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so bite me. razz
















lol after you bite me, please tell me what you think of this. I only suddenly wanted to draw red hair to satisfy a certain aesthetic preference. I didn't want to work hard on it but I did try a little, and tomorrow I have my first exam in the finals, so no more working on it. The idea was to draw the face without any of the preliminary facial structure lines that i usually use. I wanted to see what I can do without them, so I started, worked some, screwed up, eventually drew some of those lines and fixed the hell out of it.

I know the skin and hair both can use some more depth, but I just won't do it here. I will use your notes for next time. Please tell me anything you think might be of help.

Please come down on this like a bunch of mad dogs.



bigger

(for some reason it looked nice at home, but it looks quite awful right here)


errr... hasn't anyone noticed the last image of Kate in the Kate thread? I really wanted to know what you thought of that. sad

Yes, I agree. There's a huge lack of depth in the tones everywhere. The hair's supposed to look unnatural, but I don't know how successful the attempt is. I don't think it contributes well to the piece.

My sisters criticized this as "ugly and unreal/unnatural. Unlike your usual." To which I agreed, except, what the **** is my usual? They said it lacked some of the lively quality which I usually have. I don't know how true this is about my usual.

To tell you the truth, I blame the lack of time for this. I only worked a little on the skin tones, and the rest was merely throw-around because I had to do something about it to get it out of my way. Exam's soooo tomorrow. But that's not a justification. I want this criticized as a finished work, because I know inside my head that I probably have to take a huge step in order to get it anywhere near acceptable.

REFLECTED LIGHT! XD *bangs head on keyboard, repeatedly*

First off, that hand. It's looking a touch skeletal there and it's creeping me out. Please, please, please consider putting some meat on her bones. Her forearm should be a good deal thicker, as well.
Conversely, you'll probably want to slim down her chin.

Next up: The shadow being cast by the arm doesn't quite conform with the highlight you have on the hair and may also be at odds with your background lighting. If she's outdoors, lighting as it is should be placed higher, and she's going to be getting harder shadows cast by her hair and her arm.
Be sure to shade right below the lips. Pull out your anatomy book and look at how 'Obicularis Oris' sits. The lower part should give you a good guide where to add shading.
Right now the highlight on her hair indicates it's getting hit be light sitting much lower, like a hanging lamp or something, which would also create some bright highlights on her nose, upper lip, chin and cheeks. And you'll want to spend some more time fleshing out her shirt as well, it needs some attention.

Another thing with the hair: You might consider trying to add more 'weight' to it, where it turns and bends, so that it hangs further down. I can do some quick sketches if you want, I don't think I'm communicating it too well. stressed Think of it as exaggerating the way you have the hair posed right now, so it feels more like it's falling and draping along her.

Also, the way the hair curves along her face isn't convincing me; that flower is too small to pin up that much hair and it's not being hung up by her cheekbone, either. Photography can get away with that kind of hair sculpture, painting not so readily unless you're doing surrealism or something. Fortunately, you can separate the bangs and lay that to rest easy enough, without really changing the way you have the hair posed.

If you're lacking photo reference for delightfully unnatural red hair, I can recommend a few choice fashion models to image search for. domokun

Also wanted to mention that I like how you're framing her with blurry green bushes. I like that. biggrin

Yes, I totally, totally ignored hues. I only dealt with volumetric values on the face around the nose. Which was awful of me. But what can I do, I ran out of time (you can see from the un-finished fingers that I didn't work on anything else). The reason why I don't consider that as a justification is because I don't think I should be doing these things in stages as much as I do, but that I should be able to just splatter some colors around on a canvas and have things come out right, or at least come out convincing.

Thanks a lot, Mr. Smite, for taking the time to go through that for me. I totally appreciate your help. I do like to stress that the idea was to attempt drawing a face with no anatomical, structural lines. I was testing myself. And I don't have a book on anatomy. You are correct about the shadows. I missed that. As for the hair, don't worry, I understand what you're trying to say. You put it clearly, and I agree with you. The hair was first volumic, full and thick, but I redid that for some reason. My sisters say the old one looked more real, but I still wanted this excessively soft-looking hair. I understand that it lacks definition as well, but that's only because it would take time that I don't have. Hair in general is my weak point, so I'll have to work more on it. Please refer me to those delightful models you speak about. wink

Thanks a lot. I ran a quick google image search. The hair I was aiming for was much like one of Angela Ryan's first few results. That should help a lot.

Is any of those books downloadable? or are they only printed? Because it's not possible for me to buy book around here. =D heart domokun