Painting of Couple

[joelphilippage]

I'm about done with a rough layout of this painting and would like to know what you think about it. Is there something drastic I should change or keep in mind before starting on colors and details?

Here is the reference photo.

[MiGo]

WOW! xD It looks fantastic! I have a feeling you started with the girl's head, since it's slightly bigger than the man's. I mean, it's pretty spectacular how you put this together with grey-scale. Their clothes and bodies are fantastic! The only things I would do are scale her head down to the same size as his, and scale his hand down. In fact, you could probably just stick that hand in his pocket... without changing the pocket!

Fantastic though. Very Impressive. Loving their show of confidence.

[Khris]

Did you use a reference? If yes, we have to see it to give you proper advice.

[joelphilippage]

Sorry. I added one now.
And heres an update with a scaled head:

[Anian]

His face features are obviously too small (by features I mean eyes, nose, mouth), just lasso them and scale them up. And her left side of the jaw is too stretched out.

But the rest is pretty good, I know I can almost never match people by photos, unless I actually grid them.

[Stoferin]

Hey there.  Complete amateur here. 
1.  Unfeathered circular brush use on center of guy's jacket is noticable. 
2.  I know you followed the shading from the photo, but the shadowing on the girls's face feels inconsistent.  Maybe imitate shaded areas from guy's photo? 
3.  Reserve darkest colors for outline of clothing/characters.  Lighten right side of girl's face?  Add greater range of lighter shading on girl's neck?
4.  Horizontal detail lines on girl's backpack?  Like the tops of pockets or something?  Guy's jeans work.  Patch on the leg feels forced. 


-Guy's belt/buckle is awesome!
-Eyes are great.  All facial outlines seem perfect.
-Bow tie works great!

[Mad]

Nice! I especially like how you captured the guy's expression.

The thing I noticed first, is the confusing highlights on the guy's face. The ones on the left (his right side). I think some of the values are a bit too light, giving the impression of another (very selective) light source.

I see where you're coming from looking at the reference pic, but the values there are much darker, overall.

Maybe this picture explains it better than anything I could ever put into words:

[joelphilippage]

I fixed most of the places where there were suggestions. Don't worry about the bag and other places. I'll work out the details after I add colors.

[Snarky]

The girl looks a lot more haughty in the painting than in the photo, but I assume that's deliberate. And also vaguely Asian, which maybe isn't?

There's a bit of a weird effect on the guy's torso (and really all the way down his crotch, too). The right side, the middle of the shirt, the buttoned jacket, and the shadow on the left all follow the same (-shaped curve, making it look almost like his spine is bent.

Since he's facing right, his shirt and to some extent the jacket should also face more to the right, I think. A )-shape rather than a (-shape, if you will. This should start at the neck, adjusting the collar and bowtie.

I also think his torso needs to be wider. Currently it continues the line of his neck, and no normal person looks like that. (Compare the photo.) And what kind of strap is that? For a bag? It doesn't seem to hang right; too far down the shoulder, and too tight around him. It literally looks like he has to strap himself into it, since he couldn't get it over his arm and shoulder.

Finally, I think that white line under his mouth makes it look distorted. It doesn't make sense given the angle of the light and normal facial geometry (and indeed is not present in the photo).

I actually thought the difference in proportions between the two figures in the first draft was more interesting. With the forced perspective, it gives a "wide angle lens" effect that makes them both look more majestic; like giants. The current edit is more intimate, but it makes it even more important to clearly establish their physical relationship to each other, I think. Are they embracing? (I can't tell if that thing around his back is supposed to be her hand/arm or some part of what he's carrying.) Even if you want their attitude to be ambiguous, I think their pose should be readable. (If you can't make out how they're standing it's hard to even start interpreting why.)

Hope this helps. It's a nice sketch, but I think it's more useful to point out things you can work on than just tell you how good you're doing.

[joelphilippage]

Here's an update. Does his torso look better? Also, I still am a bit undecided on what to do with the girl's bag. Does anyone have a reference photo that looks similar or something to add to make it look less like a blob?

[Tabata]

Here's an update. Does his torso look better? Also, I still am a bit undecided on what to do with the girl's bag. Does anyone have a reference photo that looks similar or something to add to make it look less like a blob?
...

Don't ask for shoes or bags if girls are around (that's very dangerous )... possibly something like this  or  that or a different thing like this or that?