Wow people, thanks for the support!! You convinced me to go on with my ‘monster’:). The brush setting hiiri suggested really worked out (after I finally found it)! It’s like a magic stick, so easy to blend. Here’s my progress. I tried to incorporate all your suggestions, but it doesn’t look very good yet. I will go on though. Eyes are better but will try hair tutorial.
Let me know your suggestions for farther improvement!
Playing some more with my new toy (opacity = pressure setting):).
This is called ‘sad waiter’…aawwww:).
I would like to have some expert eyes judge where my areas for improvement lie, I’m just too excited with this setting right now!
Hi Rinske.
WOw, the woman now has really much more balanced values. The blending works good there, too.
I would say: increase the contrast still a little more. Darker where the dark areas are, lighter in the core of the light areas. Also, you could add a tuber (I think that’s waht it is called, it is the little protruding part in the middle of the upper lip), along with a cast shadow on the other side of the lips.
Also, the chest area needs the same treatment.
So, in case you wonder: yes, I suggest you continue work on the female portrait.
You know, it is a good feeling to actually finish a portrait. Will give you a stronger sense of the amount of work you can put into a painting, too.
Thanks Mu! I kind of hate the woman now though…feel like I’ve started out on the wrong foot with her…but oh well, maybe I SHOULD finish something for once in my life:).
Here’s a last ugly doodle before I go to sleep. Any comments on the waiter?
on the waiter:
try to correct the way the eyes tilt. right now it’s tilting upwards which i think kind of creates happy eyes. the lips are good but i think there’s too much dark shadow in the middle which makes the mouth appear open a bit(was this the intention though?).
i have to say that your improvement is very much obvious with the waiter though. i like the way you did his skin tones. mine tend to suck… 
Writing this from work, so not that detailed, but here goes:
Waiter:
the ears are little bit too high. Their upper edges should be line up with the eyes
he has got strong facial planes which is a good thing
the hair is too much of a helmet. Read Linda’s tutorial on painting hair. Even if you follow only the first four steps or so you will end up with a nice rendition of hair. You need not follow it through til the end to get a good base for a hairdo. I did on my last portrait though and it was very rewarding (in fact, the hair ended up being the part I was most happy with)
facial expression is overall too neutral. Add a little twist in the corner of his mouth to make him express something.
the eyebrow arc on his left eye is a bit too thick, I think.
Add the protruding part in the center of the upper lip. Don’t forget it casts shadows on the lower lip as well as on the far side of the upper lip.
the most important problem is: too narrow value range (see previous portrait which you should finish) which makes the portrait flat. Add real dark values and real light lights. Also you will see that as soon you are going to increase the contrast manually (cause that’s what you will be doing then) the values which are in there start to work much better.
Let me say it once again: I do like the female portrait. Take it at least one step further…
Thanks, Mu!
This is a part of a Sorolla copy for OFDW017. I tried to copy his bold style:). I never seem to get farther in the OFDW’s than a couple of sketches like this, but it’s good practice!
That last pic looks very nice!
I agree with the comments about the eyes on the waiter, but you could also argue that it’s your personal style for drawing eyes. I tend to draw them drooping the opposite way to yours, mainly because that’s how my eyes are. The mouth and the surrounding area feels strange because of the way the expression lines are running, the top lip looks too long compared to the bottom one. But again you could argue this how you want it to look, in which case it’s fine. The only thing left to do is to put more contrast to get depth.
The woman at the river (actually i first thought it was a man!) has good proportions, only the neck is a bit long.
Definitely though that Sorolla copy has opened up your shading skills greatly!
Keep up the good work!
good job on the master copy maladie. you’re progressing steadily. keep it up. 
btw… i’m curious about your name… what does “Rinske” mean in your country?
my name is irish in origin. i once read it means “little king” which was nice when i was younger. but now that i’m 27 it’s not so nice. lolz.
Thanks, Salubri!
Finally I’ve come back to this thread. I’ve spread myself a little thin lately, but now I’ve gone back to the good old ref practicing:).
This took a little under an hour. Just practicing facial planes. I think she’s sweet (at least, the ref was:)). I’ll also try for more convincing hair. And don’t mind the body, I hardly touched upon it.
I made this with help of a great tutorial by audit:) Only about 20 min work and I blocked out the whole flamenco dancer on account of it looking better like a silhouet…
Salubri3i, thank again; my name by the ways comes from ‘Regina’ which means queen. And Maladie means sickness in french. I know:). My boyfriend nicknamed me ‘Ravage Maladie’. It’s a sort of migraine-girlish alter ego:)
Another ‘auditesk’ experiment. I know the colors are over the top. I just tried to be as bold as I could:). I like trying out all this different stuff, I feel I’m learning a lot from everything I do, in different ways.
woo, cool stuff maladie! it’s psychedelic i feel the green is a bit dominant, clashing with the orange somewhat. i would go with the reds and blues and perhaps a sharp green accent. great texture though.
‘auditesk’…lol. the patent’s pending…!
Look who’s back! I figured it was time to come back to one of my practice pieces like I promised, and process the crits and comments I got. So I tried to give her more contrast and better colouring. Also I flipped it and made her posture more dynamic. I didn’t use a ref for it. It’s kinda nice to see how far you can get without a ref:)
I’d love to hear how I could push this farther (apart from refining it ofcourse). Like, point my obvious mistakes out:).
Hi Maladie! Cool new sketches-very bold, very nice
About the face, I’ll just share a quick tip that I can’t remember where I picked up from ( a lecture in class or one of the books anyway). The face can roughly be divided into 3 horizontal colour areas. The forehead leans towards yellow, the area from the lip to the chin is blue/green and the area in between (nose/cheeks etc) is reddish. While this may not always apply depending on your light sources and such, it’s generally a nice base to follow. I think right now the face is just looking a little monochromatic.The hair is also looking a little flat, some more darks in the shadow area maybe. Working from imagination is great practice though, it helps to look harder at references when you do use them. You’re doing great work
Maladie wow, what a great job so far:)
The only thing I’m noticing is that her nose and lips I think need to point to the left (her left) a little more, right now they look like they are pointing at us instead of where she is looking.
Thanks for the color tips, Hiiri =D
Thanks as always friends:).
The tips were immensely useful. I’m actually a little satisfied with this one. It’s not perfect, but I can see my own improvement in regard to the last version. Still no ref, though she starts to look a bit like J.Lo…which wouldn’t be a bad thing to most women but I want to make my own creation:).
I finished reading ‘Eva Luna’ by Isabel Allende for about the tenth time yesterday, and I would like to make this a representation of Eva’s mother Consuelo. She’ll need redder hair for that though.
