[Capt. Fred]

I have traced shapes in this picture from a photograph.
In this case, I'm really just doing anything I can to get the results I want, which include best possible likeness.

Okay the idea is i'm tryna do a movie poster style thing of my brother as terminator. My difficulty, as I see it, is making the fleshy head work as one with the metal head. At the moment the face part is a lot more real because I have a photograph, but how can I get the metal 'skull' to look as real? What does it need?

So my issues are, If I have the skulll perfectly reflective, then there's nothing to show it's in the light of the gun firing apart from some sporadic highlights/reflections - Doesn't look unified with the right hand side of the head. If I have some diffuse reflection on the metal 'skull', ie. it is not a perfect mirror, then it looks like it does here, and it's not looking like a convincing metal. It's gotta be pretty realistically rendered since it's sitting right next to photoreffed material.

The other things which springs to mind is: maybe the reason the head does not work as a single (albeit half metal) head is because I have depended too heavily on the photorefernce so the face isn't lit according to the same set-up as the metal skull, and THAT's why they look seperate.

Whatever it is that's going wrong, I'm stuck. If u can help with anything I've mentioned, (or stuff I haven't, anything,) thank you thank you thank you.

All the rest of the image is early days, but this is the most important part and I'm under time-pressure (his birthday). If u must see the photo, I'll post it, but it doesn't have any relevance from a critic's point of view. don't want to blast the internet with pictures of my brother without him knowing (it's a surprise) just for the sake of it.

[GardenGnome]

I don't know man, I think the transition from metal to skin is pretty convincing. Meaning that the lighting you've done so far looks fine. If anything maybe you could add some light yellow highlights to the protruding points on the flesh side and brighten up the metal ones just a tad.

[Misc]

That's a cool idea, and a cool picture!

About making the skin more connected to the head:
At the top, the metal side seem to be larger than the skin side
The edge between the skin and the metal below his nose looks a bit undefined
You could try adding some skin parts to the metal side or/and vice versa
The edge between the skin and metal might be a bit too straight and regular
I actually think the metal side looks more detailed, for some reason. Highlights might help, like GardenGnome said.

Hope that could help.

[Capt. Fred]

thanks! i tried with highlights but I'm unsure of myself when I've got really bright colours on the bursh

maybe I'll just have finish up on the head, accepting it's gonna look more or less as it is, and tidy up the background. the clock is ticking.

better? I don't like the metal still. There was a point between this version and the last one I posted when the metal was looking okay but I carried on paiinting and stopped thinking.



hmm� I think I know what to do with the metal�

input still welcome, on the background too, before i try and neaten (stiffen) it up.

[Max]

I hope it's not too late : )
some thoughts: i would't worry to much about the head at this stage. I think the background needs more work. Some areas are hard to read. What going on behind him?
Maybe change the color composition (this is just a matter of taste though)
The bg is imho too monoton. You need some lighter areas and more colors.
...too much black around his head. This is why it looks seperated.
The explosion looks too rough relating to the face too.
alright, about the metal: i am no expert in painting metal, here's some ref which could help you
http://www.terminator-3.de/wallpaper/800/wp09-d.jpg for the metal part. The connection between flesh and metal is tricky. Serach the net for ref I would say...there's a lot of Terminator lpics.
I am sorry for this rough criticism. I am maybe abit too strict...oh well, I couldn't do it better. I really think you have a cool idea and your brother will like this for sure! Good luck : )

[scallywag]

I'm no expert but the metal looks fine to me - it's the flesh that is inconsistant with the rest of the scene. You seem to have copied the ref so closely that you've left out the light sources that you have applied to the metal (except for the eye highlight).

Also - the featherthy texture radiating out from the explosion in the lower half of the picture and terminating at the boundary of your brother's form... what is that about? There seems no reason fo rit and it looks odd, unless I'm missing something major then ditch it.

Cheers

[Capt. Fred]

progressing slowly - just making changes, ie. didn't spend enough time in the early stages.

max, the background was supposed to be collage-style where on the left side of his head it's a ground-level shot, and on the right it's a sky shot, and the monotone was something I liked the idea of. As I move along, I'm having trouble trying to develop the RHS, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to go for one 'cohesive' scene, one viewpoint. I'd rather play up the callaged-different-view-points aspect a little.

scallywag, doin my best on the face, re lighting and ref etc.
the stuff down the bottom is left over from the first 10 mins of painting, still in progress. Not looking forward to trying to paint a leather jacket accurately. And have no idea how I can maintain the general brightness of that area when I go in painting a dark leather jacket. We'll see.

Oh, and the explosion in the foreground is supposed to be muzzle flash. this is what's lighting his face. if that's not reading then I don't know what to do!



need to improve the eye. and trying different things in the bg. this is where it would be good to have some kind of eye for composition.

[seth1]

http://www.seth-norman.com/speedpaint/terminator.jpg

I just did a really quick over paint i unno if this will help...

[Capt. Fred]

thanks seth1.

I've been working on this some more. I'm totally depressed about it. It's just too shit for me to want to give it as a gift. I'm not yet able to produce something beyond a speed-painting which I don't think is a pile of crap - every time i try and refine something, I make it worse, and worse, and worse.. I still like the first sketch I did best - from before the first one in this thread.

I guess I overestimated my abilities or something, anyhoo, I fell flat on my face, so unless something unexpected happens I think I'll drop this. this testament to my ineptitude.

oh, here's what I'm left with after scribble-pooping on it some more, and with some crude text that looks like it was designed by a five year old.

http://www.stidston.org/freddie/albums/miscellaneous/terminator_shit.jpg

Sympathy welcome.
I'll post it in finished. Maybe someone will tell me the first thing about composition, I sure as hell don't know shit about it.

I think my eyes have been disconnected from by brain. I see it all, but my brain is empty of thought or response or understanding now. I think my brain's only good for about a couple of hours for any given problem.

[seth1]

lol, theres nothing to thank:p It would be better if the lighting was different becuause it's sorft of hard to work with it like that or you could jut make it dark and blend simpler..

I thought of some thing else...
Another quick speed paint hope u dont mind...

[see]

wah thats what i dislike about my "art". Its messy, not knowing anything about everything ...

[Strawberrysauce]

i really like the original pic, but the way its been drawn looks like the terminator is being killed by the viewer, its more pleading than angry, looks as if hes lying down. See's over paint is fantastic and is a pretyy good indication of the direction in which you could take thjis Capt. Fred.

keep up the good stuff!