[Jezebel]

Oh, and I am sorry if this question has been presented before, but I'm wondering how everyone is able to get that really neat oil painting look to their images.

If there was a previous thread about this, then just point me in that direction. Thanks

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Take off your clothes. It's OK - I'm an artist.

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[waylon]

In my experience, self portraits will improve as you gain a better understanding of the anatomy of the human head in general. Once you've gotten enough practice positioning facial features, drawing realistic eyes, noses, etc... you'll get a better feel for how YOUR features work in relation to each other.

So essentially, it's the little details that make it not look like you. For instance, you drew your eyes a little too far up, and not shaped correctly... your nose (in real life) is a bit pointier, etc. Additionally, getting the skin tone right is important, since that's one of the first things you can recognize, even from a distance. (at least, you can tell when it's wrong.

So basically, keep at it. Develop a sharp eye for details, read up as much as you can on anatomy, do some detailed studies of individual facial features from different angles (it's much easier to draw *just* your eye and get it right than it is to draw your whole face.) Uhm. Practice a lot.

And get a mirror. You'll learn a thousand times more than with a photo.

[This message has been edited by waylon (edited November 07, 2000).]

[N8X]

ok 1st off i think you did a really great job on this.
I threw down some refreance lines to help see the basic shapes of your face. Nothing in detail but i think it will help you with your problem areas.





as for how people getting that oil painting look,try and get Painter its really good for that. As far as in photoshop custom brushes can give you the effect of a paint brush, also un-smudged brush strokes help in the illision of oil painting..

hope ive helped .

"He who thinks the dancers mad doesn't hear the music"



[This message has been edited by N8X (edited November 07, 2000).]

[Solitaire]

This is your first self-portrait? Well it's quite nice looking for the first run.
Like Waylorn illustrated quite well, it's only the nose/eyes which lack of resemblance.

[Jezebel]

Not my first self portrait... at the very most it's my third maybe? And the ones I did in the past were quick (and awful).

I'm working on rebuilding that eye right now, after you guys pointed those things out they are driving me crazy.

Will have an update soon and hopefully it'll be looking more like a Beth

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Take off your clothes. It's OK - I'm an artist.

http://div.dyndns.org/portfolio

[Solitaire]

I had to paint one in oil back in schooldays (it's 1.50x1.0 m ; too big to scan ).

I hate doing self portraits

1st. it's a damn hard task

2nd. I am not that attractive to celebrate on any media

I'm looking forward to your 4th

[Jezebel]

Ok, well here's the 4th. Hopefully it's an improvement ^_^

Any comments are always welcome.



-Beth

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Take off your clothes. It's OK - I'm an artist.

http://div.dyndns.org/portfolio

[Jezebel]

No one knows anything else about the oil paint stuff?

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Take off your clothes. It's OK - I'm an artist.

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[Jezebel]

*** Updated new portrait at bottom ***

I tried to keep from starting a new topic with my self portrait but I don't think anyone really saw it. Either that or it's so funky nobody wants to comment on it

I cheated on this "self-portrait" because I used a photo. I would have used a mirror if I had one, but I don't. Gotta make do with what I've got.

Self-portrait is by far my weakest area, I really hate doing them. That's why I chose to do this one, that and the fact that many of the artists here seem to have done self-portraits, so I figured it was a worthwhile exercise.

The biggest problem with this image is that well... it doesn't look like me, hehe. I can't quite pinpoint what it is that's so out of place but I know that there are several things that are "off".



And here's a link to the original photo:

http://div.dyndns.org/beth/original.jpg

I know that one problem is the fact that it's a weak photograph to begin with, but any additional advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Beth

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Take off your clothes. It's OK - I'm an artist.

http://div.dyndns.org/portfolio

[This message has been edited by Jezebel (edited November 09, 2000).]

[Striker]

One of the toughest challenges to painting, drawing, whatever.. is to draw what we see, not what we think we see. This is especially true when it comes to figures/portraits, basically anything involving people, because that is what we focus on every day, and know so well. At least we *think* we know it so well. You've *forced* several stereotypes into your self portrait, even though they simply DO NOT EXIST in the reference pic. You're so familiar with the subject matter of the picture that your eye always knows when even the tinyest piece is out of place, that causes you to overwork the pic, and constantly make adjustments, in the end you end up with a stereotypical genericised slant on the subject matter. Hehe, wow, big words, and they may seem kind of harsh, but in no way are they intended to be. I'm just trying to point out the cause of frustration that is virtually inevitable when an artist tries to do a portrait, and the simple fact that this is a self-portrait compounds things.

Look at N8X's post, he provides some very helpful pictures on how the general structure of the face should be. I've also put together a little piece to help describe several problems I saw.


The first thing that caught my attention in your pic was the shape of the right side of your face (the part circled in red all the way at the left side of your pic). You've put way too many angles into it, your face, and MOST female faces, are not nearly that angular, your features are much softer than that, take out some definition and use more shallow curves to define things. The other major piece of your portrait that throws things off is that your right eye (left eye in pic), needs to be slightly higher, and just a tiny bit further in behind the nose. The definition of the *socket* area under your left eye could also use a little more definition, especially the line created by the color change between the side of the nose and the bottom eyelid area, if you add the shading in that area (making it increasingly darker as you move to the left), it will establish depth, and help the viewer realize that the eye is on the front of your face, and not on the side of the face as it currently seems to be. Next area of comment, is on the far left side of your upper lip, in the reference pic this is defined very lightly, however in your version you overworked it and as a result there is a loss of realism.

Anyway, I think I've critiqued enough, you've got a great start here, and these minor anatomy issues will disappear in no time, just keep practicing, and remember to draw what you see, not what you think you see. Look at the shapes and how they fit together. And, take into account the lighting of the image, if there is a lot of light being reflected from the face, details will be faint.

Hope this helps, show us more!


[This message has been edited by Striker (edited November 08, 2000).]

[Solitaire]

...imo you sould add more depth espescially to the skin ( I am aware of the photo ).
I think that would give that pic much more life.

[Jezebel]

Ok, thanks for the comments guys!

Striker - Do you know what it is that's setting my mouth off? Because I look at the image I painted and I can't help but think that it's not right, but like you said, I'm having a hard time drawing what I'm seeing. It seems whenever I change my features I come out looking like a man, even just moving one pixel seems to do this... Hmm, I'm still playing with it

Solitaire - I'm not quite sure how to add more depth to the skin. I try and shade around certain areas like my eye socket and cheekbone but I usually end up looking much older. Especially when I try and shade in the eye area, it usually ends up looking as though someone has slugged me in the face Any suggestions?



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Take off your clothes. It's OK - I'm an artist.

http://div.dyndns.org/portfolio

[Solitaire]

Hmmm...so forget about that

[General Confusion]

Jezebel,

I hope this is cool with you, but I took your pic and did a version. I'm at work, so I did this quick (if they only knew what I do when I'm supposed to be working

Firts off you have to use better reference, all the colors are blown out of your pic making it hard to see the forms of your face. I tried to bring out the shades in your face better to show this, but you have to se the head as a bunch of planes creating a whole. side plane front plane (made up of othr intersecting planes that sort of create a jigsaw puzzle when it's all done right)

I'm leaving work now, so I can't really type much more, but hopefully my pic will explain..

Sorry if I butchered you, it was done while trying not to get caught by the bosses, if you want I can give you a better explanation tomorrow.

good luck



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State of Confusion

[Fred Flick Stone]

Jezebel-hello.

Welcome to the forum. Yours is a very nice attempt at self portrait work. I did this in about a half hour, so there are many errors that need refining.
There is no tracing or color picker work here. Since the image you posted, the photo, was so graphic in it's shapes, it was very easy to map out. I just placed all the critical horizontals, verticals, and diagonals, the rest was fill in the shapes and refine the values.

I have a head tutorial going up on 3D Palette very soon. I have a few more images to draw, and a few more pages to write. Hopefully that will help you out quite a bit.

There are mostly mapping problems with your image. THat is, the placement of the features were slightly off, from one half of the face to the other.

YOu definitely want to use a better image to work from, one that doesn't have too many lost edges into the darks, and one that has less blow out from the flash. I tried to put back some structure into the face, but it is far from perfect.

If you have any other questions post em all, and I will try and answer all of them that I can.

As for the painterly look, I did this image in photoshop with some custom brushes that emulate the oil look. Otherwise, use Painter, it is already equiped for this. Or, do the real deal and really paint. then, try to carry that technique over to the other mediums you use, including the digital mediums.
ANyway, I am going to eat dinner now, I hope this has helped just a little bit if nothing more. Great job with yours and I hope to see more images from you on the forum in the future...

[Jezebel]

Are you TRYING to make me hate you Fred?

30 minutes! Bah! Hehehe.

I'm really eager to learn this oil paint technique, I think I am going to use another photo and try again. Thanks a lot for your help. Be sure to let us know when that tutorial is up!

-Beth

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Take off your clothes. It's OK - I'm an artist.

http://div.dyndns.org/portfolio

[Jezebel]

Here's my next attempt... I think this one looks a whole lot more like me. I was really able to put more definition into the skin this time since I was working from a better photo. I'm wondering if I made my face a little too round though, but maybe it just looks that way since I'm kinda floating there right now :>



Original Photo:



I still can't get that oil paint technique down though, grr... mine looks more like airbrush I think... pretty boring.

Anyways, critiques and comments are welcome as always.

-Beth

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Take off your clothes. It's OK - I'm an artist.

http://div.dyndns.org/portfolio

[Jezebel]

I'm also not quite sure how to tackle the hat on my head since it shows up pretty much all black. I don't really know how to indicate that there is something there and I'm not sure how to handle the shading.

Sorry, I'm so full of questions.

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Take off your clothes. It's OK - I'm an artist.

http://div.dyndns.org/portfolio