I tell them I'm a comic artist; the only comic they read as kids was Donald Duck, so that's they're only reference point for comics.
I dont like doing any kind of paint for anyone... Only if it is a monster ofc. Back in school I hated drawing classes, just do portraits or draw people you dont even care about... it was a catholic school so every now and then nuns asked me to a portrait of Teresa or something, thing that I hated doing...My thing are not people, but monsters hahaha. If people ask me to draw something out of my mid, YASS RIGHTAWAY, portrait: unless is your dog, NO.
OMG my life in high school, lmao. But I charged them $5... or that thing that is legal in Colorado hahaha sssshhhhh
But, yo, so much dislike for portraits in this thread XD. I wonder why this is so common among artists. I personally love drawing portraits from life. I sometimes go down to Central Park and draw tourists for practice charging them $5 (and then running away because it is actually illegal to do that without a permit, which I don't have ay lmao!). I get some good practice in and make some nice lunch money... sometimes too much lunch money hahaha.
Hey, can you do me a portrait? LOL
I like doing them but gets very frustrating when the likeness either doesn't come or slowly fades away :/
That's what people ask me the most and at first i hate that but then they pay (but still i still hate)
i draw portraits, a lot. realistically. but i don't have anyone sit for me to model, i just go out and sketch strangers' faces. which means i only do really quick portraits. which is all very well, you know, no one's watching you, or giving their opinion, and you also don't .. know the person you're drawing, which for me makes it much easier to draw them.
like, with drawing friends for example, i just really know their features, and it's really hard to match that inner picture you have of them with what you're actually drawing.
so when i, say, sit on a bench and i secretly sketch the person on the bench across from me, there's way less pressure.
anyways, i don't enjoy having people look over my shoulder while i draw, or drawing someone and then letting that person see afterwards. which means that i try to avoid those situations altogether.
a few years ago, i did an art course, where we were seeing each other's work all the time, and drew each other all the time, modeled for each other etc. that was uncomfortable as well, but just part of the course, and you got used to it.
but i remember some situations where i actually tried drawing a family member and afterwards (rightfully) they asked to see... i guess i just am not good with criticism. or maybe i am? but i feel like, some people expect a portrait to be ... some kind of photograph of themselves and i can't really- no wait i'm actually just too insecure about, let's face it.
and the prospect of getting paid for the portrait, geez, that would be all the more pressure. big fat nope!
I hate being asked to draw someone because it's waaaaay too personal, and it makes me super uncomfortable. like what if i draw someone in a way they don't want to be drawn? I have no way of knowing how they want to be perceived, and what if i get it wrong? guh. it's a nightmare.
what gets even more on my nerves is when people see characters i draw and go hey is that me? i bet that's actually me. you totally drew that thinking of me, didn't you.
or the dreaded, hey, you should totally make me a character in your comic.
no.
I have been asked by family and friends on numerous occasions to do portraits. When I do them it usually ends up being of their pets lol! The most tedious one requested of me is an extended family group portrait. I'm talking 20 + people in the same image...and I work traditionally so that's a lot to squeeze into a 11" x 17" paper. Needless to say I haven't agreed to that one!
Oh my yes..this happens all too often.. No offense to my friends but you don't make sense being in my stories.
I don't hate portraits at all cause it always reminds me of the uniqueness in each individual faces and that not everyone's the same. If I get asked everyday, which I don't at all, then sure I'll be annoyed by it, but I'll take this advantage for practicing in this field. To have a person asking for a portrait as a live model would be awesome cause then you could set up the composition however you'd like. But this is all in my opinion.
