Portraits - Woman's Face

[cleptocat]

First of all youve washed out all your colors. You have to keep the contrast up. Second sharpen your light source and highlights. Finally If I had to make one specific comment about the over all approach it would be draw from life. When it was time for me to make a big step forward or get out of the way that was the advice given to me and its the best advice I ever got. Carry a pad and pencil at all times and go crazy. Dont even worry about the people looking to see what youre doing just draw. And on a pic like this one its best to work from a reference...at least for the lighting because thats what really carries a picture.

I hope that helps

[mattregnier]

clepto-

thanks for the advice, as to the color washing, how can i avoid this? when i color, should i use just different shades of red/blue I try to pick my color pallete at the beginning.

looking at real life helps a lot :D I think i just need to get back to the basics before I tackle something like a face

[cleptocat]

Well it looks like your blending. Ive been told by artists much better than myself that blending can be a bad thing particullary early on and late in the in the process. This is because blending in the begining can slow you down and take away the dynamics and blending in the end can take away the crispness. Also look into color theory, just because and object is blue doesnt nessecarily mean that shadows and highlights are blue. Color painting is not like completely(sometimes at all) like b&w painting.

http://www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials

Heres a link that houses a ton a great tuts. My suggestion read them all and study every painting you come across in them(or anywhere else). Notice how the colors are used and why they are used. And pay attaention to lighting. Lighting often makes or breaks a painting.

Thats about all the info I know to give...hopefully one of these gurus out there will stop by and help out more.

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