Hardest work so far...

[CharlesGabriel]

Yeah, my first attempt into making a realistic portrait of a girl. Comment, edits and critique really appreciated. This took me about 4 hours and some minutes so far. Willing to work more on it if you guys find any significant amount of things that could improve it's quality.

*******NEW UPDATE 7-7-2010*******




Original before update:
*removed since it's a tad outdated*

Thanks in advance.

[WM]

Unless you purposely intend to, you dont need to emphasize the lips so much -- allow the lips' outline to break in places, and for the tone of the lips to mix with the skin at times. Right now they look isolated from the rest of the face.

Try killing some of that black around the eyes and eyebrows; substitute it for that brown where you can.

One nostril looks a little lower than the other, and the black is making the nostrils a little too noticeable. Maybe leave a little black for the rims of the nostrils, and substitute the rest for for that red that's in the hair.

Play with the cheekbones and jawline a little, and look at multiple reference pics to get a good idea of their shape at this angle.

Drop the eyes just a little.

Wonderful start so far -- you've blocked in the face in a very natural  and organic way, which is essential to making a face look believable and is one of the hardest steps.

[CharlesGabriel]

WM = Thanks a lot, I will keep that in mind. I plan to take some time to work on this until I can get it to the best of my current abilities. I have been trying to make the souvenir in her hair a sunflower but I screwed up a couple times haha, so I had to make something different for it, at least for now. I want it to have a sunflower there, with part of the petals flying off to the side or something, I'll see what I can come up with at home.

I also have been trying to work on the eyes more, to give her eyelashes. That's eyeliner so far that she has, that soft brown/red stuff on the back of her eyes... I wanted to point that out, in case anyone wondered if that was part of the shading or something. 

And well, for anyone else, any edits are welcome if any of you started them.

Thanks in advance everyone.

[FRAWG]

Well, i am good with portraits, not too much in pixelart though, and i do like the work you've done with that face.

One thing that seems to bug me (i realize it is unfinished) is the hair. I think the colors need to be adjusted a little more and a bit more shine would be nice. It should also look like there is multiple strands of hair rather than large clumps. I realize you've done this in a lot of areas but in some it is lacking. The main problem is the definition of the hair color.

If you are going for a realistic pixelart, i suggest you remove or replace some of the black outlines on the chin and eyes (unless being used lashes or make up or something)

And one final thing, the ear looks a bit odd. It looks way too separated from the head and it looks liek it could be lowered a tad. Most ears are right in-between the eyes and the bottom of the nose.

[CharlesGabriel]

FRAWG= Haha thanks... well looks like the update came just in time. I have put it up on the first post, but I will post it below too:



As you can see I fixed certain things, mostly based on the critique I got here. I fixed the ear, good thing you mention it. I will have to do another edit to fix the hair. I am also working on some border for the bg, I'll see what I can come up with later on.

Any further critique is appreciated.