Working on skin - need some critiques please

[flackattack]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post, so hopefully i'm not breaking any forum rules. I've really be trying to practice my skin and flesh tones recently, and i'd like to get some feedback on the following practice pieces. (i've only been painting in photoshop for about six months, so please feel free to share any tips or tricks you may know)





One particular thing i'd like to get feedback on: do you think I should ditch the linework? I tend to spend a lot of time on my lines, but understand that they could be detracting from the final piece if I leave them in. Thoughts?

Thanks!

[Kunal90]

Hey! great work on the skin ! i thin kit looks good, also i like your style! but it feels like you put so much time rendring the skin , the clothes look to flat, but who am i to judge skin looks great, try adding some "specular" hits like pore spots if you want the skin to look realistic, or adding ore lightsources

[flackattack]

Thanks, man! I actually haven't even worked on the clothes yet, so just ignore those for now, haha.

And thanks for the other tips! I'll definitely keep those in mind as I practice more.

[Suncut]

I think most of the trouble is in your lightning and values, it's better to try to worry about color after you got those down reasonably. In general when the form turns ( like the down arm of your flexing dude) there's going to be an edge. It might be a soft one or a hard one, but it's gonna be there. You seem to be going from one side that's light to another one that's in shadow by just blending in between, with no regard to where the form will actually be turning. It's usually easier to mark the turnings correctly if you start with a hard edged brush to lay in the framework, and blend from there. You're doing a little better on the face area than on the body, but try to concentrate on the edges and consider how hard they will be. Usually there will be hard edges where the bone comes near the skin, like the nose, and softer ones where the muscle and fat cover the bone more, like the cheek.

[flackattack]

Thanks, that's really helpful. I definitely agree that I tend to blend too much right now and a lot of my edges seem too "soft."

[JOELB]

I agree with the last post that there could be more attention to the bone and muscle structure as well as uniform blending. As far as color try not to get stuck in the skin is pink. If you look at people you'll find that you can see yellow, green, red and many more in their skin. This depends on their ethnicity, where the light falls on their skin ( areas of skin away from bone will be more red), color of light e.g. Sun versus lightbulb versus candle, and reflected color from their surroundings. In general for a white person there are three color zones white/ yellow forehead, reddish nose and cheek, and blue/ green jaw. As for your line work I like it and would try and keep it. But you could always try one without and compare to see which one you like better.

[flackattack]

Hey everyone! Thanks again for the awesome feedback, it has been really really helpful so far.

I did a quick speedpaint over the weekend without linework, just to see how it went. What do you think of this dude? The skin looks a little better to me, but it's still pretty "pink" with not a lot of color variety. Maybe my problem is that I don't look at reference while painting. Thoughts?

[self-epidemic]

Haha awwwh that guy made me giggle. Reminds me of something from How to train your dragon or something, a little nonsensical and amusing. Maybe do some interesting character sheets of them showing emotions, poses, get some really interesting shapes and forms, and maybe make the outfits a little more interesting. But honestly, I rather enjoy the latest one! Made me giggle

[JOELB]

I think it looks better. If you want easy reference look at yourself in the mirror.