[Frog]

Hiya,

this is my first post in this forum, I'd never thought of "painting" on the computer before finding this place, so inspired by all the stuff I've seen here I thought I'd give it a go and this is my first attempt. I started it in Painter but after discovering that it takes me at least half an hour just to decide what brush to use in that software I went back to my old familiar Photoshop and decide to get the basics down first and try Painter again later.

It's drawn from photo reference, scanned in and then painted. I really enjoyed doing this and it has opened my eyes to new possibilities. It took me a while to get it though, the first few hours were very frustrating. Seeing the "speed painting" thread here almost made me want to cry!

Any comments or crits welcome, I'm quite pleased with it as a first attempt but I'm sure more experienced painters can give me some good info and crits.

PS: I know he looks cross-eyed, he was like that in the photo and I decided I liked it , he's an old nepalese man.

[Gil Agud�n]

great technique, i like his expression and the cigar smoke!! welcome!!

[Frog]

Thanks Gil, much appreciated.

Any more opinions? I'm not after cuddles here but some actual comments to show me how I could improve would be nice, seeing as I am a complete novice I think some input from more experienced people would be helpful.

Thanx.

[Tillek]

Wow, that is quite amazing for your first attempt! I love the textures on his hat and face. I'm hardly worthy to critique anybody, but I'll give it a go: A couple little crits, it may just be me, but the bridge of his nose is too blurry or soft, it doesn't have as much detail as the rest of the face. Maybe harden up the lines there.

Also, his hat doesn't look very round (I'm assuming it was supposed to be round)

Great job!

[Frog]

Thanks Cedrian, good points. None of the textures on the face really fit together you're right. I think it's because I was still finding my way while doing the painting, I definetely prefer harder edges to softer ones though. The texture on the top half of the hat is the only thing that's really succesful in the pic IMO, I did it last so I'd probably sorted out some stuff in my head by then.

I tried to create a sense of light and shade in the hat, but I think the problem with it looking flat is because of the direction the shadow is falling accross it? Maybe if it was darker at the bottom it would look better?

I think that there's something a little odd looking with the face in general, but can't quite place a finger in it? Maybe if the left side was blended in with the background or something it might look better? Also the lips don't look great, but I can't really think why?

Thanks for responding.