Portrait of a Succubus

[ladycrowe]

Drew up the line work for this one last night and started painting it this morning. I'm fairly pleased with the progress so far, but know there is always room for improvement so I'm looking for a few good critiques and I know this is one of the best places to get them.

Cheers and thanks in advance for any assistance you can give!

[VulgarDragon]

I like it a lot so far. My only suggestion is that it looks a little flat and could use some deeper shadows and some highlights. I can't tell if she's wearing a black hood or it is her hair...so it could benefit from some highlights there.

[dpaint]

I agree a stronger sense of light with a direction would help the forms

[ladycrowe]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I'm definitely still trying to figure out the whole shading thing so I tend to be really timid in that area. Tried to get over that here and I'm hoping I was successful (or, at least, on the right track). I also tried fixing the nose a bit so it didn't seem quite so squished. Let me know what you think!

[Venger]

I was going to try and write out what you need to do, but actually its all been written much better by Elwell:
Go and bookmark this and give it a really good read:Edges


Quick OP for you, everything has a form and light will always give shadow to it.
Try not to use black to make shadow.
Hope this helps - but seriously go read the EDGE'S link it will help you loads.

[ladycrowe]

Oh wow, thank you! You made that look so easy! For the shadows I did stick to browns and greens (I generally try to avoid pure blacks or pure whites), but am thinking I didn't use a rich enough colour.. I love how the colour in your version of the shadows pops so much more! I'm very much a visual learner so being able to compare like this is a wonderful tool for me to work with.

I will definitely read through the thread you linked and see if I can have an update posted some time this afternoon. Thanks again!

[ladycrowe]

Woo, busy day! I'm still definitely working on it, but wanted to post an update for today.

So far today I've just concentrated on the face. I think the nose is pretty close to bang-on and the cheeks/chin are coming along nicely. The eyes are kicking my ass, though. I'm wondering if I should try moving her right eye in a touch.. as I work on it it feels like it is further from the nose than the left eye and I keep having to stretch things out to make them work. When I sit back and look at it, however, the eyes seem a fairly equal distance with the angle of the head so I'm a little at odds. Also, I loved the curve of the right brow on Venger's example so much that I incorporated it (I hope that's ok!) The shape created a much more interesting personality!

All in all, though, this is turning out to be a great learning experience for me so I'm pretty stoked about continuing to work on it!

Here's the update.. posted a comparison of the new face vs. old face.

[Venger]

I think her right eye (our left) should be moved closer to the nose. Eye's (in general) are 1 eyes distance apart (when viewed from straight on)
You still need to define some hard structures (cheeks, brow, nasal ridge) and define some muscle structure as well - it's still very soft around the nose and mouth.
Either find some reference or use a mirror if you can.
And don't forget those edges , keep at it!