Help with shading a female character

[pslim]

I'm happy with the overall design, and with her upper torso, but her limbs seem a bit off to me, and I had a lot of trouble with the shading. The female form is really difficult for me to draw, for some reason. Any help would be appreciated.


She's a naughty space nurse, if that helps any.Ã, 



x2

[A�rendyll (formerly Yurina)]

Hi,

I must say her design looks good! BUT the shades look a bit... well.. flat. That's why I made this small paintover (which is my very first paintover on this forum ):



I hope you get some inspiration out of it...

~Yurina

EDIT: whoops! I made a mistake with the url code. This time it's a pic.

[vict0r]

It looks good to me, but if she is a "naughty" space nurse i would consider changing the "punk-ish" hair and bored face into something more naughty.

[Greyarea]

Maybe give the nurse some "toys" (whip?) to make her look naughty   

[pslim]

Thanks, Yurina, that paintover was really helpful.

I don't pretend to know my head from a hole in the ground where shading is concerned but I'm trying to learn. It helps to see the shapes that I've conceived shaded properly.


In regard to the nurse's naughtiness--okay, so she's not quite so naughty in the fun way that her description would suggest, but it's catchy and she's bratty and self-concerned, which is naughty enough in its own way. 

[MashPotato]

My first ever paintover, so hopefully it will actually be helpful ^_^:


there are a lot of changes, just to give some ideas (I like some of the things the way you did it better ^_^), and I didn't really spend time on making the shading consistent.

Major changes:
1) slimmed down face, brought down eyes, lengthened neck (one pixel)
2) a general slimming down of the body, arms, and legs
3) flipped legs, so hand is is on weight-bearing hip
4) lengthened legs slightly (2 pixels), and made them a bit more curvy
5) notice the difference in the shading of her breasts.Ã,  Putting shading only below them makes them look saggy (IMO), and shirts tend not to hug each breast individually.Ã,  Putting the stretch and the shadow from the peak (like in the paintover) helps make her look slightly more realistic, while still remaining busty.Ã,  Why am I spending so much time explaining the boobs?Ã,  I think it's a common tendency to put the shadows only below, and I don't think breasts really look that way.Ã,  A "naughty nurse" should have well-rendered boobs, right? ^_^
6) trimmed down shoulder span
7) raised breasts by one pixel

I hope this helps you ^_^

[pslim]

MashPotato: I really like what you did with the legs, and I modified your breast technique a bit for my own purposes. A very helpful paintover, thanks!


I am now happy with my sprite and officially declare this thread dead. Thanks to those who posted with suggestions.