Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: adcrusher524 on March 17, 2011, 11:51:45 pm
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Hello, I haven't made a thread in a while and I thought I'd post this portrait I'm starting on. Originally, it was for the weekly challenge at PJ, but it got too large so I'm not going to enter it anymore.(Actually I might just crop the face, add glasses and submit.) I still have to do the hair, neck and shoulders. I've mainly worked on the face but any crit would be fantastic. Thanks.
(http://i520.photobucket.com/albums/w328/adcrusher/portraits/portrait.png)
refrence:
http://www.wallpaperez.net/wallpaper/beauties/Amber-Heard-face-142.jpg
Edit: tinypic doesn't like it when I upload more than one of the same image and it gets deleted... I should probably switch to photobucket.
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Heh, I thought this lady was asian until I saw the jpg.
Her nose and mouth are a bit misplaced to the right.
It almost looks as if you made a blank face and stuck the features on Mr. Potato-head style.
Her nose and mouth are at an odd angle but you only have a few pixels so you might have to improvise somewhat here.
Don't be too set on drawing individual features that look like a nose and a mouth. Sometimes from a distance those features aren't too clear and they look like small shadows.
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are you trying to get a likeness to the photo? I did an edit
(http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/406/amberedit.png)
I wasnt totally able to get the likeness either. I completely re drew the face from scratch so I couldnt possible explain everything I did but heres a few points.
On yours, the individual features look pretty good, but they dont really fit together right. It doesnt look like a cohesive face, it looks pasted together.
Remember to take note of the slant the face is at. You have it in most places, but not the nose, you need to move the right nostral down 1 pixel.
Pay attention to the proportions of the bottom of the chin to the base of the nose, compared to base of nose to center of eyes, and from there to top of forehead. These three areas are ussually about equal. On this model the forehead is just slightly shorter, maybe because of the hair. Also note the ratio of bottom of chin to bottom lip, and bottom lip to base of the nose. They are about equal in this photo.
Also, the distance from the nostral to the corner of the eye, youve made it slightly too much. Shortening this distance and making the chin longer will emphasis that she is tilting her head back slightly.
Also pay attention to the angles of the contour of the face. It may be useful to look at your reference and pixel at the same time, then take something straight like a pencil and match it to an angle you want to check, then shift the pencil over to your picture without slanting it and compare the angles.
Other than that, hopefully my edit is of some help.
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Thanks for the help. I started from scratch (not completely) and i think it turned out better, but it's not there yet. The pencil trick really helped me get the angles correct, thanks for that. anyways, heres the new version.
(http://i55.tinypic.com/x0thl0.png)
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heres a few points on your progress so far, as far as getting a likeness is concerned
(http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/6512/amberedit2.png)
Another useful thing you can do is taking your pencil and dropping down horizontal and vertical lines to see how things line up. This is a useful practice when drawing with paper and pencil too. Since we're using computers to draw though I ussually just take another window and line it up on top of the image since that way I know the line is straight. the Task manager window is good for this because its already small.
So on images A and B I put a horizontal line to see where the bottom of the ears line up (blue line). You can easily see how you are off with the ears. Because the head is tilting back slightly the ears will be a little lower than you might expect, so lowering the ears is one way that the tilting will be shown.
The yellow lines are cut in half at the middle. You can see on the reference that bottom of chin to bottom lip is about equal to bottom lip to base of nose. This will make the chin bigger a bit and also make here head appear to be tilting back a bit.
The green lines compare the distance from the sides of the mouth to the sides of the face. The distance on the left is bigger, but not quite as much bigger as you have.
The features of the face should basically be parallel. Image C shows how your nose is horizontal while everything else is at the angle. Compare with the angle of the nose in image A (red line).
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Thanks for the tips r1k! They helped me so much. Here's my newest one:
(http://i520.photobucket.com/albums/w328/adcrusher/portraits/portraitfromscratch2-3.png)
I can't get the head to tilt back! :mean: I appreciate all the help so far.
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to get the head to tilt back a few points:
1. pay attention to what I said here :
"You can see on the reference that bottom of chin to bottom lip is about equal to bottom lip to base of nose"
You need to move the mouth up in other words.
2. Try darking the shadow of the base of the nose. We are able to see the under part of her nose, but in yours it looks more like we are seeing her nostrals because her nose is pushed up or flat or something. Darkening it will suggest that light is coming from above, and the shadow is a plane facing away from the light.
3. Lower the ears still, look at the image in my previous post again.
4. Try lowering the eyes 1 pixel. Pay attention to the distance between the top of the eye and the eyebrow compared to the height of the eye itself. The slight tilting allows us to see a bit more of the eye socket.
you also need to lower the right eye in relation to the left eye. Also the shading suggesting the cheek bones are a little too verticle. These things are countering the way her head should be slanting to the side.
Comparing to your first attemp youre getting much closer, so keep it up. Pay close attention to proportional relationships.
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I think I fixed most if not all the points r1k addressed, and the result is better. Here is the newest version:
(http://i520.photobucket.com/albums/w328/adcrusher/portraits/portraitfromscratch2-4.png)
I think maybe I'm ready to start the rest.Maybe.
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Sorry to double post, but i don't think I'm quite finished with this. I made a pallet change, finished the hair, and edited the neck. Now all I have to do is finish the shirt and I'm done, I think. Critique is appreciated.
(http://i520.photobucket.com/albums/w328/adcrusher/portraits/portraitfromscratch3.png)
thanks.
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The problem here still is that your measuring is a mile off.
(http://ptoing.net/post/edit/portraitanim.gif)
You really have to look at the thing as a whole and then also at smaller proportions of things. Like how far is the ear on the right away from the mouth vertically and such things.
As far as likeness goes you are not even close. What I would suggest is either doing it over, or make a new portrait of someone else.
And before you start doing the pixelart have a good look at the portrait and perhaps draw in some horizontal and vertical lines in key positions to see the proportions and distances better.
Good places would be bottom and top of lips (perhaps sides too), bottom and top of ears. Stuff like eyes and eyebrows. The devil is in the details and even a little thing can totally break the likeness.
Keep at it :)
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Why not just trace the darn thing?
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Tracing wont make your hand eye coordination any better I don't think. You have to train your eye to see proportions properly and your hand to reproduce them. Blind contour drawing is also a good way to do this.