When you've been making art for a while, you can get so comfortable in your own style, and so familiar with your work, that you find it difficult to see problem areas. It can help to use some techniques to get some 'distance' from your work, or to look at it from a fresh perspective. For a beginning artist, this can be a really useful way to identify weaknesses in the drawing and see what needs fixing. For more mature artists, it's a way to look at the art through a viewer's or buyer's eyes and let go of the emotional attachment which might cloud our judgement about it.
1. Give it Some Time
Writers usually put a manuscript away for many weeks so that they can return to it fresh, and that works well with drawing too. Put your drawing away and work on something else. Don't even so much as peek at it for at least a month. Ok, so this might not be realistic if you are on a deadline, but if you can do it with the occasional piece, or drag out copies of old works, you might find issues that are recurrent. It can be useful to place several works on a wall together, so you can see connections or themes that run through your work. Maybe you always shade in the same direction, or perhaps you habitually arrange a composition in a particular way. It might be a negative if you are seeking variety, or it might be a positive if it is part of a look and feel that you are trying to develop. But at least you can see what is going on!
2. Mirror Image
Mirror images are a great way to get a fresh perspective on a piece - just hold your drawing in front of you, and stand in front of a mirror. The composition flows differently but it can also reveal issues with proportion, and atmospheric perspective - such as when contrast causes an area to pop forward which should be dropping back.3. Go Digital
Digital Reproduction - photographing or scanning your drawing - is a handy tool , and it's a good idea to keep a digital photo archive of your work anyway. For the purposes of troubleshooting, seeing the drawing on screen and at different resolutions can really change the way you look at it. A weak composition becomes obvious when an image is scaled down so that you can look at it 'all at once'. The contrast between overworked and weak areas becomes more noticable, and issues with proportion and perspective are more evident. If using a photo reference, try converting your source photo to grayscale and placing it side-by-side with your drawing. You can do this with most photo editors and paint programs. A painting program is also useful for experimenting with different fixes before you commit to changing your original artwork.
4. Turn Off Your Emotions
Expressive, emotional work is very hard to assess. Often proportions and realism are the first thing to go. Make sure that you are making these choices appropriately, and not just taking lazy short cuts. Portrait artists often let affection for their subjects blind them to problems with their drawing - especially if the problem originates with a poor source photo. The investment of time and effort in a drawing makes you want it to be perfect, but being honest about your work will help you make the next drawing even better. Sometimes the first tip - that of putting a drawing away for a time - can help you do this. Look at some other artworks thoughtfully to sharpen your critical eye, and then apply the same unforgiving view to your own work.
