C & C please? Having some problem with foreshortening..

[VISEone]

Nice picture! I think even from this bird view perspective the LH Arm is to thin at the ankle (joint) where the lower arm meets the hand. But that might be my own thinking and actually it is shaped right - but it looks a little too thin for me.

[GravidEngine]

Looks like you need to read up on foreshortening. Another thing that could help is using reference or 3D software to give some guidance.

A big thing you have to pay attention to (at least to start) is how big the closest part of your object appears and how small the furthest part of your object. Then you have to compare the actual size to the perspective size. By understanding this you can create the size of your midpoint by interpolating the size ratio of perspective to actual of closest and furthest points. And to stay consistent, make sure that objects that line up with one another, as far as height, match in size (i.e. make sure the wrist is the right size compared to the hip since they are at the same level).

You also must make sure that the size difference down the length of the object changes evenly.

But beyond foreshortening, you also need to work on your shading and anatomy.

The wrist looks circular. The shoulder is very flat. Unless the shirt is pulling every bit of breast to the center... the cleavage does not match the size of the breasts. There is very little stomach/hip definition.

She looks like her foot would be more comfortable to her right more. It looks like if she pushed herself off the bike thing, she would fall over.

The head looks lit from the right and up a little. The hair looks lit from the top right. The torso looks lit from the right and front a little. The legs look lit from the front top. The arm looks lit from the back right. The ground shadows look from the back top.

The thing to remember about shadows is that they mainly just stretch as the angle of the sun gets steeper. You made them rather large, especially because it should be foreshortened to the furthest distance.

I imagine (by what I think you're going for in the lighting) your legs would be in shadow and should have only bounce light. Now they do look darker but if it is bounce light then you need to make it more consistent. Because the part of the arm in shadow should be fairly similar to the legs in shadow.

I hope my comments can help, and that I didn't go too far. I know it's alot of stuff you need to work on, but just keep practicing. You picked a fairly hard image to do for trying to learn these concepts. If you stick with making complex images to learn these concepts... make sure you focus on the different things you must consider and don't get caught up by the whole image. Good luck.

[CybrGfx]

She has a really cute face and a nice expression, but your anatomy needs major work.
The arm doesn't look foreshortenend, so much as wizened.
The left leg is at a wonky angle, and looks like she's on her heel with the toe of her foot tilted upwards.
The hands are too chunky looking, the fingers on one hand shorter than the other, and her body is bent at a weird angle just below the breasts.

Since you don't have the weeks needed to learn foreshortening for this piece, you could do the down and dirty workaround, and take a picture of someone leaning against a wall from above.

You could also draw out a 3-point perspective grid.

If you are going to paint people, you need to know what you are doing. Start practicing anatomy drawing. Every day. There are subforums at many art sites. Allow yourself 15 minutes to find and read a thread in one of them, and then 45 minutes to focus and draw something. A hand. A foot. A ref. image of musculature. Do something different every day. No amount of "flying blind" will improve this. Only careful observation and practice will hone your skills.

~C

[Kirt]

As I see it, you're starting off really tiny at the shoulders and things just keep getting worse as you move down the length of the figure. I did a really quick paint over for you on what I'd suggest. Hope you don't mind but I find sometimes it's easier to show than to write a lengthy explaination.

There are issues with the bike and the railing in the background as well. Below the waist there are so many odd perspective problems that even in my paintover her anatomy looks wrong. The bike appears to be flat and approximately 24 inches tall. The railing's vertical slats are a uniform width from top to bottom. And your lighting suggest an overhead light on the figure but a backlight on everything else. Look at your shadow. How is that even possible when a light is illuminating the left part of her face?

[Rakulei]

I really appreciate the help guys, anatomy/shading has always been a huge problem for me but i frequently just brush it over and hope that some nice details/facial expressions will cover my weak points, but that just doesnt cut it. Back to basics for me, and thank you VISEone, GravidEngine,CybrGfx and Kirt so much once again for the great critiques.

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