Tuscany December 08

**HanabiFestival** · January 9th, 2009, 02:45 PM

Just a simple character illustration

**Alison B.** · January 9th, 2009, 04:55 PM

Right now, the woman is looking very flat with the shadow that her dress is casting, there should be darker areas on her body, such as in her hair, on her arms, her neck, her singular leg. The only thing that looks like it has mass are her breasts. If you turn the image to b/w you can see how similar the values are.
BTW, are you using a reference image?

**Black Spot** · January 9th, 2009, 05:20 PM

Top half great, bottom half confused.

**Zirngibism** · January 9th, 2009, 05:24 PM

The outline around the hair bothers me. Hair usually makes a relatively soft contour. Right now it looks like a sold mass that has been colored in like hair.

I'd also like to see a cooler tone in the skin, unless you're going for a more "pure" look for beauty reasons, which is your choice entirely.

**~KJK~** · January 9th, 2009, 08:40 PM

to all what has been said, id say that the skin is way too monochromatic atm. Play with your hues and colors! add some browns, more reds, and maybe a hint of purples?

**HanabiFestival** · January 10th, 2009, 01:12 AM

Thanks everyone for your critique and comments. I see that skin and hair is something I still need to spend a lot of time on.

I did use a reference photo for this, because I am not very good at perspective anatomy. But when it comes to the skin tone and such I was trying to create more of a dreamy feel to it. But perhaps it is too soft, and the lack of strong shadow is making it look uninteresting. But I was wondering does it always needs to have that sharp contrast to make it look good ? Can a flater, more complementary shadow play well with the skin tone ?

Hair I was avoiding in drawing each strand by strand, and was doing it more like blocks, but it doesn't seem like the result is getting any positive feedback. So I think I probably shouldn't do it that way anymore. I will do some more research on it, but it seems that to make it look good maybe I really need to just spent the time to do it bit by bit to make it more realistic.

But at least no one dislike the breasts. That was the part I spent the most time on and I am glad at least that part of the body turned out pretty good.

Again thanks for all the comment, I am excited to make another piece again soon.