c&c my painting

[Afflict]

heres my first ever painting digital or otherwise... please give me some c&c
not happy with it yet..

[Tuomas]

I would like some more contrast... more colours and more striking colours on his face and his hair. The sky's a bit plain, and his hat is blurred... but I love his expression and the neck, even better if it was darker.

[MashPotato]

I think that's really good for a first try at painting ^_^
In terms of crit, one thing I noticed is that the style seems a bit inconsistent in some areas, eg. the faces has some definition and loose shading, but the hair is a single colour and is more cartoony. Ã, The hat seems a bit blurry compared to the face. Ã, Also, I'm not sure if this was intentional, but he seems to have no irises.

You have a very nice start here, keep at it! ^_^

[Afflict]

Believe me not much was intentional just trying my hand at what I believe is the most difficult art form on the planet.

Iris you mean the eyes?

[Stefano]

In my opinion, if you're aiming at a "illustration", then the given hints are valid.
If you're just unleashing the artist inside of you, follow your own path: It's excelent! You only need to keep painting to maturate your style.
There's a post-impressionist feel on it (Gauguin, Cézane, Van Gogh). Did you do it on purpose? When I looked at it, this painting imediately came into my mind (dunno why):

[Afflict]

Wow thanks  Van Gogh maybe i should look at some other paintings...

I really like the style i am achieving just not happy with it yet but will keep practicing! Heh this is awesome!

PS the colors in the corner are just some colors i was mixing with...

As for the cartoon look quite possible am looking into alot of comic book styles... (marvel etc)

[Corey]

hey it's freddie kruéger!!  no no just kidding. IMO only his ear looks wrong , the rest looks fine 

[Haddas]

Go ahead... Make my bed.

[Desmond]

Looks good so far.

Typically there are two colors not used in painting: 100% black, and 100% white.  Both of them appear in the eyes in this image, which is just not realistic.  Even in full light, the whites of the eyes are not white.

If you look again at the painting Stefano posted, the "whites" of the eyes are basically the same value as the skin.  More important than the whites are the eyelids, which catch the highlights and cast shadows upon the eyeball itsself.  Same painting: the lower eyelids are catching more light than the eyeballs themselves.

I'd expect to see more of a cast shadow from the brim of the hat across the face.

If you want to achieve any realism, I'd go back and work on the eyes.  I might be able to do a paintover if you're interested in that sort of thing.

[MashPotato]

Iris you mean the eyes?

Yes, I meant the coloured part of the eyes... but Desmond gave you lots of advice about the eyes already, so I won't talk anymore about that ^_^

[Afflict]

I am new and ill take any advice from someone that knows what there talking about and desmond my friend I know you do.

PAint over welcome and any tuts you can give or provide me with.

[Desmond]

Hi Afflict,

I went to do a basic paintover but thought that what I wanted to explain would be too difficult to see, so I did a value study instead.

The character has changed somewhat in appearance, but I think the pose is similar enough that you'll be able to understand what I'm talking about.  I tried to stay as close to your drawing as I could.



One of the things that's difficult about this image specifically is that the brim of the hat should cast a shadow directly over the eyes, which in a portrait is usually where you want your detail.

For this image, I started with a basic sketch.  I then went directly over the sketch with what I thought would be my average value, or the color that's neither brightly lit nor in shadow.

I picked that color, went darker, and painted in the "shadow side" of the face, very roughly.  Then I picked the average value, went lighter, and painted in the light side.

I did this again with a "highlight" value and a "deep shadow" value.  The study took about an hour, but I'll admit that I started over during that time.

I don't recommend working from white and then adding color and shadow.  Instead, pick a color and fill the whole canvas with it, then bring up your highlights and push back your shadow areas.  You'll notice that there is no white (nor black) in this image anywhere; if I were to add it, it would seem incredibly bright/dark right away.  This is a useful tool, but wasn't necessary.

Starting with a "mid value" can be more difficult in color, but experiment!   

I wanted to point out a few more things.

Cast shadows are really important in an image, and you can see them here from the brim of the hat, the nose, and the upper lip, not to mention the eyelids.  The thing to remember about cast shadows is that the edge of them is usually hard/sharp.  Take a look at the cast shadow from the nose on the area above the lip -- it is very clear that the nose is casting a shadow onto the lip, which helps the nose "read."

Compare this with the cheek areas, the shading within the nose, and the shading around the ear.  There are softer transitions here, which suggest curvature, rather than one shape being in front of another.  Think of a sphere sitting on the ground -- on the sphere itself, the value changes are subtle, but the shadow that the sphere casts looks like a oval on the ground.  (This is exaggerated slightly, but you get the idea, I hope!)

Finally, in my other post I mentioned eyelids... this is because we see more of them than the eyes themsleves.  Eyelids are really difficult, and I didn't do them much justice here, though they are mostly in shadow.  However, the bottom eyelids catch a bit of light bouncing off of the cheek, as the top of the cheek angles upwards.  If you think of the eye as sitting in a socket, with eyelids wrapping around the eyeball, that might help in deciding where to draw them, and how to shade them.  On the viewer right eyelid, I hope you can see that it curves around the eyeball -- even though the eye itself is shaded flat, it should read as curved (somewhat).

Anyway, I hope this has helped you somewhat!     I have a LONG, LONG way to go myself, but if you have any questions, maybe I can answer them.

Good luck!   

[MashPotato]

It may have been meant for someone else, but that mini-tutorial will help me too.  Thank you for posting it ^_^

[Haddas]

That was actually very helpful for many of us. Interested in doing a portrait tutorial and putting it in the tutorials thread?

[Afflict]

Anyway, I hope this has helped you somewhat!

Are you kidding

This helped a whole lot!!!

Thanks, I also realised that the basic shapes used to compile the head you can shade like you would if they were individual. BACK TO BASICS, the problem being is I am finding it very difficult to do this! (With a paint brush )

You see I am use to penciling, pixeling and what youve done is absolutely amazing!

Have any tips on cast shadow and how you calculate them?

[Desmond]

Glad some of you found it useful.

Haddas:  I'll consider doing a tutorial, certainly, but there are more qualified artists here that could do a better job.  I'll see if I have time, though.   

Afflict:  I guess the way I think about cast shadows is a little dorky and taken from 3D rendering, but if you think of your light as a camera pointing at your scene or subject... when you consider everything that camera "can't see," that's where your cast shadows are.

So in the example study I posted, if the light in the upper-right is a camera looking down at our guy, then from that angle, the nose is overlapping part of the face.  That part is in shadow.  Probably easier to visualize would be the brim of the hat -- from that angle, the brim would be blocking the eyes from view.  So that whole area goes into shadow as well.  As soon as we translate "what we can see" to "what light is striking," then the analogy works out.

I don't know if that analogy will work for anyone other than me, but sometimes looking at something in a different way helps.     If necessary, I can do an image or two to clarify this explanation.

[Afflict]

Thats brilliant beter for me to thik like that thanks Desmond!

whats your take onbounce light and how it changes color etc.

[Desmond]

Have you checked out the PSG tutorial?

http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm

It can probably explain some things better than I, but in a nutshell, whenever light hits a surface, it gets reflected off of it like a billiard ball bouncing off the side of a pool table.  When the light leaves the surface, it picks up some of the color of that surface.  When that light strikes another surface, the colors blend.

You can test this in a number of ways, but perhaps the easiest is to go into a brightly lit room (bathroom, usually) and hold something very saturated in color (an apple) up to a blank sheet of white paper.  Or hold the apple up next to your face and take a look in the mirror.

Certainly, it isn't necessary to find out where light is bouncing all over your image, and the golden rule is, "if it looks good, it is good."  But it can be helpful to ask questions about bounced light.  "Is the bottom of his chin a little greener as the grassy ground plane reflects light up into it?"

I'm making less and less sense, I should stop... but check out the link above.   

[Haddas]

Haddas:  I'll consider doing a tutorial, certainly, but there are more qualified artists here that could do a better job.  I'll see if I have time, though.   

You are qualified.