Character portrait: Zaine WIP Help appreciated!

#1

I’ve never posted here before…usually most of my work is just simple sketches that never make it all the way to finished pieces, because I’m horribly unproductive. This picture ran away with me, though, so I’m going to post it here in the hopes that one of the incredibly talented folks here can offer some advice.

It isn’t at all what I started out to paint…originally it was just anatomy practice using an original character, and the background was going to be a simple interior setting, with very limited distractions. Unfortunately for me, as soon as I had the basic figure blocked in, the character demanded something more elaborate, and it somehow turned into a full-on portrait. So I guess this is sort of an example of what not to do, because I totally swapped background and lighting midway through.:blush: Hey, at least I didn’t start out with a white background! But now I’m sort of at a loss; the picture is probably about 70% done at this point, and overall, I think I could be pleased with the direction the painting has taken. But I’ve been staring at it way too long to be objective anymore (I should have titled it “The Picture That Ate My Week!”), so let me just point out the things I’m pleased with and the things I’m uncertain about:

something about the lighting on the field doesn’t quite look right to me. The light source is coming from the right, overhead and slightly behind the figure, and it isn’t meant to necessarily be a strong one, but I’m not sure if it’s working on the vegetation.

The horizon line is meant to be misty, and I’m not at all sure I’ve done that well…I’m thinking that maybe what I need to do is darken the ground nearing the horizon, and sharpen the details a bit more in the foreground…not necessarily the flowers too much, but the rest of the plant life. (Also, now that I’m looking at it again, I see a harsh line on the mountains furthest to the right that definitely needs to be smoothed out. Oops!)

I’m fairly pleased with the anatomy of the figure…the character I’m painting here is a male, but not at all a traditionally masculine one, probably passing the line from androgynous to downright effeminate. I definitely need to work some texture into the skin, though. And maybe strengthen the shadows and highlights a bit? This is the first time I’ve painted a character with this sort of skin tone, he’s supposed to have a rather middle-eastern sort of complexion, and I’m a little afraid of muddying it up with too much shadow.

This is also my first time painting such detailed vegetation, and I’m sure it shows. I don’t even know what to say about that except HELP IM IN OVER MY HEAD :eek:

There’s such little sky in the composition that I wasn’t able to put the kind of detail into it that I ordinarily might have…when I added a few little splotches of color, it looked too busy. When I tried adding a touch of yellow off to the right, it just looked a bit odd. Someone else told me that the sky works just fine, but I’m fairly sure she was just tired of me asking her for crits six times a day…I love her dearly, but she is the one who suffers for my art far more than I do sometimes hahaha.

In general, my biggest uncertainty about the piece is the lighting, but any help and/or advice will be greatly appreciated!

#2

First off, try to keep the text to a minimum. Professional illustrators (I’m not one) are busy people and don’t have time to read an essay before evaluating a piece. I’ll bet that’s why you haven’t had any replies yet.

As for the lighting, is it a night scene with moonlight? If not, I’m guessing you have quite extreme settings on your monitor. To me, the image looks very gloomy.

For a day-scene, I got quite good results from using Photoshop’s exposure settings. (Image -> adjust -> exposure) The values I used are exposure: +3, offset: +0.006, gamma: +0.75

That will create som burn-out in the clouds and the white flowers. I think the flowers looks great overexposed, but you would have to fill in the clouds again.

The face looks sort of like a guy, but to me, the body looks like it belongs to a woman.
If you look at this guy: http://blissmalemag.blogspot.se/2009_08_01_archive.html?zx=44f4b2fde35aa40d

The backs of his arms are mostly straight, or even concave. Overall, you could make the body a bit more scrawny and sinewy. Not so much that it detracts from the androgynousness, but so that it can be recognized as a male.

Once some colour correction is done, I think it’s a very good image. The hair is great. :slight_smile:

Keep in mind that I’m trying to learn these things too, and by no means am I an expert.

#3

First off, Bleke, thanks for the reply! I read somewhere in one of the sticky posts that it was preferred to give background information on the image, likes and dislikes, etc., but I did go on a bit. I do tend to be a little wordy sometimes, I think.

You definitely have a point about the background, I’ve been painting on my laptop and I think it definitely affected the colors somewhat. Oops! I’ll have to import it to my desktop and see what I can do with it there, as well as see if I can work the figure a little more to sharpen it up a bit and lose some of the curves. I think I’ll make a copy and try it both ways, using the exposure settings on one and just adding color with paint on the other. I might have to add some stronger light on parts of the figure once I do that, as well, huh?

Again, thanks so much for being kind enough to give me some feedback!

#4

Maybe someone played with the colour calibration for your monitor? If I were you, I’d try resetting to a standard colour profile.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/change-color-management-settings

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6835

I’m using the default profile for MacBook Pro, “Color-LCD”.

I might have to add some stronger light on parts of the figure once I do that, as well, huh?

I’m not quite sure what you mean… english is not my first language. :slight_smile: But if I’m guessing right about what you say, once the colour profile of the monitor is set to a default value and you have played around with the exposure settings, you should end up with about the same as how the image looked when you painted it.

#5

It’s a bit flat in terms of dynamic range, and it’s impossible to tell what kind of lighting or what time of the day it is. You need to make it clear whether it’s moonlight, or some other strangely diffused light. If it’s indeed moonlight, then it cannot be this diffused. Light from the sun or the moon are both very directional and very small light sources, so they will cast sharp, dark shadows and will have hard lighting. You need to know where exactly that moon is in the sky and then cast its illumination properly.

And why purple in the background? What would cause both the mountains and the sky to become purple? If you are using artistic license, then you need to make sure there’s consistency. If you are using unconventional colors in one spot, while the rest of the image is more or less logical, then the illogical part will stick out like a sore thumb.

#6

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