Office Lady

[lettuceapple]

Hi guys,

This is an original character I painted. Would hope to hear any critiques or comments from you guys.

By doing this painting, I am hoping to learn to see the lighting and colors on a female body. Also learning to do the wrinkles on fabrics.

Please let me know what you think about this piece (what I have done well or what needs improvement)

Thanks

[vayne108]

bad attachment, plz retry. I would love to help you.

[lettuceapple]

Does the picture not show up?

I have reupload it. Plz let me know if it works now....

[Stoat]

There isn't any lighting, per se. This is a graphic/linework approach; you're not painting light. That's a perfectly legitimate artistic approach (see: Japanese woodcuts), but it's not about light. Or color, in any naturalistic sense.

That aside, it's a nicely polished drawing. It looks to me like her shoulders are hunched. The relationship between her shoulders and her clavicles and her neck isn't quite right, and her head looks uncomfortably perched on her neck. BUT, you've got a nice, cheery cheesecake thing going here - a little more work on anatomy and this is entirely fixable.

[vayne108]

OK the attachment work fine now ! and as far as I can see it a pretty nice drawing. She does seem stiff and the arm on the right with the pencil is off. You should still be able to her shoulder and upper arm no matter how far back she is bending her arm. Try and use someone around you to pose for to see what it looks like in real life.

[lettuceapple]

There isn't any lighting, per se. This is a graphic/linework approach; you're not painting light. That's a perfectly legitimate artistic approach (see: Japanese woodcuts), but it's not about light. Or color, in any naturalistic sense.

I am not really clear about you saying there is no lighting. Do you mean it does not have shadows and lights? Do you have any example that I can compare?

[lettuceapple]

You should still be able to her shoulder and upper arm no matter how far back she is bending her arm.

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking there is something wrong in her posture, but I couldn't really see what is wrong.

[Velocity Kendall]

nice, but she looks like she has a package.. maybe tone down the pubic bulge a bit.

[vineris]

Her posture looks very uncomfortable -- shoulders slope downwards more when they're relaxed. I'm not sure what the heck is happening with the arm that's holding the pencil. The upper arm is hidden, and from the position of the forearm it looks too short. Get more reference! Her facial expression is really apprehensive. Taken all together, the picture is kinda discordant. The inappropriately-sexy office clothes suggest a confident person who doesn't mind being seen as sexy in the workplace, but then you have a nervous school-teacher face and hairdo on top. You are sending mixed messages.

[Stoat]

It's just, in this picture there is at most a very, very soft light source from above and a lot of fill light. Usually, when someone says they're painting light and color, it's about how a strong light falls on a thing and how the thing casts shadows. Instead, this is about as soft and even as possible. Very little in the way of shadow.

Nothing wrong with that, it's just a confusing way of describing this particular picture.

[Stoat]

It's just, in this picture there is at most a very, very soft light source from above and a lot of fill light. Usually, when someone says they're painting light and color, it's about how a strong light falls on a thing and how the thing casts shadows. Instead, this is about as soft and even as possible. Very little in the way of shadow.

Nothing wrong with that, it's just a confusing way of describing this particular picture.

[cumquat]

hey man, hope this helps with the lighting. I think they're trying to say you need a more distinct light source to help define the form. I just scribbled one in for you. Really if you want to see women done beautifully and lit well look at some Elvgren. http://elvgrenpinup.com/elvgren_titles.html

[Stoat]

Well. Really. Honestly. The lighting was just fine the way it was. But a light and color study it was not. It was a colored line drawing.

Last try.

[lettuceapple]

Thanks for you great people's help. Now I know some of the spots I can work on further...

[sone_one]

nice drawing. heres a few points (some already mentioned)...

1) the point where the clavicles and the sternum meet is too low... this creates the impression shes pulling her shoulders up. look at my op, her right shoulder looks relaxed, yet all i changed is raising that point.

2) tighs are thinner seen from the front, than seen from the side. you reversed that in your image.

3) elbows should be at least a bit pointy/hard... theres bone right underneath the skin.

4) im more than fine with big breasts, but i think you went a little overboard with these monsters .

the face...

5) both her eyes have the same distance to the bridge of the nose in your drawing, while her head is turned. the bridge of the nose is protruding from this plane and therefore some overlapping should happen.

6) this is stylistic preference, but im not a huge fan of tiny mouths and big chins on women.

7) the ear is too low, causing some perspective inconsistency.



hope that helps, keep going.

[keith_v]

It's a good start, but I did a paint-over to show where you can improve. I added a warm stage light with a warmer indirect glow. I also used a rim light to outline the area of her body in shadow. I also adjusted her chin and neck to give her a much softer, feminine appearance.