Help with portrait

[Lasca]

That's a great picture. Thanks!

I think you are very brave to draw a portrait without a reference picture, that is a very difficult thing to do.

Thank you! However. that's not completely true. I use a lot of different reference pictures and mash them up. Which might be my problem
If you (or anyone else) has a good tips on painting hair, I would be really grateful. Hair is really not my forte.

[SilverSpook]

lasca: Ah well, probably time to move on to the hair so I don't end up wasting the rest of my life rubbing on that eye.

I super get you on this!  I tend to micromanage every iota of art detail.  It's like a splinter in my mind if something's off. (Forgive my CMRD: Compulsive Matrix Reference Disorder)

The mantra I use to keep from popping open Photoshop again to retouch that damned wrinkle when I'm supposed to be doing my TPS reports at work is, "No one cares about this gross abomination against all that is Sacred to Art!  it's all in your head!"

Because most of the time, it is.  Most players are not art critics, and probably won't even notice.  They are more likely to alt-F4 or left-swipe, or whatever shit they do to force-close nowadays due to a flat story, boring gameplay, uncompelling characters, or uninteresting art style.  Worry about the hole in the ship's hyperdrive, rather than the color of the coffee cups in the mess hall.  Primordia is if not the, at least near the apex of what Lucasian p-n-c adventure games can be.



Imagine if Primordia artist Victor Pflug let his inner art-Nazi tell himself, "What in the seven hells was I thinking?!?!  The shape of his left iris is HORRIBLE!"



"Oh God, this is a disaster!  It looks like a German wax museum in the middle of the Dresden Firebombing!  Am I genetically preprogrammed to be incapable of drawing straight lines!?}

Thank God, (or Man, if you're Horatio, the oblong-eyed protagonist), Victor didn't let his inner editor shut him down, or let him waste countless hours scrubbing and redrawing and redoing Horatio's eye.

(Full disclosure: Wadjet Eye is not paying me for this plug, I truly think Primordia is one of the greatest pieces of game art out there.)

I think it was Leo Dicaprio (or was it Brad Pitt?  I think it was both), who said, "I cannot watch any of my own films, cause all I see are the mistakes, how good it could've been".  Yet these are award-winning guys, with real talent.  The film (or game) will always be better in your head.

All of that is a convoluted but hopefully more illustrative way to say, "It's ok to let the eye go.  The world, and your game, will not end." 

Take your mistakes and turn them into strokes of genius.  Remember, the audience doesn't know the difference!

(/rant)


For some hair advice: get a wide brush and kind of lay down the darkest color.  Then up the brightness a bit, and go in with a slightly narrower brush.   Again, I'd recommend throwing some more light in there, somewhere.  Once you know where the light is coming from, add some near-white highlights in the locks that face the light source.  Curly hair is a bit more tricky, but the same applies with the brush-width advice.

Good luck!  You got this!

[Lasca]

Thanks SilverSpook. You're absolutely right. And I now I'm compulsive. But I guess in this case perhaps it serve something, since this is also a learning experience. Bur you're right. That perfect eye is (mostly) not what makes your heart go boom.
So this is the last change:



Perhaps I'll go back to the eyes when I've finished the rest But now, let them go! Sorry also for making so many updates with small changes. Hopefully it does something good for someone.
Now on to the hair! (and I will throw more light in, I promise )

[SilverSpook]

Definitely looks better!  Glad you shone some light on the subject!  

Remember, darker skin makes for brighter highlights, in my experience.  White / caucasian faces are so bright already that there's less contrast -- you don't really see the bright spots on the cheeks / nose cause it's... whitewashed.  There's a tendency to just make everything darker in African portraits, but that can result in the picture just looking light the lighting is really dim. 

For example:





Notice how you can really see the light, near-white parts on the darker girl's cheeks, whereas you can barely see anything on the white girl's?  Mostly you just see her reddish blush.

[Ykni]

That looks great Lasca. As for tips on how to paint hair. I don't know what kind of program you are using to paint with. I do most of my work with Artrage, which let's me blend my paint on canvas. This helps getting lots of natural looking color variation with a single brushstroke. Corel painter can probably do the same, I'm not sure if there are other paint programs that can do this as well.
But that's my trick with the hair, start using dark colors and work toward lighter colors like SilverSpook said. Work wet in wet to get the rich variation in color.

[Mandle]

For me the left eye seems to be looking a little more upwards than the right but I think that is still fine as some people's eyes look that way in real life...

You could correct this or just move forwards with that look...I would personally just move forwards as it looks awesome already and it adds some character...

[Eric]

I found this image that might help with figuring out what's wrong with the left eye.

Sorry I forgot to check back in to provide an example of what I was talking about. Here's Andrew Loomis demonstrating. Imagine the the head inside a cube, and it helps you plan the perspective:



Also, if you want to improve in general, read the Andrew Loomis books!

[Mathias]

James Gurney have written a great book about color and light theory, named Color and Light that is absolutely Amazing if you're interested in the subect. In regards of painting faces or portraits you rarely see the same uniform Brown or pink tones all over the face but rather yellow or white brows, red tones on cheeks and nose (I see you have some in there) and blue, green or grey tones on the chin. Using that (depending on the light in your portrait) will make it appear slihgtly more alive and natural.

You could check out this link for reference:
Link to facial colorzones.

Apart from my comment I think you've a long way and it looks really nice!

[Lasca]

@eric Thanks! I'm actually reading loomis "figure drawing" atm. Many insights and much learning to be made!

@Mathias Color and Light is great! I read it a couple of months ago and must recommend it to everyone. And thank you for reminding me of it, I'll go back to it immediately!
Thanks!

[Lasca]

Ok, so I decided to quit messing around with this in hd. I resized it to fit the the game and worked it to some kind of finish. The creator of the game to which this portrait is being made wanted to keep the lighting very neutral, so I didn't do many dramatic effects. Anyway. I still feel like she looks just a bit too masculine, although I don't feel like she has too look like a model. I want her to be more of an actual person. But if anyone has got any tips for feminizing her just a bit, let me know. And all other critique is welcome! I want to finish this now and I want it to look good, so just lay it on me. Thanks in advance! And oh, hair is difficult. Also stylewise. So please critique.
/Lasca

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/fCERubm.png[/imgzoom]

[Frikker]

the thing that stands out to me most is that the hairline looks as if it starts too far back. If you look at the curve profile of her forehead on the right, it curves round almost to the top of the head before the hair starts, suggesting that her hairline starts almost on top of her head. If I try to imagine her from a side view I think it wouldn't look right.
Also maybe make her cheekbones less prominent and her nose slighly narrower/pointy-er for maximum feminism. But personally i think shes pretty feminine anyway, so not too much.

Either that or give her a make-up bag and 6 hours in the bathroom like most girls

[Ykni]

Wow she turned out very well. I don't think she looks masculine tbh. Perhaps raising her cheekbones a bit would make her look more girlish. A bit like this, where the cheekbone starts directly under the eye.

Couldn't resist trying how the higher cheekbones would look like

[imgzoom]http://i59.tinypic.com/mbn6dz.png[/imgzoom]

Perhaps I did a bit too much on the left cheekbone, but I think it works to make her look a bit more girlish. Also lowered the hairline a bit like Mathias suggested. Adding a bit of hair 'behind' her forehead seems to soften her looks.

[Lasca]

Thanks to both of you. Had a look with fresh eyes today and agree with you, she doesn't look too masculine. I don't really know why I thought that. I'm definitely going to take a look on tr hairline though.  And probably the cheeks to. Thanks!

[Lasca]

Ok, added suggested changes:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/S9Y30us.png[/imgzoom]

[Ykni]

That looks good. I love the way the eyes turned out. Makes her look very radiant.

[Lasca]

Thanks ykni!

[Mandle]

Amazing result! There was nothing wrong with the first version, but this latest version is much, much more a charismatic-looking game character that will have players indentifying with her and getting emotionally invested in the story.

Brilliant job! PM me a link when the game is finished please!

[Lasca]

Thanks a lot mandle! Definitely will do!!
Lasca