It hurts!

[w176]

A friend asked me to a do a portrait of his roleplay character Asling in lots of pain, and told that Asling had sort of the classic beauty of Monica Bellucci and a olive skin tone. I found an awesome reference photo for the expression pain and started working. I have just played around with lightning so far and haven't yet gotten around to try to get the details to look a bit like Belluccine. (The pink line is there is because I'm playing around with cropping the picture there.)

I'm still quite new to defining light sources so I hope a this stage someone might offer me a helpful word or two about how I'm doing so far when it comes to lightning as well as any other feedback.
He also asked for some magic special effects of some kind causing her the pain, and I feel a bit lost. Anyone got any good suggestion to offer on how to pull that off?

[furiana]

My first question is: what type of magic effects? You might need to re-think the composition to include them. (Even something invisible like telepathy might come across better with a different angle or pose.) Because of that, you might want to figure out the magic effects before you work on the lighting.

But that's coming from someone who was just told that her weakest point is composition, so take it for what it's worth! :p


ETA: I personally wouldn't crop the picture there. It would make it a lot harder to tell what her gesture is.

[w176]

Thank you for you advice.

He was talking about having her skin actually hurt by magic, since she somehow is overloaded by magic effects. I think that I might be able combine that with something on the the skin on her cheek, and a larger something where her hand is gripping.

[furiana]

That could work. Could you re-center the painting so that the painful part of her skin is the focal point? It would be less likely to get lost that way.

You can also experiment with the wound to show that it's caused magically. Maybe it's a burn wound that's still on fire? Maybe it's smouldering from the inside? Or maybe it's rotting way too fast, or there's weird light coming out of it. Again, it depends on the magic.

I'll probably let our more experienced people handle the lighting. The only advice I can give is to a) find a reference or b) figure out the planes of the face. :/

[w176]

Update.

The runes and the blood isn't properly there yet, just a design suggestion for the friend that wanted the picture.

[w176]

Hi. I reached the point when i think it time to bring some life to the skin. But I not sure how, and what sort of skin tones would show in strong lightning like this, and the reference pictures not much help on this one. Does anyone have a suggestion?

[Caspia]

Remember that if the light is hitting the front of the face like that it would be hitting the hand and her hair as well.

[w176]

Thank you. Yes you agree, I overdid the highlights in the hand before but i try to gently put it back again. I also got the advice to make the primary lightsource colder and it really made a difference,

[Quigleyer]

I think you need more solid references to help you with this. The pose you're doing is fine, and it's good that you have a specific reference for it, but I think it's time to go past that. The references you're using are all under softer lighting conditions and don't help you to understand the forms all that much better.

An image like this (though still not a stellar reference) might help you to better understand the planes of the face and what would be lit.

Right now your light and shadow are really similar hues. Ask yourself what color your light is, and try to clarify and further establish the difference between light and shadow with larger, more solid forms to set in your big planes. I'd advise against deliberately blending too early in a painting.

[justa]

I agree with Quigleyer. I'll add that if there is a green background (implying a green room), those green walls can be considered as dim lights - so anywhere your direct light doesn't hit (e.g. shadows) should have green in them. This unites the figure with the background, otherwise it looks like the figure is pasted in. Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers

D'Arcy

[w176]

Thank you both. I tired to fins a few reference pictures with sharper lighting and I will try to bring the picture together by unifying with adding indirect light in the tone of the background color.

Edit: You where right some green tones made a big difference. And i made some changes studying the reference photo.

[w176]

I leave this one rough, I could put more work into it but I like it the way it is right now and it made my friend happy, which was the main thing. Even if it isn't my best work ever. Thank you all for you help.