Like Ice portrait

[JesseM]

I really need to get crits more regularly on individual pictures, especially on portraits, lest I stop growing as an artist... I am still so far from where I wanna be. So, here is my most recent portrait. Critique away!
Thanks much in advance!

[blueknightfox]

There's something strange about how the light hits her hair. It's different then how it shines on the reast of her.

[Rafal Dorsz]

I like it, but I think too many of the edges are really soft. There are only a few hard edges here, and that makes them really stand out and catch attention and it's not always where I image you want it.
Also, the nose and the hair don't seem to cast any shadow, and it looks a little weird, especially in case of the hair.
Overall I like it, but I think you could have spent more time on it to make it better, while still maintaining this loose, painterly style.
Keep up the good work!

[Geoff K]

Pretty nice. But I agree with blueknightfox. The form of the hair has the opposite lighting of the form of the skin. It should be lit as one form, being hit by the light source.

[JesseM]

Wow, I can't believe I made such a stupid mistake... I let my guard down too much these days. >>"
I've fixed the hair and re-uploaded, thanks all for pointing that out!

Rafal - Edge variation is still something I'm trying to learn. In the new version I added a couple more hard edges, but probably in the wrong places, now that I'm looking at it.....actually, re-reading your comment, do you mean not necessarily adding in more hard edges but making some of the soft edges less dramatic (therefore reducing the power of the hard edges)? ..Either way I'll keep experimenting.
Thanks much for the help!

[Rafal Dorsz]

I just thought that some hard edges were distracting, like the one where her shoulder connects to her neck, or the way the back of her neck goes from hard, to soft, back to hard again. So I guess it's not really about how many of the edges are hard, but about being consistent in your edge control. I think in case of this portrait you want to direct our attention to her face, and so sudden hard edges away from the face distract from it, but at the same time that doesn't mean the face has to have all the edges hard. I really am no expert in this myself, and I don't want to tell you exactly how I would have done it. Just experiment, and keep in mind what it is you want us to see when we look at your images.
I don't remember exactly what this image looked like before you changed it, but I see that you fixed the hair, and it's better now, and also fits the image better, I think.

Cheers!

[I-leaves]

Looks good, I would agree with one of the above posters above though about the edges though. One part that seems a bit a odds is the right eye as the eye itself is relatively sharp but then just above it disappears into the hair without any form. On the whole though I really like it, I'll make sure to have a look at your sketchbook.