[Eric Drobile]

Hey everyone, I'm new to the boards and relatively new to digital painting. I haven't any real painting experience, and i've only attempted a few other of these. Well, this is my first serious attempt, a portrait of my girlfriend. I'm somewhat happy with it, but its so colorless and uninspired compared to the rest of the works here! I'm going to need a lot of practice with picking colors. Critiques--please!
(Done in Photoshop with an optical mouse)



[ June 09, 2002: Message edited by: Eric Drobile ]

[faeklone]

Did A quick paintover, cause I think it's a great image, however, it needed a few touch ups in my opinion. Unfortunately I don't know what your girlfriend looks like so I could have skrewed up majorly.

Changes:

-better defined the jawline, making it less curvy
-Created a better cast shadow from the nose
-Redefined profile
-Added shadow under the closer eye
-Smoothed everything using the blur tool
-Added light highligh on the cheekbone to add volume to that part of the face.

Hope you like the over paint! Keep up the good work though. You're doing some great stuff!

[windraven]

not bad ... kinda kewl ... but anyway just my personal opinion ... maybe it could be more interesting if there were more color changes as well as more contrast? just my 2 cents worth ...

[Eric Drobile]

Hey, thanks for the crits guys. The paintover was cool but you're right, it doesn't look like her anymore. Heres a link to a different colored version (without as much contrast and stuff) I think its more realistic, but the skin tone is off. I dunno. Sorry for the high rez. Which one do you like better?


[ June 10, 2002: Message edited by: Eric Drobile ]

[faeklone]

Well, as displayed in my overpaint, I think the things that are a little wrong and need fixing in the pic are the profile of the face on the left hand side of the pic, the jawline, the chin ad the lips to a small degree. The profile and the jawline could be just me drawing the "Ideal" female form for too many years. However, I still feel that the jaw and the lips are a little off. Could be the angle created by the cast shadow below the lips is a little crooked and is causing me to look at it. The lips may do with a little more work as they for lack of a better word "bug" me. The indent of the upper lip and the lower lip should both line up with the imaginaty line going through her forehead, between her eyes, through her nose at the bridge, and down to her chin. I don't think that explains it too well. But hey, if you can understand it all the better.

But I do like the skintone of this new version than the one I painted over.

[scylla]

i think its really great! (especially for first-ish attempt)

i don't see any problems with her jawline in the first pic, and i think all that the paint over does is change her features - when the first more accurattely communicated what she must look like.....i think...

anyway, I most definately think you should do more, and lots more...cos THAT'S how you're going to learn

[Weirdowe]

I tink it's great ... I could never do that with a mouse. (I got me a wacom pad last week and i've been playng wih it 'till my hand would cramp up - so I just wanna sujjest that, a little more natural way of holding the paint tool will only help)

anyways the only thin I'd add is that the part above lip looks like it's going off centre or a bit out, but then again, that might be like that on purpose.
btw, I'm also having problems drawing hair, so if you find out how to do it lemme know.

[Little Beefucker]

Rrgh. I don't understand how anyone can criticise the proportions of a life-drawn face without viewing the subject -- from the same angle, in particular.

People do not fit some standard thrown at students in first-year courses. Hands often look awkwardly out-of-place in reality; faces are not the ideal cast of perfection.

This is just me pissed off.

If anyone is criticising the proportions of a face, it's because they don't find it pretty. A "pretty" face adheres to the standards they think they know so well -- check out the paintover here to see the same insult. I'd take any artistic critique on this with a grain of salt -- a big grain inferring that not only do you not know your subject, but that the subject is ugly.

Sheesh. Fuck. Sorry about the bitter comments. I hate technical comments on organic images.

[Little Beefucker]

Oh yeah. ^_^ It's very nicely done, IMO. The hi-res version is much improved since it shows the detail of the skin (good) and lets you move from point to point on the face. The portrait is more intimate that way. And the pinkish tone makes her look more youthful, more happy, while the lighter-tone version above is colder.

Me gusta.

[Eric Drobile]

Thanks guys! Now that some of you have mentioned it, the lips are off. Heres the picture of her I drew it from, since it was starting a bit of controversy...



I should definately darken the jaw line some, but as you can see, her cheeks are...that way. :P And...as for hair..BAH! I hate it.

[Jeise]

For the hair, I think you should let up on the smudge tool. Unless you want it to look waxed, but that's not what the picture looks like.

A crit on the eyes: the colour you used to shade them is a very strong blue, while the colours in the photo are much greyer.
Also, the nostril does not come far enough to the right (of the picture), if you see the photo and then your picture this will become apparent and easy to fix, I hope.

Still more: the shading just above the nostril fold thing (I'm no expert on anatomical titles, clearly) is overdone, and this should also be easy to fix.
Another minor shading problem I can see: her left eye has shading between it and her nose. On your picture, these shadows are blended a teensy bit too much, and they go slightly too high and far into the nose, at the upper part of the shadow anyway.

Two more quick ones! (man am I ever outlasting my welcome) The eyebrow does not come in far enough, and the bit of skin right off the corner of her left eye (not the red part, the part right to the left of it) is too dark, actually, I don't even know if it's on your pic.

It is a very good portrait though. I also do portraits, but mine are in black and white. Good luck with her!

[TossMonkey]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Eric Drobile:
Thanks guys! Now that some of you have mentioned it, the lips are off. Heres the picture of her I drew it from, since it was starting a bit of controversy...



I should definately darken the jaw line some, but as you can see, her cheeks are...that way. :P And...as for hair..BAH! I hate it.

---

I hope you don't mind me saying but your girlfriend is HOT! Ahem.... anyway, good profile pic, I think that you have drawn her head a little bit longer than it actually is. Still, better than my drawings and I have been doing it since I was 6

[Mb]

Face needs to be shorter and, perhaps, a bit wider. But nice work

[liv the fish]

Actually, the head isn't longer. You can tell because the Nose is exactly where it should be and its the right size. The real problem is that the eyes are a bit too high. This makes it appear that the head is taller and because the other proportions are on target, makes it difficult to figure out why it looks off. Also, the forehead is tilted too far right, also adding to the illusion that the head is too tall.

Really, other than those 2 elements and the hair texture (I agree with you, it needs a little work , its an excellent pic. All the other features are correct (and I mean correct to the photo, not the so-called "standard" human head). You also went above and beyond the scope of colors and intensity seen in the Photo, which is a good thing because the colors in the photo are pretty flat.

You're a good artist. Keep it up.

later,
Brian H.

[ken]

people who paint with the mouse are insane. kudos to you, my friend, amazing work.

-Ken

[chickensoup]

IMHO, I think you made it really hard for yourself by picking such a difficult photo as reference. But what you've done with it was a really nice job

-soup