The SINGLE Most Important Skill for Realistic Portraits

Comments · 93

• SI

  @SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting · 11 months ago · pinned

  Download the FREE Tone Simplifier Tool<br><a href="https://alex-tzavaras.kit.com/8a4a76bd59">https://alex-tzavaras.kit.com/8a4a76bd59</a><br><br>Become a Master Painter in Just 90 Days<br><a href="https://alextzavaras.com/90Days/">https://alextzavaras.com/90Days/</a>

  7

• RI

  @ricardo.mazeto · 10 months ago

  You don&apos;t need an AI tool for squinting. Just open your photo on an image editor, like Affinity, and put three adjustment layers on top of it, one that drops saturation to zero, one blur, and one posterize.

  141

• ST

  @StricklandKhanes · 8 hours ago

  This video is clear and easy to follow It deserves more views.

• MR

  @mrsplosh999 · 11 months ago

  I&apos;m an artist myself (10 years in the gaming industry). Squinting works, but also reduces light that can enter the eye, and thus can distort the values. <br><br>Another good way is to close one eye, and then deliberately adjust your focal length so that the image is blurred. , this will also simplify the image but retain the correct values as you&apos;re not obstructing the light that can enter the eye by squinting.

  6

• DJ

  @DJVARAO · 1 year ago (edited)

  Thank you, you are a true generous artist. I love your channel.

  3

• BU

  @busgreaser · 1 year ago

  Great tips. Delivered like a sports coach.

  4

• JO

  @johnraines2591 · 11 months ago

  I think your lessons are incredible. Your skill as a painter is phenomonal. You are up there with the very best. To begin with I thought the little tool for simplifying wasn&apos;t working. But I realise now it just takes time to form the grey-tone image. But the tones are rather fluffy with no edges. It would give you an idea of how it looks as simplified greys but without some sort of edges you couldn&apos;t use it as reference. A face just usually comes out as one tone of grey with a couple of darker &nbsp;smudges for the eyes.

  2

• AR

  @Artsbybola · 4 months ago

  I learnt a lot from you Sir. Right now have come up with the most powerful lesson for total beginner on how to draw and shade. God bless you Sir!

• LI

  @lisaoloughlin6476 · 11 months ago

  thank you so much for your guidance, inspiration and knowledge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2

• YO

  @yonas-94 · 1 year ago

  Great video sir. Subscribed❤

  2

• LA

  @Lasvegasjime · 2 months ago

  Excellent advice. Thank you

• AR

  @Art_and_Logic · 1 year ago

  During the pandemic, I found this channel and a handful of other ones. I became a decent digital painter. It is 2025 and I sat here thinking I did nothing with my life because I didn&apos;t hit a goal I set years ago that had nothing to do with art. I was in a slump for a while. &nbsp; As I was painting, I realized I enjoyed the process of learning and trying new things to improve my art. There was no goal, there was no pressure, there was no timeline, no social media. Just me enjoying it and finding ways to create the art I had imagined. That&apos;s when it hit me. I enjoyed the sciences and software because I had that same feeling. Once my life became unstable, I stared to hate it. So, after walking away from the sciences and letting all the skills rust, I went back and picked up Algebra I. As I relearn it, the same joy I had learning to paint, also fills me learning the sciences (as it did 20 years ago). This time I will learn it without goals, pressure and timelines. I will enjoy the process of learning it rather than trying to cram it all in and regurgitate it for a test or monetary value. I simply want knowledge for the sake of knowledge. &nbsp;Then I want to use that knowledge to do things. What that is will be known when I get to that crossroad. Art taught me that point A and point B are not important. Those come and go. The process between them is what I should enjoy. Every success or failure. Even if I never make it to point B, I will be happy with the process/progress of making it towards there. That is what made my art skills get better over time. I accepted that I am never going to be the best. I just need to let myself speak with the knowledge given and ask for help when I am stuck. We are all not alone on this planet. Our numbers and similarities are our strength. <br><br>TL:DR &nbsp;Art taught me how to stop lying to myself and take the time of failure as NOT time wasted but a learning lesson to find what I did wrong. Then try new things with that knowledge to move forward. &nbsp;It&apos;s made me look at science and software differently. For example, math has fundamentals. Known identities and processes for the way things are defined. If those fundamentals are weak, it will show up in later math. Many students failed because of that. My failure came in quantum mechanics lol. I did not accept it the way it was. However, I now see it as the best way humans can currently explain the world. It&apos;s why I always loved art actually. I find it as another way to describe life.

  32