Biotech Girl Portrait - WIP

[tuzz]

Hi!
I am not a great artist like other people on this board, but I noticed that following approach (which I learned here btw) helped me a lot:

After you outlined your sketch (as you already did), i would through in some colors. The colors you picture should have, not detailed, just paint over your sketch with some basic colors, like brown, red, yellow - whatever. That way you can get a feel for the colors that will work best, perhaps even try to put in some details or shadows with different tones of that color...

I dont know, perhaps you dont know what I mean, or it doesn't suit you :)
either way, I saw it was done by some good artists, tried it and it did really work out for me (with my limited skills)

cheers, tuzz

PS: if u wanna learn new techniques, check out the daily sketch group, they give tips every other day

[Lonely Pixel]

Thanks tuzz! You're very helpfull, I like that :D

I tried something like this?


http://members.home.nl/jrch/___wip2.jpg

[tuzz]

I think that got you a lot further.
but perhaps you should get rid of those lines? or are you going to give it a sketchy touch?
otherwise get rid of them and trust in your colors to show the shapes - i believe they are more powerful :)

[zilla]

hi lonely pixel! I like your idea alot. Don't worry too much about originality everythings been done by someone else at some point. Just worry about what turns you on as an artist!

Have you thought about some sort of background? where did you imagine your character when you first sketched her?

Against a plain colored wall, in a dark room, against a city sky line? Even blocking in the right shade of color can help you add detail to the face! If she's in a dark room try painting the background black/dark blue? and deciding which direction the light hitting her face would come from. I won't bore you with how to shade as you seem pretty good at that already!

good luck!

[Lonely Pixel]

I was thinking about some dark place, yes, with maybe some blurry highlights somewhere in the back. Light from upper left, I think 1 light source.

But there's another slight problem, the colours in her face and the other stuff is not 100% opacity, so the colours basicially blend with the white background... Will that get me in trouble at some point? Also, I haven't made seperate layers for every single colour. Should I add colours again in seperate layers before I get in trouble with that later?

Thanks for your help! :D

[zilla]

Hi ya,

I think your background idea sounds good! but yes you need to solve the problem of the colors not being 100% opacity. I love layers so I'll tell you how to do what you want and keep your layers.

I assume you are working in Photoshop?

If yes save a second copy of your image. Link all of the layers together (using the paper clip icons on the layers pallet) and merge them (Ctrl +E) (don't include the background layer in this!). Once you have done that "ctrl" and "click" on the new single layer you have with your face on it. This will make a selection of the face shape. Create a new layer and fill it with white. You now effectively have a mask of your face shape.

To get this into your "good" photoshop file where your face colours are still on seperate layers. Have both files open. Make sure the move tool(V) is active, select the mask layer, and then holding down the shift key drag your mouse until it's sitting ontop of your "good" photoshop file then let go (if the file size is big you may have to wait a few seconds before letting go)! This should drop your mask layer into the right place on your original file. move it so that its underneath all of your face color layers. And you should now be able to paint on your background layer without affecting the face!

(you might find you need to tidy the mask layer up a bit with an eraser)

hope that helps. let me know if any of that was confusing!

[Lonely Pixel]

Yeah I see what you mean. I wonder why I had not thought of that yet :D ! I'll do that as soon as I get back from school :(.



Thanks very much, I'll keep you updated.

[Lonely Pixel]

Update :)

Didn't have much time on hands today.. zilla your method didn't completely work out as it's supposed to be, but I in fact did something similar, I just painted some white in a layer just over the background :)

This update doesn't look great but it's a step in the right direction I think :D


http://members.home.nl/jrch/wip3.jpg

[zilla]

hey! your idea sounds much simpler/better, sometimes I get carried away with all the technical gizmos :) ! ...it's looking great can't wait to see what's next!

[Mystifyurmind]

looking good. If i may ask, is there a story behind the tear? Why is she sad?

I can't wait to see this progress.

[Lonely Pixel]

zilla: hehe I tend to do that as well sometimes ;) Thanks for the compliment!


Mystifyurmind: Ermm.. There's no real story behind the tear (yet...? :P) I just thought it'd be nice. I actually started this pic with drawing my girlfriend but for some reason I ended up with this. She doesn't like the tubes in her head :P

Oh btw, I just turned 18 last week (in your 2d passion topic I asked your age :) )

[Lonely Pixel]

Hehe, I hope someone is still interested.. :p

Anyway here's another update, still don't have much time on hands to spend on drawing :D

http://members.home.nl/jrch/wip4.jpg

[tuzz]

I really like the shadow around the eyes,
but I don't really think the blood thing fits in there. Perhaps later when you rendered everything nicely, but now I dont like it :)
keep up the work!
-tuzz

[Lonely Pixel]

Hmmm

is this better already?

http://members.home.nl/jrch/wip5.jpg

It's just draft, am gonna make it look better as soon as I got more time :D

[NoPancakeMix]

a good way to get the colors looking the way you want is to fill in the background with a color that is about 50% saturated and then paint over it instead of blocking out where the figure will be.

since you have already gone this route, you may want to start defining where you highest highlights are going to be and where the darkest shadows are going to show up. speaking of which you might want to slightly change the color of the lit and shadowed areas: like red and blue.

as a final note you could decrease brow ridge to make her a little for femenine. keep it up!

[Lonely Pixel]

I changed the shadow colour, and added a temporary background gradient. I also made her eyebrow a little less dark. Any better yet? I think I changed the shadow colour too much but that can always be undone later.

Thanks for your comment NPM, but could you please explain a little more what you suggest I do with the highlights? :) Thanks.


http://members.home.nl/jrch/wip6.jpg

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