Gaga portrait (work in progress, help & advice needed)

[Head Empty 22,533]

Hey guys, I came back from my GGD haitus for a bit because I need as many nitpicky stan-eyes as I can get to help me on a drawing/project that I'm working on. So naturally I figured this was the place to be .

I'm working on an "ultimate" portrait of Gaga. Right now I'm drawing Gaga as raw as I can get her: natural, without make-up or wig. I want this image of her to be an accurate and clean base for the rest of the drawing, which will feature this same image with different Gaga looks drawn on top of it. This is similar to the amazing "Lady Gaga - A Transformer" video made by @Andy Pawsup Grammel that was posted a while ago, except I'll probably make a .gif format instead.

Below is the image as far as I've drawn it up to this point (in LQ and watermarked, since some little monsters don't always care about creative property ). It still needs a lot of work, especially in terms of details and texture.

Old version(s):

Spoiler

 

So I wanna ask you guys a few things:

- Does the pic above look like Gaga, or is it off-the-mark in certain areas? I often tend to lose perspective over the portraits that I'm making, so I could really use your eyes to make sure I'm on the right track
- Do you guys have tips or advice to make this base better or more accurate? What are the flaws that need to be corrected, or what are the strong parts that I shouldn't change?
- What are the types of looks you'd like to see drawn on her? I'm not sure exactly how many looks I'll manage, but I'm pretty sure I'll want to do at least one for each album, and then a couple more.

Any help/advice/constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, so thanks in advance .

[Didymus 32,701]

Something about the cheek area makes her look a bit too.. boyish? Too wide cheekbones maybe? She looks a bit too.. I don't know, muscular or whatever, or that's the impression I'm getting; Can't really put my finger on it. The eye area is spot on though.

Very beautiful, you're obviously talented But yeah, I notice something in the cheeks that somehow keeps me from identifying it as Gaga.

As for looks, I would adore the dreadlocks on from ARTPOP. That would make a gorgeous portrait.

[Dominic 11,922]

Those are incredible but I think the jaw is a little too big/wide. 

Otherwise I think it's amazing! 

[Cheap thrills 1,282]

Wow

it would take me years to master...

[malazam 15,710]

It does look like her, amazing drawing 

it looks like a mix of this:

+ Baku's performance look (idk why)

 

Constructive critic? Maybe a smaller one? 

Spoiler

don't kill me but the jaw line reminds me (just a little bit) of Katy Purry?

 

[Chinosky 1,909]

The cheek area looks wider and I'm not sure but I think the cheekbones should be more emphasized, I guess? Also I think the face is too long. Other than that, great work!! And good luck 

[PunkTheFunk 121,473]

These are beautiful portraits but I will be totally honest, they don't quite look like Gaga. 

I think you need to work on the facial structure. The eyes are almost there but I think they should be a little bigger.

My advice would be to find a headshot of Gaga and measure all of her facial proportions if you're going for total accuracy.

But great job 

[Clip 5,100]

That's awesome!!

I agree it looks a bit masculine but I think that's fine because I never thought Gaga's face looked very feminine on the makeup-free selfies (I know it's weird ) 

I don't really know what to say but I'd make the eyes a little bigger and I would change something in her chin. I think her (pre-fillers) chin is smaller and rounder, like this:

I know she's smiling there, that picture is just to show the shape I'm referring to

And I advice you to draw the eyebrows in white, not in black, because she wears them bleached most of the time

[Pablo 6,939]

First it looks really good so far! Your blending and general structure is great.

There is something a little off that makes it not look like gaga though. I think her eyes may be a little to high on her head and maybe too far apart.

Something that should help is the lighting. Her nose bridge looks weird because it's so symmetrical. It almost reads as too perfect, I'm not sure what images you have used for sources but generally when people are photographed the lighting isn't 100% symmetrical. One side of the nose should have a different/darker shadow... and then the whole face would have to be adjusted that way.

[Head Empty 22,533]

Thanks for the great responses everyone, it's really helping me out 

This is where I'm at right now:

 

I made the eyes a bit bigger both in literal size as well as by using some subtle contouring. The same thing goes for the jaws and the cheekbones, except I tried to make those a little more feminine. The jaws are a little tricky because most of you guys remarked that they seemed too big, yet the dimensions I measured matched my reference pictures (and in some cases they were even more prominent). So most of what I did was a little contouring and some subtle re-sizing, but nothing dramatic. But still, all these small changes added together made a really big difference

@Clip I'm planning on making the "base" with dark eyebrows, but I'll implement looks onto it with bleached brows too. I added a version with lighter brows in the .gif up here too .

@Pablo The symmetrical lighting is more of a stylistic choice for me in this case . I want the face to be as neutral as possible, as well as a versatile canvas for me to draw a ton of different looks on without having to take "complicated" lighting into account. You definitely have a point though, so even though I didn't do anything about it yet I'll see if I can make it more natural.

@PunkTheFunk Thanks . I have used a LOT of reference pictures to this point, but the problem is that Gaga's face looks considerably different in a lot of ways in each photo . Angles, retouching, camera lens type, etc. etc. all change the dimensions of the face. And since I don't want to do a 100% copy of one single photo from a photo shoot (although that is how I started out), I'm relying more on what I see rather than what I measure at this point. Which is why the responses in this thread are really great 

@malazam Thanks, funnily enough that Applause video look is one of my main references while trying to get everything to look right

@Didymus Thank you . I hope the jaw/cheekbone area is better now, even though I didn't make the cheekbones smaller . Also, of course you decided to return to GGD after I decided to leave

[Didymus 32,701]

14 hours ago, Totodile said:

I hope the jaw/cheekbone area is better now, even though I didn't make the cheekbones smaller . Also, of course you decided to return to GGD after I decided to leave

They really are somehow Magic.

And, well, please decide to come back then Hope you're doing ok

[Sia Daily 2,045]

i wish i could draw like this

[Sister 9,907]

Wow it's amazing! You are so talented! Maybe the upper eyelids look a bit too heavy and give her a too stoic look and that makes her look more masculine? But, it's fantastic!