Tell me what doesn't look good in this

thats a cool thing with the that comparision! how did you do that

anyway, gridwise... it certainly will be faster, as it is faster to produce stuff in a factory, but you have to build the factory first, if you know what i mean. i dont have a grid and i lack patience to build one right now... after i have presented a portrait to my grilfriend, i will sit down and do the grid thing, promised, but until then, please bear with me and help me without! and I'm not that far off

so ok, nose and stuff erased. on the weekend when i have time i will start working on her eyes! then the lips.

drawing what you see. that's sounds easy but I suspect it is harder then one thinks

*besides, I dont even have a printer... only a little netbook

I think the original ref is a great photo to attempt, draw that well and you'll draw anything! Whilst I tend to agree that you should practice on a similar subject to your intended reference, it's not essential. Just practicing techniques and visually deconstructing the reference is beneficial.

Your first drawing is a fair effort but you need to take more time and utilise patience. How long did that take you? I reckon it would take me a couple of hours to do EACH eye. And then a coupl eof hours for the mouth, etc etc. Also, it's easy to put the hard yards in on the complicated features, like the eyes, and then to rush the skin and the hair. You should try to spend the same amount of effort, patience and equivalent time on each element. I see so many portraits on here and other sites, where the hair has been rushed at the end of the piece and detracts terribly from the finished article.

Do the outlines with a very light pencil (3H) and press lightly. You only need to be able to see them faintly, they are not part of the finished work. The line itself will be formed by the adjacent tones.

Good luck.

thanks for that helpful reply. and i think i mentioned it above that i spent 9 hours on that "portrait" including everything actualy i spent about 4 hours on that fricking hand... but i dont even care about it that much anymore, i decided not to practice drawing because its not worth it for me... first of all im working 6 days a week 12 hour days in my job - i currently run a little business - and second of all none of this has anything to do with art anymore for me, because the tendency of the majority seems to be to try making it as photorealistic as possible, so that in the end the result is a black and white photo - which is absolutely fine and i really like looking at those drawings, like the bong for example, but thats just not what i was after. until i have figured out what it is that makes a portrait an artwork for me, i wont draw anything. developing skills at least is not what i want, because you have noticed correctly, patience is absolutely not what i have, nor do i wish to have it. what is in me wants to come out fast, and if it has to be skills, then they have to find their own way of growing, i won't force it. so, that's it from me. still, i appreciate the helpful replies from everyone here!

yeah And i really don't mean that in the way that the result of all of that is not art.. to put it in better words, for me what the artwork here seems, especially the bong, which really impressed me, is not so much that picture itself but the knowing that someone has done that using patience. so what is remarkable in that is the patience that went into it, not so much the result... and for me trying to copy that would be not really honest, because it is not what i think i even have. so whenever photorealistic drawing is taken to a really fine art, one can sense, i guess, that there is something in it that is real because it was put in it. whearas for some people just the result is important and then what is in the result itself is just this: the poor attempt of someone wanting to be someone who can draw like someone who has it... omg, i dont even know if that makes sense at all but for me it does, and i would always just that someone whose pictures are the result of someone trying... anyway, i will still be watching

I think you did pretty good