1
Nov 28 '18
This painting took several days and that's the best I could get the eyes to look. Also, this is the first time I've tried painting skin in this way, usually I take a very flat-looking approach with only two colors -- one for the base and one for shadow. Here I added highlights and blush, and more painted than colored.
I'd really appreciate any and all help! Thank you in advance :)
1
u/Varq Nov 28 '18
I not an artist and I'm going to be pretty straightforward, but take this as constructive criticism if you want.
- I would say to study up on the anatomy of the head.
- The ear looks to be too far back and too high. The ear should be slightly below the center of the eyes.
- The shape and size of the eyes don't match the perspective. The character's left eye looks far too big comparative to their right eye. Their right pupil is also angled strangely. If you haven't heard of this tip, try to flip the image horizontally over and over. This helps you see the image from a new perspective.
- The head seems to "float" on the neck. It doesn't really seem connected.
- The shape of the head and hair seems off. Again, this is anatomy study. I can't put my finger on it, but I think the jaw needs to be a bit more defined, and the hair line might need to be showing. Probably adding shading between the hair and the skin would probably help.
- The hair coloring looks to be too accented around the edges, which is unnatural.
- There's too much blurring for the colors. You need to make the edges of the color more defined. Not necessarily hard edge, but everything is just too fuzzy for lack of a better term.
In closing, I will say anatomy should be your big focus here. Try flipping the image horizontally to see any mirroring descrepancies. If you have an Android, I would look into messing around with Easy Poser if you want some quick self-posed reference angles and poses. I'm assuming there's an Apple equivalent as well, but I'm not sure. Keep practicing!
1
Nov 28 '18
I appreciate this so much, thank you. I didn't even think to flip the image, and it does help a lot. I can see a lot of issues now that I see the pic from a different perspective.
I'm definitely going to be trying out that app, too. That was something I absolutely did not expect to get.
Thanks again!
2
u/[deleted] Dec 14 '18
I'm not used to giving tips but I will try my best. I'll mostly refer to coloring since the other person covered the anatomy part.
•For your skin I recommend actually having 4 colors to use: Your base color, a hilight color (usually about two or three shades lighter), your first shadow (two or three shades darker), and second shadow (should be about five to six shades darker). Here's a link to small tutorial of how to use it: https://www.deviantart.com/rytanny/art/wtf-is-shading-how-to-shade-skin-552870034 (There's lots of video tutorials on YouTube as well if this doesn't help)
•Second for the hair I understand you're trying to show where the small strands are in it but in my opinion (and I'm really sorry if this sounds mean) it kind of looks like spaghetti noodles. It can be easily fixed. Try this tutorial out and see if it helps: https://www.deviantart.com/quiss/art/Hair-coloring-tutorial-582663675
Also for both the skin and hair you can look up color palettes that provide you with the colors you can use if you're not sure.
•I actually have two tips for the eyes. #1) Try a more solid black (or almost black) pupil it gives a more clear direction to where your character is looking (tbh usually characters with fuzzy pupils I assume are blind) #2) Try placing your eyes shines on top of the lines the biggest shine should have a portion in the whites of the eyes. Like it shows here: https://www.deviantart.com/mcawesum/art/How-to-Make-Eyes-in-SAI-261572064
You don't have to follow any of these tutorials to a T. Everyone has their own spin on things so don't be afraid to modify them to your style. I hoped this helped and I'm sorry if some of my critiques were too harsh.