Shading help needed (female sprite)

Pelican · Tue 26/12/2006 23:17:31

After a year's break, my art is rather rusty again, and I could really use some tips, especially shading because its the part I find most difficult. The sprite is just the head for the moment, I wanted to get it right before moving on:

I've been studying various photos and things trying to get the shading right, but it still doesn't look right to me, and I can't figure out why. Suggestions would be welcome. If anyone wants to do a paintover, thats ok, just make sure to list exactly what you changed so I can try it myself. Also, if it takes more than an hour, don't bother, I have a full time job now, and want art that looks ok and I can make fairly quickly, rather than brilliant stuff that takes ages.

Thanks in advance

JackAnimated · Wed 27/12/2006 02:07:09

Here is my paint-over. It took roughly 15 minutes.

What I did first was to think where the light source was coming from. I picked an easy one - from above left. So I darkened the shadows under things (nose, eyebrows, lip), and removed lots of the others shadows. And darkened her top lip. Then with the lighter shadow colour I made the right side of her face darker (with a highlighted checkbone).

I also, thinned her face a bit and covered her ears with her hair.

Hope this helped.

JackÃ,Â

MashPotato · Wed 27/12/2006 02:32:05

Jack beat me to the punch, I see

. Here is my paintover:

3x

I tried to change as little as possible, but gave her a more feminine look. Here are the adjustments I made:
-outline of upper eyelid (to indicate eyelashes)
-toned down the heavy shadows, especially around the nose and beneath the cheekbones. Generally, when drawing women it's best to give them softer features, unless you're going for an older look
-made the shape of the jaw symmetrical
-made the mouth smaller by a pixel or so
-put more iris
-rounded out the eyebrows
-lowered the eyes by a pixel to give a larger forehead

I hope this helps ^_^

(EDIT: I did this pretty quickly, so the shading is not symmetrical)

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Wed 27/12/2006 06:28:36

Here is a relatively quick edit that might give you some ideas.

1. Changed the skin tones to something more natural.
2. Moved the eyes down one pixel. Remember that eyes are essentially centered in the face. Also lowered the ears down to eye level.
3. Used more natural shading, but since you are working from a portrait and have not provided it as a reference I had only your image as a reference.
4. You rarely see whites in a person's eyes in a portrait, so when drawing from one don't add them, it just makes the face look unnatural.
5. Used highlights to bring out the cheeks, chin, tip of the nose and forehead.
6. Made lips fuller, though again I only have your image as a reference.

Hopefully this will help as it is mainly a reshade and edit of your original. Posting the actual portrait would go a long way to help us help you make your version closer to the original.

Pelican · Wed 27/12/2006 17:09:23

Actually ProgZ, its just a sketch I did from scratch, which I've been trying to figure out how to shade. I've just been studying various images to see how the shading should work (light source above and slightly forward btw).

Here is the original sketch scanned in.

This is the resized version I've been trying to colour in and shade properly.

Thanks for having a go Jack, but I've chosen a different light source.

MashPotato, thats nice, just some simple edits made it look a lot better, thanks.

ProgZmax, wow thats amazing but seems a bit too much for me. Did you do that pixel by pixel? I'll definitely keep your suggestions in mind though.

Thanks for the replies guys!

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Wed 27/12/2006 19:51:27

Yes, I did it pixel by pixel. If you are just drawing a face from scratch, the things you need to pay attention to (if you want it to look somewhat realistic) is the placement of the parts of the face (eyes at center of head, ears at eye level, etc) and the right colors. good luck

Pelican · Wed 27/12/2006 22:46:27

Ok, I had another bash at it, and here's what I came up with:

I'm not terribly happy with the hair, but overall I think its looking pretty good. Took me a while, but it was rather fun, and I'm sure I'll get faster with practice.

Any further suggestions?

Chicky · Thu 28/12/2006 02:40:35

much much better! Very nice!

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Thu 28/12/2006 04:47:53

You're definitely catching on. What I would suggest is to shave a few pixels from the chin and round the face out more, don't be afraid to make both halves of the face symmetric even though people's faces aren't precise. The result looks better for sprite work and such. Keep going!

Mr Flibble · Thu 28/12/2006 16:59:11

Took a whack at the hair, changed the shading from vertical to horizontal. Also moved the chin around slightly, and altered the bottom of the nose a little. Oh and eyebrows.