Gemstones project: critic needed (WIP)

[Mboehman]

I think the major issue that I can see is the top of the dress. It just wouldn't stay up. She would end up flashing everybody. It looks like it would also pop off. I think it would be much more successful if you tried moving the dress up and putting some sort of lace or fabric to connect the two sections.

In my opinion modesty always has a much stronger impact. I know you're going for the whole "sexy seductress" look but it's done so often that the expression "leaves nothing to the imagination" really defines it well.

Other than that, I think it is coming along quite nicely. The contrast is fine because her skin shows up against the red of the rest of the picture. And I like the hair too.

Good luck! Hope to see it finished!

[SpiritHunter]

Hi Delilah,

It's a good start! I like your idea, it's along the lines of popular images in Exotique from Ballistic Publishing. Redhead, in a red dress, with red jewelry, in a red velvet chair. Plus red petals or something.

These are the most prominent issues I see:

1. proportions
2. costume design

I can tell she's supposed to be a tall woman, but I believe her head is too small in relation to her body. In addition, her left leg is too small. After you fix those, you may consider making her arms and torso shorter, but this is less important. All this can be done with the lasso and translation tools in Photoshop.

I agree with Mboehman about the dress appearing to come off. I suggest making the torso part of the dress conform to her body more. As it is, it looks like a cone was attached to the skirt, and makes her otherwise graceful form look kind of stiff.

The next ones down the list:

3. lighting consistency
4. contrast

As for the lighting, the face and upper left arm appear to have light coming in from the front more, whereas the rest of the body is being lit more from the left. I see that the blush on her cheek is somewhat helping this effect along, and merges with the dark shades directly above it.

You were right about the contrast, as most of the image indeed is of the same value. What would really make things pop, first and foremost, is to darken the background color behind the chair by 50%. The chair would also benefit from getting darker as well, but maybe not as dark. Next, with how the lighting is set up, I would say the portion of the leg behind the chair arm would be more in shadow.

Use reference wherever possible, you will learn a lot from it.

I hope this helps!

-Davis

[Delilah]

Thank you guys a lot! Yes, I'm having trouble with proportions and I'm trying to get rid of references, but I guess it's too early to do so. I can see your point about the top of the dress, I was aiming something like haute couture kind of thing, which would be unusual and not as common as all gowns I see around. The first thought was to have some ribbon connecting both sides of the 'corset-ish' thing but I dropped this idea.
Maybe I will keep the idea but will start all over using this time a reference and practise more the proportions.
Also, the light advice is clearing up stuff for me, thank you. When I'm reading what's wrong with this picture I understand, but I think I will repeat the same mistakes in future.
Thank you guys so much, cheers!

[SpiritHunter]

Hey, I didn't know what "haute couture" meant, but I looked up a google image search to see what you're talking about. :D

Now I know what you're going for. I honestly don't think your idea was as taudry as Mboehman said. What really needs changing is the accuracy of the drawing; how the dress fits on the figure, which is a skill. As you said though, you're already on it, I know!

You said you were trying to veer away from reference. You should honor this challenge by just studying anatomy and doing a couple quick practice sketches to make sure you're in the right spot. Learn how big one component of the human body is to another and develop a feel for that. Once you do, you'll approach a picture knowing more about how the figure will fill the frame as well as how it will be positioned before you even start.

And about lighting, now that you're aware of the issues from this first time around, I'm sure that you'll catch yourself sooner when you make a mistake. Good luck!

-D

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