Self Portrait

[Joe]

It's been a ridiculous amount of time since I last pixeled.  In the meantime I've been working on my fundamentals, though not nearly as much as I should have been.  I got back into it and started this a couple of days ago, and here I am now:

OLD: NEW:

Using this old picture as a reference:



Obviously, I'm way off.  I fucked up pretty early on, and instead of fixing my errors I kept going and decided I'd fix them later.  It's a counter-productive habit.  I'd really appreciate it if you guys could critique this and tell me where I'm off.  I'd like to end up with something similar.  Thanks.

[ChadHachey]

Drop the ear down, the bottom of the ear should be just underneath noise. The (bangs?) should also come down a little, and of course, should be covering most of the ear.

[WM]

You're focusing on the nose way too much; first, refine and establish the basic shape of the head, then fit the features onto that shape. Try reducing the vertical height of the face, seeing as it's a tad too long right now, and bring the chin inward a little. Tilt the ear back some -- it's a lot less vertically-aligned than commonly thought -- and drop it down a little.

Fun fact: you can tell a lot about a person's thoughts and concerns about their face and appearance through self-portraits. People tend to exaggerate or 'set off' features that they are self-conscious or proud about  (). As for you, I can tell that you are focused on your nose, and are making it a little more prominent than it actually is. We naturally see noses as smaller, and when we sit down and draw (erm...pixel) a realistic face, it's a real wake-up call about how big noses really are. 

A very good start though! I like your palette choices -- very dynamic, very 'fleshy'. 

[McClaneGames]

Your face is definitely more elongated in the pixel than the photo.  Your hair is a little more poofy in the photo than pixel, too, but the hair seems like a WIP right now anyway...

Great job so far!

[Joe]

I've applied your crits, and it was good advice.



But I cannot for the life of me get that eye right.  And I feel like the contrast isn't enough as I have it.  Any thoughts? 

Fun fact: you can tell a lot about a person's thoughts and concerns about their face and appearance through self-portraits. People tend to exaggerate or 'set off' features that they are self-conscious or proud about  (). As for you, I can tell that you are focused on your nose, and are making it a little more prominent than it actually is. We naturally see noses as smaller, and when we sit down and draw (erm...pixel) a realistic face, it's a real wake-up call about how big noses really are.

I do recall constantly having disputes in my head because of this when I was younger, but I think the reason the nose turned out so big was because I paid it the most attention.  Interesting fact, though.

[alkaline]

Hello. I have made an edit for you. hope it helps.



what i did: your jawline needs to be extended along with your ear. The right portion of your next along with your shoulder needs to be larger. I also applied a general color edit. You could use some more intermediate shades. I think I added two new colors, the color used on the cheek, as well as an intermediate dark seen on the neck.

As for the eye, it seemed to be too far away from the middle of the face, so I brought it in. A highlight helps the eye especially.

[Manupix]

I love Alkaline's colors, but the light on your face is actually blue in that ref (from blue sky). Just in case you want to stay close to it.

[Joe]

Adding two colors helped a buttload.



I'm going to refine the shoulders and neck now but I'd like to know what you think.  Especially on the dithering, it's not quite up to par.

[Lizzrd]

The chin part bothers me a bit, it looks a bit weird, like it has some jagged piece in your chin.

[Joe]

Update.

->

Lizzrd, I don't follow you.  Are you saying I should round it out more?