Prelude to a nightmare

[SallyJ]

Hiya, I am having alot of trouble with values and contrast, especially in the corners of the painting, see how it turns to that yucky purple and on some monitors it ends up coming off as completely black. If you lighten up the edges it looses it's drama and I am very stuck as what to do with it.

I also suck at architecture so any help with the arch behind her would be really appreciated.

Any help would be super helpful!

[Chris Sanders]

to be honest i think that the background is much better than the character, and more interesting to observe. you've rendered the little unimportant aspects of the image and the character herself looks flat and boring. i would try getting some reference for the woman, her face is flat and shows no form, so does the rest of her.... so i would address that first. as well as maybe breaking up the symmetry in the image. also in future you want the focal area sharpest and then your second read quite sharp and then insignificant elements more suggested.

[SallyJ]

Thanks Dog-Faced, that was real helpful! I very much agree!

[Artimatum]

Her proportions are off considerably(I think)Did you use reference?

[SallyJ]

I used reference for the arms, but I started this pic a few years ago and I am coming back to it so I no longer have the ref Is her head too big? Where do you think the proportions are off, she is wearing a high waisted skirt, does that throw her proportions off?

They can make the torso look shorter than it really is, or have I pushed that too far?




Just posting an update on the pic too, not too much difference so far.

[dierat]

I think it's a combination of the hunched up shoulders/head craned down and the high skirt; it gives the body a shrunken, almost dwarfish appearance. It also feels like you didn't really plan out the body underneath the skirt and kinda winged the value there; the shape feels vague and lumpy compared to the rest of the image's rendering. The sharp edges on her sleeves and the skirt are adding to the flatness of the figure and emphasizes the feeling that she doesn't belong in this image, like she was cut-and-pasted in. The background is well-rendered, very detailed, and has a fine sense of texture, all of which the figure is lacking. I highly recommend taking a reference photo of yourself in this pose with similar clothing (or whatever you can find; thrift stores are a great source of random costume pieces) and use it to bring this image up a notch. You've set a standard for yourself on the background, and now you need to reach or surpass it with the figure.

[KillerByte]

I find it a little weird how, with all the implied emotion in the picture (the crying, the bloody hands touching her face, etc.) the face looks like it can no expression. If you just search up pictures of women crying, you'll be able to see how much the face changes. Even if she's in shock, I still feel as though there should be more emotion portrayed on her face. I do like the background quite a bit though, personally.
Sorry, I can't really help you with values, I'm just learning about them myself

[Luk999]

Hi Sally,

Its my time to help you
Im really like the piece and the emotion of the character. I think you should work on the values and the light of the scene.
To make the values work you can't let the character and the background with the same amount of light. Check how the character values are almost the same as the background just behind her. If you wanna this backlight, the character needs to be in shadow, or you gonna get a flat image. Try to find references of backlight, http://www.google.com.br/imgres?um=1...,r:15,s:0,i:96

I tried to show what i mean. I didnt change the value of the backlight, just darken up the character and some areas of the background. It still needs more work, its just a quick example.
And now you can realize some errors on proportions.

Keep it up!

[bopx]

I think of of the biggest things that stood out was the head being too big ,and the perspective of the elipses (like her belt, fold on skirt, shadow forms, etc) made it feel like she was standing straight, but you drew her proportions as hunched over. I made her head smaller and her proportions in a more "standing straighter" pose, but her arms are still hunched up, which i feel still reads naturally. I haven't studied anatomy and im not super experienced myself, but I hope this at least helps a little.