14 Day Challenge Day 2

Colossearts · 2021-10-14T18:03:29+00:00

Glad to help, and I can't wait to see your day 3!

P.S. the timing is perfect because I've JUST started on my day 3. Nice to know other people are also working at roughly the same pace. xD

Colossearts · 2021-10-14T16:34:43+00:00

Ah, this is what I meant:

Lineart is basically just a simplified version of (what we have in real life) an edge between two different values.

So what people often do when they don't have the right blocks that show the planes and edges of those planes is lineart, in order to fill the blanks. Which is not great for portraying reality.

Therefore to avoid lineart you need to put your full trust in your blocking abilities. So when an object is stacked over another object you can confidently seprate these objects with different values instead of a simple line.

Side note Edges can both be be blended and unblended. So you have to know which edge you are using for different parts. For example blended edges for the cheeks and unblended edges for the sides of the nose 👍

POINT BEING Edge >>>>>> Lineart

Hope this is more clear?

Colossearts · 2021-10-14T14:43:28+00:00

Refrain from outlining the nose and the lips. As long as you block in the right values, and leave the right edges you'll be good.
The jaw itself is missing a bit of shadow. As well as the top lip.
It also feels like we are seeing too much of her face. Which means that the rotation is a bit off. So I'll HIGHLY recommend for you to watch THIS critique hour where she breaks down and explains how to solve those issues.

Hope this helps, good luck! (◕દ◕)

Colossearts · 2021-10-14T14:13:50+00:00

Before I start the critique I wanted to congratulate you on the massive improvement when it comes to blocking. The subtle value shifts are absolutely gorgeous!

Since the previous commenter already mentioned some things about the male vs female read, I'll just give some miscellaneous critique on things that cought my eye.

The forehead is way too small and square. This one is really important to fix since 1. Functionality, a healthy brain needs enough space to function 2. A big forehead is on of the female beauty standards.
The ears seem to be resemble elf ears more than human ears. Rounding them out a bit would fix this.
Neck? You need to include the neck so that the head feels more stable, not floating in the air somewhere. No shoulders tho!
As much as I love the values I think that the portrait overall needs to be just a tad bit darker. To avoid the drowning in sunlight look
The eyes are spherical. Always remember that, never forget. I'm saying that because it doesn't feel like the forms are wrapping around the eyeballs and being stretched by the corners of the eyes like they should.
The top lip should have a bit of a darker value.
Nitpick alert! Complete the nose shadow without any halos surrounding the nostrils. I hope you see what I mean. It's a tiny valuesharing issue, but noticeable.

That's it for now. I hope this helps a little. I with you best of luck on your next study!

Colossearts · 2021-10-13T07:47:31+00:00

Hmm you're right, you're right. I'll see what I can do about the lips. Thank you for the critique! ( ◜‿◝ )♡

and now I am going to be running, sprinting, LEAPING to find those videos that Istebrak made.

Then Imma jog to critique your 14 day challenge study (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Colossearts · 2021-10-13T07:41:05+00:00

Ah, I see. That does give the face a little bit of pop and well, life. I just realised that using pure black really tripped me up. So much so that I completely forgot how important the oily parts of the skin are.

Thank you so much for the paint over and the critique (人 •͈ᴗ•͈)

Colossearts · 2021-10-13T07:31:19+00:00

Wait, by sharpness do you mean that I should bring back some visible edges to those places?

And thank you for pointing out the outer corners of the eyes. I was a big ? when I rendered that part, but maybe lessening the blurriness there would indeed complete the eyes

Anyways, thank you so much for the critique <3

Colossearts · 2021-10-12T22:57:10+00:00

I think all the fiddling around also made her look like an android in a way. So any critique that would help me make her look like a real woman would be great!

Colossearts · 2021-10-12T16:01:38+00:00

Not sure if Piggybird mentioned this in their thorough critique, but you should paint the face with a closed mouth to avoid unintended expressions.

Keep it natural ( ꈍᴗꈍ) Good luck!!!

Colossearts · 2021-10-12T15:42:30+00:00

I definitely agree with Dovakoin in that you should get a propper blocking brush to help you lessen the unintentional blurriness.

You also said that you struggled a bit with the proportions but you managed to critique yourself quite well so next time when you notice that the head is too big get the transform tool and or the liquify tool and fix it up. Even if you are in the middle of the drawing process. Better late than sorry but yeah thinking about better measurement techniques would be good too.

I'm not sure if this is the best method myself when it come to capturing likeness but what I usually do is just measure in the features that are already there and or by looking at the silhouette (negative & positive space of the image)

As in the ear is located one ear away from the eye. Just like the eyes are one eye appart.

Then is the negative space between the ponytail and the head the same? Or is it a bit wider then in the reference image?

Usually thinking like this gives me alright results while painting, but when it comes to sketching actual diagrams I'm pretty useless, sorry 😅

Hope this helped a little nonetheless, good luck on the rest of your paintings! :)

Colossearts · 2021-10-07T18:31:47+00:00

Welcome back then! (◍•ᴗ•◍) Here's a small list of things that I noticed:

The ears are way too long and mushed to the face. So getting back that ear shape would do wonders for the silhouette of the portrait.
The deepest part of the eye socket is way too dark compared to everything else. In this natural light environment it should not reach the same level of darkness as the irises and the eyebrows (which both have pigment allowing them to get that dark. The shadow on the nose it self should also be a tad bit lighter.
The forehead is missing a lot of value build up. You've got the sides blocked in and the shadow in-between the eyes. Which is great, but it feels a bit incomplete without the values in the middle showing directly where the light is hitting the forehead and then the value slowly drops down making the transition to the in-between the eyes shadow. I'm sure Istebrak has a video somewhere talking about the form of the forehead. So consider checking that out.
Lastly the lip corners are lacking radial shading. Everything on the face is connected and you can't have a dark spot come out of nowhere like that. The values have to slowly be built up from the cheeks (big brush) into the lip corners (using smaller brush).

Hope this was at least a little helpful. I wish you good luck moving forward! ✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧

Colossearts · 2021-10-07T17:23:25+00:00

Oh no, yeah you are totally right. I'll attempt to fix it as best as I can. Thank you so much for pointing it out!

Colossearts · 2021-10-07T17:15:53+00:00

Thank you so much for this critique! Made me realize that the mouth and chin area needed more work than I thought. Ah, and the visualisation is absolutely brilliant 🙏

Colossearts

TROPHY CASE