How to get a realistic look? Advice Needed!

[acb12]

well first of all i think that if yull compare both of the pics yull see that in the pic you gave as an example of what you want to get to , has all sorts of tones to it like brighter sides and darker sides so first of all the lightning is important for a realistic look and if yull compare it to your pic yull see that the cloth and hair of your char are lacking the contrast and need some better definision . all you need is defining those things better and better determin and emphasize where the light is coming from and hwo it effects on them :D

and theres the textures of things like you can see that hes jacket and hat are of some sort of leather so yull need to look up for refrences of the fabric you want to use and how it reacts to light and then try to mimic it :D

looking forward for updates ^_^

[EHP]

Oh I'm just focusing on the skin portion right now, but yes I do see that my lighting needs work - I never really know where to put it but I think a lot of artists use the burn tool to get a preliminary view of where the lighting goes - is this a good technique to use?

[EHP]

Ok! I think I went overboard on the light, he looks different from his character :(

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3269/noctis2.png

Actually I'm not really aiming for photo realism but like the example pic i gave, which is sort of on the border of photo realism and game art - please give me more tips! Should I have dramatic color changes in my picture? Like a really dark part and light part?


edit::
I was playing around with color adjustments, which version looks better?

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/9194/noctis2b.png

[siksi]

To be honest, your original was the best. And by far. Like you said, you've gone overboard with the colours. They look oversaturated; if you look at the "target picture" you posted, it's using a fairly limited range of colours. Your original is, in my opinion, the closest. Just use lighter values and I think you'll get what you want. You don't need super bright hilights, it's what they're next to that matters. As long as they're noticeably brighter than the colours next to them, they work.

[EHP]

Yea after comparing the two for awhile I totally get what you're saying, thanks for the tip I'll try and not use a tint that is too bright

[VenustusVis]

If you want to render an image realistically an easy solution is to get good reference with the pose you are using and the lighting you want. Not only will this help you build a foundation and understanding of your current form it will help you understand lighting better for future paintings...Like one of my teachers always says "why fake it when you can find it."

[Bouke285]

Something I recently started doing which may help is take off pen pressure opacity. It makes the digital brush more like a real brush you can change the opacity using your number keys. It also allows you to know what will happen when you make a brush stroke and not just come out as a random opacity mess.

[EHP]

ok one more time:

http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs42/f/2009/108/f/8/OC__Realisitic_Practice_by_eatinghappypills.png

please C&C and any improvements i can make towards my target

[VenustusVis]

Basically this time your form is too flat. Try to get more dimension into your paintings. and really work on carving out a believable form. Go look at some images with dramatic lighting and study the different planar structures of the face. Also, that eye patch is like a line straight across the face and instead of enhancing the form (which is what it should do) it is flattening it even more. It seems like your focused too much on rendering and not enough on the basic form your trying to depict.

Sorry it's a pretty crappy paint over but hopefully you get the idea.
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5901/ocrealisiticpracticebye.jpg

[EHP]

^wow very helpful, I've never really put any observation into that

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