Portrait Practice
4yr
@leycrows
Are there any glaring issues or things I could improve with this portrait? It was kind of quick but I'm trying to learn how to balance getting an aesthetic looseness while still being able to accurately convey the subject.
My first impression was wow, cool! I think once you look at the image more closely, because of the huge contrast of black and white in the ear and blockiness of the application, the attention is drawn there (for me) which is not the best part of the image as it looks a bit unfinished, so maybe soften that area. Amazing shapes/proportions/colours though, I love it!
Ah I see what you mean about the contrast in the ear drawing the attention, thats also what happens a bit in my reference photo but I probably couldve taken some artistic liberty to make the eyes a greater area of visual interest instead of the ear. Thanks!
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4yr
Looks great and reads really nicely as a thumbnail. Your colors and values are great, but I think you need to pay some attention to your edges, specifically in the face. To start just think "where are my cast shadows falling, and where are my forms turning?" and work from there. Excellent stuff!
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hey there, i did a quick paintover below .nice job on the painting, i really like the mood it conveys. i think there are some issues with the structure of the face though. since idk what photo you used, i came up with my own lighting instead so apologies if it's not exactly what you were going for
for some reasons the highlights on the cheeks got "cut off" (?) the cheek area is also quite dark, i think that area still in light so try not to use shadow values there.
also for the colors, i recommend shifting hues when changing values ( unless you're using monochromatic palette ), adding colors variations will help make your painting feels more alive. i made the highlights more blue-ish in my paintover. ( though i made the highlights a bit too dark in my paintover, you can go brighter if you want to )
also for looseness, imo i don't think "looseness" = "messiness" ( unintentional messiness ). in your painting, the hair is quite messy ( unintentionally ), the brushstrokes are repetitive, which does more harm than good. try to keep in mind the fundamentals when painting hair, like form, shape designs, etc. you don't have to render out every lock specifically though.
there is other stuff like how black people have different skull structures to white people so their face structure would be different but im not gonna touch on that for now, you can research more on that if you want to
though the paintover is not the best, i hope its somewhat useful
Ah, probably shoulve included my reference photo in the original post, sorry about that! Thanks for the paintover btw! I really like how you tightened up the mouth/nose area, even when I was making it I was really on the fence about leaving everything as airbrushed as I did, the hard edges you introduced definitely helped out. And ya got me haha, I've been struggling for a while to find a way to express hair that I like and that actually succeeds in conveying the actual shape and volume of the hair. Back to the drawing board I guess
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4yr
I think this was spot on. Something I may add is that the edges on the original are a bit too soft. It's definitely not bad, I think the idea and the execution on it is really solid. I do think that the brush strokes seem of arbitrary. It seems strange (it might just be my taste) that the ear is in much clearer focus than the mouth, eyes and nose.
Anyways, great job and keep up the good work!
