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johnwun · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2002 2:46 am

..Mama, don't let your children grow up to be artists... Ummm, Yeah, I been looking and learning from things here and there, Love the great tuts from Greg Pro, and Damn if Death Dealer didn't paint the archtypal fantasy woman. Anyway, I got all inspired again. Since Indian_prophet is doing this "learning textures" thing, I started asking myself what textures/stuff I could work on... This was about 6 hours with a photo ref... I'm happy with the result, but there's always the next step... Well the pic's probably loaded now so I'll shut up... C&C please.

[ January 05, 2002: Message edited by: johnwun ]

wigin · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2002 9:55 am

good job i like the yellow/purplelish constrast to the skin color. I like it when people do this.. Sooo much better then the skin tone and brown for darker.. nice observation...

Derek · member Member # Joined: 23 Apr 2001 Posts: 139

The lower eyelid would be casting a shadow up over the lower quarter of the eye or so. Also, remember that the eyeball is a sphere, and at the interior for this particular piece, since you have the light from the subject's lower right, our left, it will darken as a sphere would on the inside. The cornea doesn't sit flat on the eye, it's raised a bit and this causes some very interesting movement of light and reflection in line with the angle of light hitting the eye. Look for this in your reference.
I would lose the eyelashes for now in favor of establishing all of the planes of the lids, both upper and lower, and be certain to use more a light and desaturated version of the flesh tone for the eyeball color, reduce some of the pink. Nice work realizing that the 'white' of the eye isn't white though. You get many freakin' points for that.
Wish I had a way to get images linked, or I would do a quick version to explain a bit more...
And above all else... great that you're doing this!

[ January 05, 2002: Message edited by: Derek Smith ]

johnwun · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2002 5:26 pm

Thanks Wigin, I added the yellow at the last minute, it really made it pop. Unfortunately the contrast is still a little flat compared to my source.
This is my first "lifelike" digital painting. The first hour just didn't go well, eventually I found that painting in HSB is a lot more helpful because I can control the relative lightness of my hues.
I pointer over my source photo, and the info bar displayed readings of its various brigtness levels.(in HSB) It gave me a new way to think about things which helped a lot. I_P, have you done any photo-ref work? I highly recommend it, if you scan the image, you can zoom way in and see how the object is built of lots of component colors. I read someone comment about how he did that with a screen shot of Baulders Gate, and all the rocks and grass were made of different colored pixels. That sort of inspired me to leave no two adjacent pixels the same color. Thats a huge challenge to take on, and I certainly don't think I've acchieved it here, but it provided the inspiration to try. Good luck, I look forward to your next experiment.
Derek, I'll be posting a new version as soon as I get some time to work on this, meanwhile, you're right about the planes, Damn I knew I should have drawn the hair on a separate layer... Oh well, now's a good time to start over.. If you paint me an example, email it to me, and I'll upload it on my site, so you could link to it here. I'm very curious to see an example of what you are discribing. ([email protected])
Thanks for all the input so far,
-J

spidermonkey · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2002 5:41 pm

Wow. I also thought I was looking at a photo ref. You must have taken the origianl shot with your digital cam, because I know that's you.

johnwun · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2002 5:54 pm

Awww, damn, now everybody knows what I look like...

Derek · member Member # Joined: 23 Apr 2001 Posts: 139

Yes! I will now go to Pacifica and stare at every male's right eye! I will find you, and you shall suffer humiliations galore!!!
Or something...
Okay, as I have time I will work on a quick paint-over...

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2002 12:12 am

Wowe John, I had to re-adjust my eyes for a minute there to realize it was a painting. You have captured some really nice natural colors here. Well I am back to the drawing board...grumble.....mumble....grr....I need to learn how to....

Peace