ARTISTS! ☁️ How often do you do realistic portraits? And when you do, do you always hit uncanny valley midway through? 💀

@JustSomeoneHi

3 ай бұрын

I pretty much never do them lol

@ponpunchi

3 ай бұрын

i already drew realism for days just to know how to stylize the facial features properly later, but nowadays, i don't even try 💀

@mustardgogurt98

3 ай бұрын

uncanny...i suck dookie poop at realism

@CraftyToonaa

3 ай бұрын

Whenever I try realism, it always ends up looking disgusting

@Artzy-pu4ot

3 ай бұрын

I sometimes do realistic portraits, and yes, it always hits uncanny valley, I'm bad at realism.

even though the 2021 drawing looks more like a self-portrait, it's still my favorite idk i kinda get "life is strange" vibes from it

@kai_fatallysapphic

3 ай бұрын

same!! i just really love the color palette, the lighting is ethereal

@dadnation7227

3 ай бұрын

Same! I feel like that one has the best skin rendering and def looks the most realistic

@tuliptown9058

3 ай бұрын

Its also my fav, I think it looks the most realistic. I think its because she used more blocks of color rather than lines.

@aerothelich2023

3 ай бұрын

The 2021 drawing reminds me a lot of the strangely beautiful art of the early Silent Hill games. The lighting, the expression, the colors. It all clicks together.

@esme6162

3 ай бұрын

HEAVYY on the life is strange omgg

BABE WAKE UP LAVENDERTOWNE POSTED HER YEARLY REALISM VIDEO

@spam-el3ee

3 ай бұрын

I can never get over how pretty she is!

@grrrluwant

3 ай бұрын

@@spam-el3ee RIGHT?!?!

@EVELCATZ

3 ай бұрын

I'm up !!!

@BananaAreKool

3 ай бұрын

It never gets old maneee

The way I got jumpscared by the thumbnail-

@S0ap_Bvbbl3z

3 ай бұрын

Lmao same

@J.J-gc4gg

3 ай бұрын

Fr😊

@ririvanna

3 ай бұрын

NO SAME

@Emberborine

3 ай бұрын

Same😭

@Artzy-pu4ot

3 ай бұрын

Dang already 130 likes

I've only skimmed the video, but for next year's, I'd recommend starting with shape/tone/value instead of line. Like, totally forget about it. Block stuff in with a big flat brush and then slowly add detail. As a fellow mostly-cartoonist, I've found that helps me a lot when I try to draw more life-accurate stuff! =D /lh

@calimorales9880

3 ай бұрын

Heavy agree

@jlhn

3 ай бұрын

As someone who draws mostly in realistic style. It's funny because I start with lines 😂 I think the thing with realism its mostly about proportions, once you get your realistic proportions down, the shading its the extra "oomph" needed to make it look right

@astraamarante6233

3 ай бұрын

While I agree, for people that have little experience in painting, or have lost most of the ability and knowledge they had, starting with a lose sketch just to make sure you don't get anything terribly wrong is needed for those that are way more used to things that venture far away from explicit realism. At least for the silhouette and placement

@aasdddddfasdf

3 ай бұрын

thats what she did for 2021 i think

@StoicMao

3 ай бұрын

I agree 100% another thing is that it felt more like semi-realistic painting and less like realism but she probably isn't going for hyper-realism anyway

I personally think that 2021 looks the most realistic. Though it may be strange since it's not very rendered, I feel like you jump right into detail in the new ones, which muddies the form. 2021, has very concise form and cohesive colors. The best thing to really show realism is to focus on the transition between light and dark. Some shadows should have Hard edges and some soft. Hard shadows are cast shadows, and soft shadows are form shadows. Implementing this really took my art to a new level, and added consistency ❤

@Trainspotter-

3 ай бұрын

I agree, I also love the 2021 facial expression, almost like she saw something she wish she didn’t but didn’t fully process it.

@cake_404

3 ай бұрын

i agree!! i feel like 2020 and 2021 especially were the most realistic,, i think what also could improve in the recent ones could also be the facial proportions?

@kaleycooper9111

3 ай бұрын

2021 is 100% the more realistic painting. It isn’t even a question. The rest are just varying levels of stylization

the floating eyeballs killed me 😂

Don't be ashamed of looking up tutorials,Haley. Art is such a vast subject that it feels like there are always things to learn and improve on. And even if you did learn something before, sometimes it is forgotten.

Hey Haley, a solution to fix the muddiness of using the overlay layer on grayscale is to add a clipped colour layer on top of the grayscale layer to change the colours (while still maintaining the values).

@triangularsphere

3 ай бұрын

The problem is I think she was literally drawing with black and white- not using black and an eraser

@r3apling

3 ай бұрын

@@triangularsphere When I say 'colour layer', I meant the colour layer mode. Using a 'colour' layer mode does fix this! Try it out yourself- Once you're done painting the values in grayscale, add either Overlay on Colour OR Colour on Overlay on top of the grayscale layer. Both layer orders work, but they look slightly different (Just do it in the order of the layer colours you want on top.) Paint the Overlay layer like Haley did and then use the colour layer to saturate the muddy shadows with the colours of your choice. That's all!

@r3apling

3 ай бұрын

@@triangularsphere I'm not sure about other softwares, but it's one of the last layer modes when you scroll down those in CSP.

@endieisded

3 ай бұрын

Also for those using photoshop(others might have it) use a gradient map! Marc Brunet did a great tutorial for this!

During the second attempt my mind was screaming “ Flip your Canvas!!!!.” The eyes were a little bit off. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that you did an amazing job 🤗

@ImNoAce

3 ай бұрын

SAME!!! The whole time I was saying “Noooo… THE EYE” lol

@lemon-parker

3 ай бұрын

SAMEEEE

@zuckertheoctopus3095

3 ай бұрын

i noticed that too but i actually like how she has a little bit of asymmetry in her face, I've seen a lot of people with eyes like that and i think it looks really cool ngl

@DrkPhoenix

3 ай бұрын

Even the first I think

@MasonMc7

3 ай бұрын

STOP NOW I CANT UNSEE IT NOOOOO

In terms of pure realism 2021 is by far the best. The biggest issue I think your having is really with the proportions. In like every attempt the eyes are too big and the nose and neck are too small. Maybe try doing some studies of how other art8sts break down the face, ik that really helped me when I was learning realism. Also in the most recent one looks really good and I like the way you shaded the hair a lot but her right eye is waaaaaaaaay too high. I also I like the colors in the 2024 one a lot. A lot of your previous attempts are kind of murky cause of like black, but the 2024 one is super vibrant and I love it!

Still find '21 to be the most impressive, in that I can pretty much see the reference image shining through. A paint what you see kind of thing. Whereas the rest (with '24 being the best version of this) aiming at a stylized version of reality? Don't really know the terminology for art styles, but do love this "tries realism" series you've got going on :P

@PoisonCat10

3 ай бұрын

it's called semirealism

This is probably the wildest, possibly most horrific idea. I LOVE IT!

@yourshoulderdevil5229

3 ай бұрын

How is it horrific lol

@S0ap_Bvbbl3z

3 ай бұрын

@@yourshoulderdevil5229 well, possibly, and I only said that because it could go very horribly, if you understand what I mean… (I hope you do because I don’t know how to explain it)

@yourshoulderdevil5229

3 ай бұрын

@@S0ap_Bvbbl3z Ooohhh, you mean it could end up weird and uncanny if she messes up too much, that makes more sense lol usually I think of horrific like gore and murder, so that's my bad.

@S0ap_Bvbbl3z

3 ай бұрын

@@yourshoulderdevil5229 no, no! No need to worry! It’s fine :)

I do feel like the first attempt felt like it was in the style of realism, and the second attempt felt like it leaned a bit into a more cartoony style. I feel like doing a few more practices with first method would get amazing realism results! Flipping frequently would definitely help

There's something I've noticed with all of these videos, which is that the face in isolation is usually pretty good. The thing that typically makes it all look more cartoon is the hair and clothes, since those always look very cartoon and don't mesh well with the way you draw the face. If the focus is meant to just be on the face, than you're doing pretty good. However, if you're trying to do full portraits, I'd recommend paying a bit more attention to the clothes and hair. The structure of them, the texture, how they would look in real life, etc. take this with a grain of salt tho, because i cannot do realism for the life of me lol

being able to recognize most of her past attempts made me realize how many years have passed omg 😭 IMMENSE improvement already!! wonder if i should give it a go :0 💖💖✨✨✨

I LOOK FOWARD TO THESE VIDEOS EACHE YEAR OMG IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!😍😍😍😍

honestly the basics of realism painting and rendering is the anatomy. When you know the muscles and the shape of the bones/structure of the face, it will be easier to understand and use how the shadows work on the face. A challenge I recommend is using Planchette and turn her into a more realistic version, when you use a very cartoonish character, you have to think about where everything is actually placed on the face and how each muscle and part is interacting with each other. Another tip is for the rendering to be more smooth and less textured, because if you look at a lot of renaissance paintings, the rendering is always very smooth, although I don't know if that's the type of drawing you're going for though. Honestly such good improvement, much love :D /lh

did you forget to flip the canvas? her right eye is totally off.

I still quite like the 2021 one. Yeah it's mostly in shadow but I feel the expression is on point. I love how you're still pushing yourself going out your comfort zone, every attempt you learn something new.

I feel like the 2021 image reads the most human and realistic. But these 2024 attempts have way more Detail, and the extra time you spent on these ones is what makes them feel better.

This is definitely your best one so far! And never ever feel ashamed to look at tutorials. No matter what level you are, artists never stop learning (and realism isn’t what you normally draw/paint, so it’s especially helpful to get you into that mindset) Something that might help make the skin look less dead when you apply the color on top of the grey is to use a gradient map instead of one color. That way the shadows and highlights have color to them and make it look more like proper skin

HALEY HER EYE HER EYE

@miraculousk7547

3 ай бұрын

It's definitely wonky 💀

once you notice the eyes you can't unsee it

2021 is my personal favorite. It's got good contrast, with the tones shifting a lot and making it very interesting despite it's simplicity. It gives an illusion of detail while using mostly big shapes, and the anatomy is great. i think it's the most realistic as well

us cartoonists sometimes do happen to be very talented when drawing realism😮

@meermond

3 ай бұрын

some of them definitly are! lavendertown is not that great at realism.

@Artzy-pu4ot

3 ай бұрын

I know I am (NOT

@Artzy-pu4ot

3 ай бұрын

@@meermond shut up

@Avipoppy

3 ай бұрын

@@Artzy-pu4ot SAME LOL

@meermond

3 ай бұрын

@@Artzy-pu4ot ??? you know its okay to suck at realism right? lavendertown is good at her stuff. she is a cartoonist, her story telling is pretty fun! but liking her or her art should not make you blind to the fact, that this video does not show realism in the slightest. she said herself that it looks like a sim from the sims. the proportions are still very cartoony. just cuz its rendered, doesnt make it realism. there are airbrush anime paintings, which are more realistic then her stuff. its not a creative failing to be bad at realism. show me you understand what realism is and ill shut up.

it’s really encouraging as someone who looks up to your talent a lot to see not only you’re struggle in other styles, but also seeing the grasp of realism waxing and waning over time, and not necessarily being constant. i feel awful when i look back and think my art was so much better at one point or another, and it’s so nice to see it from others i look up to so much

typically to do a good overlay and avoid muddiness, i first do one gradient layer overlay and then add other overlays on top of that. it helps avoid the muddiness of going from dark greyscale to coloured painting

The eyeballs part is terrifying

It's wonderful to be able to let yourself still look up tutorials! It's never too late to learn more, especially if it is an area of your career that is not your normal expertise.

I'm going to recommend that for next year you watch through the relevant sinix design videos on anatomy. His videos are supposed to teach you how to draw semi-realistic from imagination. Maybe have a reference for where features are placed on the face in the angle you're working with. Your realistic coloring is improving.

3:18 You can actually use a liquify tool to move things around without ruining the rendering you’ve done

@cravinguravity

3 ай бұрын

wouldn't that be harder to control ? sorry i don't use those as much idk how it works :0

@g.m.lanimation6877

3 ай бұрын

@@cravinguravity Not when you get the hang of it

@mjrhmekssh

3 ай бұрын

​@@cravinguravityi use it everyday at work (realistic character artist for games) and it's the best invention since sliced bread. If you know what youre doing you can turn a head in 3d by just moving bits around which saves you so much time on not having to paint the entire thing again from a different angle

18 SECONDS. I'M SO IN LOVE WITH YOUR VIDEOS OMG

Cartoonist draws realism - puts a heart into her eye 😅 Love you Haley

OMG I've watched these every year since like 2020 😭😭 it's so amazing to see your progress each year I love them

The best trick my art teacher taught me is when practiceing realising is to loosely trace a real photo and use the real shapes to help your mind focus on not using lines and use shape and shadows

Idk if this would help, but for the first attempt, the nose looks like it's backwards/facing the opposite way instead of just being in the wrong place, as the nostril on the further side of the face is more shadowed (and the highlight on the end is a bit far into shadow territory.) I love your art! I hope this doesn't seem nitpicky, it was just something I noticed. And good for you for keeping on this challenge! Venturing into other styles is a good practice artists tend to forget. GinjaNinjaOwO's video on how you can use Spiderverse to improve your art is amazing advice that I plan on immediately taking into account after I finish some old projects, lol... And find the time to do so many practices.

i really like the direction you went with this one, i can see her personality in her eyes! i think the shadows on the sides of her nose look off, i think it's weird both sides are so much in shadow, there's supposed to be a little padding below the tear ducts that should be catching some light and smoothing the sides of the nose out. if you want any recommendations for who to watch to improve, boro cg's overpain series helped me so much as always, love your work Hailey!

Wake up, new lavender town vid just dropped!

i’m rolling laughing at “twink on a sink” whoever that is we are now best friends

seeing the improvement of this challenge through all these years is crazy!!

I love seeing every attempt you make throughout the years because they look better every time!

realism is my enemy

@jaykrow

3 ай бұрын

SAME, for me it always looks like something is off

@luraymoondust

3 ай бұрын

same

@g00se_ars0nist

3 ай бұрын

oh the misery

@ElliePixyPixy

3 ай бұрын

This is really funny, because for me it’s the exact opposite: I’m only comfortable with a more mathematical approach to art, where each section is divided properly and proportionately as I really enjoy “sculpting” the 3D shapes into faces!

@Dressup_Doll

3 ай бұрын

@@g00se_ars0nistEverybody wants to be my enemy.

Does anyone else think that her character doesn’t look like her character when she uses her own face as a reference? It looks more like Lavendertowne in cosplay.

I say it every year but his is definitely the best one so far! I especially love the texture on the face, it really helps the overall drawing Can't wait for next year!

I find using textured brushes and tracing the shapes on the reference easier before drawing. I think the 2021 version looks really good rpoportion-wise and the colors too. Also, you've inspired me to make webcomics years ago!

That looks really nice! Also for the art looking ‘muddy’ when trying to color it with an overlay above the grayscale painting, a great tip would to instead use a gradient map when you’re done with the grayscale. After adding color automatically to that layer and turning it into an overlay layer, over a normal layer for flat colors, the art tends to look a lot brighter!

I feel like 7:27 is the best the second painting looks. It’s the closest to natural, the face feels cohesive and the colors are just right.

Omg when you put in the whole flat open eyes, I think I could feel it as they stared right into my soul.

SCREAMINGG at the attempt to do eyeballs first 😭

in the first one, the whole head was rotated but the nose stayed in a non rotated way so it looks totaly off

Tbh, your art is AMAZING!! I don't know how long exactly you've been drawing but all I know is that you have made your art better and better over the years. I hope you the best though all this adventure.

These videos are honestly so helpful in understand the thought process that goes into rendering. I struggle a lot with rendering and these help me learn a bit of what I should be thinking about

I love how each years attempt looks cool in its own different way 🥰

Saying she looks like a sim made me so happy because I was just thinking about how she reminded me of my pink based sim in currently playing with!

As a cartoon artist (who only draws humans once in a blue moon), you could not hold me at gunpoint to try a realistic painting. Good job!

i actually consider myself better at realism than cartooning, ive studied it for a long time now. for some totally unsolicited tips that you can obviously ignore if you want- try looking up daniel greene’s portraiture method, you essentially divide the face into thirds and it’s so much easier than the loomis method for me personally. also something that i find is good to remember with eyes is that often there is less white space in them than we often think. i think your skin rendering is really good honestly, and don’t feel any shame about looking at references or tutorials!!! we are always learning and growing.

I recommend when starting Realism portraits that you sketch out the structure. Specifically, break it down into squares; It’s what helps me the most. I find it easier to start with a lined structure then move to blocking in values. “Everything is squares and rectangles.” Maybe you can use this advice the next time! ♥︎♥︎

Cant wait for another realism drawing! You got this

I always love seeing these annually ever since you started this series, love your progress lovely❤

RETURNING ONCE A YEAR TO YOUR CHANNEL FOR THIS🔥🔥🔥

i really adore your usual style, so it's so fun to see this yearly challenge and watch you push your comfort zone and see this evolution over the years. it's really inspiring as an artist to test the limits and try new things. i would love to see more style type challenges in the future!

2021’s drawing looks almost like a picture with some type of “animated” filter over it. Like, it reminds me of a movie.

These are always so fun to watch! Thank you for continuing these!

I love this series. It’s so fun to see you improve and experiment each year. This one is my favourite so far!

Ms. Towne I just want you to know that ever since i first saw you do this challenge and you posted that first video it inspired me to *also* do it and now its a thing i do every year so thank you!! :D

Every year you post this i watch it! My favourite series of urs

YES THE SERIES CONTINUES!!! 🔥

When colouring a black and white painting I highly recommend using gradient maps! They let you colour your selection using a range of colours, that way you can make darker values cooler and lighter values warmer etc.

I love watching these videos every year, it’s so fun to see how you’ve improved over the years! Btw, you’ve been a big inspiration to me and I love your videos :3

I love the new one but I feel like 2021 was the best one still because the lighting and everything was on point but that one did look a lot like a self portrait!!! I can't wait to see your improvement next year

I’ve been watching these for the past four years I’m so excited for next years, you did so great

Babs looks so pretty!! I love just putting a playlist of your videos on in the background while I draw, so I have seen the babs cartoon to realism progress since the beginning and my gosh! The one you did today is beautiful! I can really see the progress too. It's like a dreamy realism and I can't wait to see if you keep this challenge going. The result almost looks like someone cosplaying as Babs ;w;

I think it looks really good but that it looked closed in my opinion to realism with how you went at it in 2021, maybe not with the pose but with blocking stuff out because then the facial features are better sized but this is still astronomicaly better then anything I could do so idk

i LOVE these videos !!! i remember in 2020, i would watch these videos NON STOP and was SO EXCITED when you posted another realism attempt !!! every year i look foward to seeing your progress 🥰🥰🥰

I love these videos. I love seeing all the improvement and every time LT does one, she always makes healthy criticism of her own art that isn't just "this is bad." Always makes me want to be a better artist

I really love this one, you can definitely see the improvement from the last years! But my favourite is still the 2021 one, you judt nailed the lighting and contrast perfectly on that one!

I think you should try making the shoulders look more convincing as realism. Maybe you also try like a more bright and colourful type of realism. Those bright and expressive ones.

I’ve been watching these since 2019 and I always get excited when you post one!

AAAHH I LOVE THIS SERIES!! I was looking forward to seeing the newest attempt since last year you didn't manage to do one, but it looks absolutely amazing!!

i swear every six months i get obsessed with your content and rewatch like all your videos

Cool to see so much improvement! It’s wild that I’ve been watching you for so long

you did amazing and youre so pretty omg! keep it up youre doing amazing in both cartoon and realism!!!!

This one is my favorite too! I feel like you nailed the colors and expression on this one 😍

i love love love this video idea and have enjoyed watching you progress through the years! realism is not something i'm interested in pursuing artistically so it's always super interesting watching other artists do it. the second piece turned out absolutely gorgeous ♥️

I think my personal favourite will always be the 2021 version- th colour palette and lighting is ethereal

YESSS I WAS WAITING FOR THIS VIDEO!!!

Aaah I love it, 2021 is till my favorite probably just cause it follows the assignment (realism) the best, but I still think this one is really good, it’s great to see people try to do things they don’t normally do

The second attempt is gorgeous!! Its definitely the best iteration, I love that she has an expression now!! and the dimensionality without it getting so dark is so great!!

Oh wow thanks for making these. I've watched last year's one as well, but this is the first time I have a video to remember. And it really helped me appreciate how much progress I've made in learning how to draw. I guess watching all those istebrak videos helped too cuz I was able to understand what you were doing this time. And hear stuff like "you're line dependent" or "this is what happens when you don't do your form studies" in the back of my head, lol.

I love how even though you’ve went to school for art and studied it a bunch, we can still see how you’re improving! It’s extremely inspiring to watch as an artist. All of your art is incredible but I love seeing how far you’ve come since you’ve done this last!

LITERALLY BINGED THESE YESTERDAY??? Love the series!!!

something about this version (particularly the more saturated one in the lineup) makes me think of ramona flowers and i love that

This is so good! I love how much more expressive she is compared to some of the other years! ❤

It’s amazing to see the growth over the years!!

OMG!! I look forward to these videos each year!! 😋

I think what really could have made the face in the first attempt come to life was adding subsurface scattering. This isn't something you get in black and white at all because it's all about color, you just make your midtones much, much redder, but if you're only concerned with the tones you won't see it at all. But it's very important to give life to a portrait because if it's not there it just looks like you're looking at a dead person with no bloodflow. You'll see people who stylize their renders a lot exaggerate this massively because it really does bring a portrait to life.

Ahh so excited to see that this challenge is back!

I completely agree with the coloring a piece that was made in b/w. It's convenient, yeah, but not ideal in my opinion. It definitely makes it look muddy and sad.

wow this year's is so good!! i like the more painterly style of realism over photo realism for sure