was more or less, h.r. giger inspired i guess you could say? lul

oh

geting there.

in any case, huge improvements m8

thanks dood, think ill just move on from this one o_o

wow this is a great piece

Never thought I'd actually make a serious post on these forums, but here goes...

I remember when you first made this thread (I've been a long-time lurker but rarely post, so no one knows me.)
I saw the first few pages and of course, just like every beginner's work, most of it was really bad.
At the time, I was thinking "Cute stuff... Meh, not many people around here digipaint -- hope he sticks with it."

I came back recently and noticed this thread was over 70 pages long. Clicking on the last few pages, I was completely shocked at just how much you've improved.
It made me reflect on my last year or so... And that shit hit me right in the face.

I've always liked drawing, but instead I just found ways to waste time dicking around instead of get better at it. You know - watching movies, playing video games, etc.
While people like you are actually working to improve their skillset and become great at something they enjoy, not to mention a skill that can be turned into a great career.
It was one of those "what the fuck am I doing?" moments when the entire perception of one's life and priorities gets hit by a metaphorical earthquake.

So, basically, I'm glad you had the courage to make this thread even when your work wasn't great. Because now, it's definitely getting there - and one day it will be there.
Like Nick Vegas said in "The Creative Gap", just make something cool every day; and this thread, your progress, is a big part of what's responsible for inspiring me to start doing that.

Ok let me just start with saying that im not trying to be an asshole and scrutinize your work but I have some points that i think could make you alot stronger. If this doesn't help you atleast it may help me by trying to explain it.

I've noticed in alot of your portraits that the features lay flat on the face and don't wrap it. I know you do anatomy studies from time to time etc. so you know proportions. I just dont think your doing enough under drawing to apply them and just flow with the paint. Which is ok because you might not be going for the naturalistic style but everyone needs to atleast be able to do it if they want to paint well.


Heres an example in your most recent work, which is why i asked for the ref. I structured out the ref and fitted it onto yours according to the top of the left eye (forgive me for my photoshop pentooling, i dont have a tablet and my mouse drawing is lol)



Now I know you probably did not intend to COPY the ref and make it exactly the same because we all know this leads to artists that become slaves to their ref. BUT if you look at where you deviate from the ref, its all the places that are flattening it out.

The biggest part is the eyes, yours sit like shelves, the ref has them on a curve (with the right side even lower than the left, opposite of yours). This continues on to where the cheek bone is placed on the right side (which is too high and needs to portrude less or equal to the forehead) in relation to where the ear is placed on the left (which is too low even tho i forgot to map it out) Also note the placement of the mouth. Your mouth does not wrap exactly like it should and it is waaay to low. In cute chicks you must keep their features like that of a baby, so mouth opening is closer to the base of the nose than the bottom of the chin. Minor things to notice in the jawline. Lastly the nose, i dont think extending it was the best decision because it throws off that nice round shape you had going before. Almost all the things i pointed out could have easily been fixed in the under drawing stage and saved you the trouble of doing these kinds of fixes to the nose in order to place the eye better. And as something that doesnt really matter, long thick eyelashes make chicks hot in drawings, srsly its like magic.

I know this is probably done as a sort of sketch that wasnt meticulously laid out but its worth the trouble to lay a foundation. Maybe you wanted to change things from the ref, but there are things things in the ref that fit the features in the face that MUST be copied (until you become a master at portraits)



sorry for wall of text, hope this helps, also that post by s1de was pretty inspiring

This post was edited by humari on Oct 25 2011 01:31pm

Well, i do love the style of this last one

Here are a few things:

- The shadows are a little bit sharp, i think you should make their edges a little softer.

- The eyes are off, either her left eye should be raised or her right lowered.

- The hair should have more midtones imo. Right now its just shadows and highlights.

All in all i love it, great work