very first cg painting

[jeroentje]

Okay, the link is working now :)

I think this is the thing you used as a ref (found it while searching for a good tut for you): http://www.fineart.sk/heads/ALEX(F~6.JPG
The problem with using a photograph as a ref, without knowledge of construction, is that a photograph always gives some distortion in the shape. Sounds odd but it's a fact. That shows in your drawing.

Now first read this tutorial: http://www.anticz.com/heads.htm

Okay, now even when using a photograph for reference, always try to construct a portrait as shown in the tut. That way a face will look more as a "whole" instead of a collage of separate facial parts.

After you did that, I have something about the lighting.
Drawing a portrait with a very obvious lightsource is much easier to do, and the piece will look a lot better. So you pick a lightsource (your ref is kinda flat btw, so not a very good ref for practice), and paint in the shadows, all on the other side of the lightsource. That way you'll give the face it's shape and automatically a lot of ambience/sphere (in search for a better word, feeling maybe) comes with it.
Here's one I did, using that technique: http://www.geocities.com/superjeroentje/deelder.html

Drawing faces is great to do, I'll see if I can find you some better ref. If you work by the things I mentioned, you'll see your work will improve very much and very fast. Practice and have fun.
Cheers, Jeroen

edit - that's a better example, used a photo as a ref here aswell.

[seb4d]

Ok I understand exaclty what you say about shape distortion, it was a problem for me as well as lighting, the ref has not enough contrast.
Thank you for the tut, I'll work on it.
Cheers

[jeroentje]

Okay, good luck and have fun. I would love to see you improve :)

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.