[enigmatica]

This is my first painting. Originally
I had made an unfinished and enlarged sketch of Gillian Anderson's torso found in this art book a few years ago and recently I recieved this lovely tablet. So now I'm on the verge of finishing scanning in all my pencil sketches and converting them to paintings. The question (and main point) is if I'm doing this at all correct-like if this is a correct construction of a person's back? I can't seem to find the book to use as reference but I'm pretty sure it was the movers' fault. : P And any other tips will be helpful as well...



original drawing found here - http://www.enigmatica.net/v2/drawings/

[enigmatica]

did i say torso? well i just meant back.

[Awetopsy]

Hey there..

well Im not much for painting in its self yet but heres my eyes view.



the shoulders in your pic are either too high or too low (Im having difficulty visualizing it in my own head) but just remember the pivot point for both shoulders should be on the same plane.

also the area where the buttocks blends in to the smokey stuff seems to make the butt flare away from her.. and that kind of throws the whole picture off.

The head seems a bit too short for the body. As you can see where Ive drawn it the hair should go up higher than that becasue it sits on top of the head.

finally, the swirly smokey stuff looks like you used the smudge tool in Photoshop. It looks too smudged. Now Im not some anti-smudge-nazi but it really does look over used.

You also need a more definite lightsource. there seems to be a light source from just above where we're supposed to be viewing her... but it seems to hot in some areas and not enough in others. you might want to creat a lightsource from the side and thena cool blue on from the other side.. that would look cool.

these crits arent meant to be insulting.. in fact I hope this helps you get a better idea of what to do.

-awe

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I think Im wearing out my CTRL-'z'
http://noelsart.cjb.net

[enigmatica]

Thank you for explaining that to me. As I was painting the figure out-I had difficulty looking at and understanding what was being done correctly as well as how I might go about fixing it. So, since it troubled me, I decided to post the question here since anatomy seems to be more well known.

My actual intent for the drawing/painting was to look as though she was arching backwards somewhat while her head is leaning forward.

The smokiness/smudges were simply put there as a quick and temporary backdrop and I had not planned to keep it for the final product. Plus I was in a rush to upload and get to school.

The light coming down from above was to serve the purpose of utter focus on the figure because I'm planning to give the painting a more cluttered yet shadowy environment so as to contrast well with the lighted woman. But I do agree with you on the distribution of lighting on her body.