I wanna make my art more realistic any tips/critique

[glacial light]

My goal is to achieve a level of realism on par with the art during the Renaissance

[weak meadow]

if youwant to get absolute treasureful shading I sugges scraping charcoal sticks into podwer and then using a paintbrush to pain it on.

no line marks and so much more effective.

especially for pieces like ur 2nd image

[glacial light]

okay thank you ill keep that in mind, but is there any substitutes for that method since from what you described I imagine it's messy and I don't wanna create a huge mess

[rose lion]

you could use some soft charcoal pencils and a paper blending stick, it will get similar results but may take longer

[weak meadow]

I keep mine in a co trainer like this, it stays in very well and u can also have a lid for.it but I don't,

If u want another method u could always scrape the powder off ass you go, and u can do the same with graphite pencils, although much more painful to do.

[desert drift]

How long did these take

[forest cloud]

push the values of your drawings even further. A lot of renaissance paintings have deep shadows and bright skin, so dont be afraid to shade something super dark or keep it light. as what the previous people said, charcoal and graphite are excellent mediums to use for blending shadows and getting really dark values. If you don’t want to make a mess, get a set of graphite pencils!! Theyre pretty easy to get the hang of

[glacial light]

Okay thank you for the advice this will really help me alot

[glacial light]

What do u use to shave the charcoal stick?

[glacial light]

Like uh 1 hour and 30 minutes give or take respectively

[forest cloud]

an exacto knife works pretty well, but i don't use charcoal often so im not sure if its the best option

[weak meadow]

razor

[desert drift]

If you can render a sphere to the level of a renaissance artist then that would be a good step in the right direction

If we can’t render a sphere and basic forms to that level then how can we expect to render a face with all its edges and subtle form changes

[glacial light]

What do you mean by render?

[desert drift]

Like shade a sphere

[glacial light]

ah

okay I'll try once I get home since I'm at the mall rn

[desert drift]

Here’s my attempt at it, it’s been a while.

Luca lover gave a great point, practice going REALLY DARK. You won’t know how dark you can go until you go PAST too dark, thats something my teacher taught me too. Know how to push it 120%, and then pull it back and fine tune after you know the range

You want to be able to differentiate between Cast Shadow (usually Hard edge) and Form Shadows and Sharper Plane changes.
As well as imply reflected light bouncing from the ground and stuff