Demo Portrait (WIP) Update [4/13/2006]

[Ryumaru]

[PORTRAIT]


 From what I can tell this type of art requires you to almost know exactly what you are going to do before you do it.

C&C away!

exactly.
ive thought that for a long time, the use of pixels in demoscene art is very different than in normal pixel art.
anyways, this could do with a more interesting pallette, but thats one of the most easiest things to fix

[Dhaos]

[PORTRAIT]
{<new-old>}


[STEPS]


[CONCEPT ART]

-this is a cg I quickly made to figure out what was wrong with my pallete...

Bumpity! I comletely revamped the face, the colors, and even threw in a piece of concept art I made to figure out why my colors were so horrid previously. Turns out graphics gale HSL values are a tad different from photoshops. In gg increasing the luminance value actually *decreases* saturation, if you were to compare increasing luminance in photoshop that is. So anyways I unified all the colors to a nice orange tone, restricted my highlights more, so they're minor details (they made the pevious image look absolutely putrid color wise)

Yes, the concept art's jaw is weirdly deformed, trinagluar/anime like, it was an accident lol. I rounded it more out in my pixel version.

Eventually I'll get around to smoothing the rest of the details, however some of them are still off, and I dont want to destroy all my hard dithering again.

As for everybodys C&C's:

@Camus: I do understand exactly what you mean so no worries ^_^. While doing this image I'm learning things that are helping my cg and tweaking stills alot, and its fun, I suppose, in a very sadistic way =D! My image does lack the dynamic feel of demoscene, later on I'll probably try something different, but for now I wish to get used to managing high color counts and general lighting.

@Tremulant: I'm glad your enjoying this, airbrushing is fun weeeeeeeeeeeee!

@Helm: I'm still trying to balance out the shadows, but I will be fading the edges more, this is really tricky for me. The purple? do you mean on < side, the flesh stuff behind the eye?

@Adarias: More contrast is definately a plus, I'm trying to work it in there, but I still can't get it just right. Eventually I want to go for a bg1&2 look for my portrait. They did some fabulous effects with their portraits. My concept art should kinda reflect where I'm heading I hope... Perhaps I could add some yellows for the hair highlights hmm...

@Zach: I believe you are refering to Adarias' edit? I do agree thats an improvement contrast wise. I will be tweaking the neck eventually and some shoulders might help too lol.

@flaber: I included made =P. Anyways, the colors will had some dithering to them in the very end once all tones are properly in place. The colors were just aweful heh, my newer pic should look alot better or alot worse since I've only had two people's opinion on it thusfar. I'm going to experiment around with lighting, so the entire bg is not pure black, since that would cause the image to be much darker.

[Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 REFERENCES] -not done by me... I wish I knew this artist's name XD


-Imoen

-Jaheria

-Viconia
Tell me what you think of these? I personally find them beautiful, however a few net friends of mine said they looked too dodge/burned, plasticy, and weird. I might try to tweak my pic to resemble these to a degree.

Anyways...

C&C the new stuff to death!

[Wayuki]

I think the old version was a bit more expressive. The slightly crooked smile and downward angled face gave her a mysterious femme fatale look.

Going with the new version, though, the upper lip seems kinda puffy and undefined. I'd define the parting between her lips more.

Also, lipstick doesn't create hard edges, it fades into the skin a bit. And you don't apply it thickly in the corners of your mouth, because then it will smear during the day and look silly. So, I think it's better to define the corners of the mouth with brown instead.

Some texture on the lips would be nice as well. Lips aren't completely smooth... and that's even more noticable with shiny lipstick.

Furthermore, I think the dark shading above the eye goes up too high, making it seem like she's missing part of her eyebrow ridge.

Lastly, I think the lip and iris colors really stand out too much. Especially the lipstick... most girls, including myself, would never wear a color like that! It's not flattering at all, IMHO. I think it would look much nicer if it was less saturated and closer to brown. The iris would look better if the colors were closer to the cg and if there was more of a shadow on them from the upper eyelid.

Here's what I would edit:

[David]

Whoa, what happened?

This newer version seems to have no depth in comparison to the older version. Your references go from white to black and "pop out" because of it.

[Dhaos]

The results are in and the update sucks hard XD. Apparently I accidentally destroyed the expression while trying to balance the colors out. The old one still looks putrid to me (color wise) however the expression was better... or rather was actually there. I'm reworking the new one to have the same expression, more depth, and definately more contrast >_<. I suppose the C&C should be held off till I get something worth C&C'ing up.

Thanks Wayuki & David, I still can't believe I did that XD... *scurries off to fix it*

[The Cold Mage]

sweet, now animate it 

[flaber]

allo.

so.. kinda made an edit to you.
its not super super obviouse but suttle and cleaner...

i just played with the forms of the shades on the finished cheek.
as i mentioned earlier if you follow the outline curve and gradually change its shape the colours become less obviouse and more blender. it also helps to eliminate some jaggys.



youll need to compare the 2 to really notice.
played with the eye alittle bit.
hope you dont mind this 'nit-picky' edit

--
oh ya.
when you work with plenty of colours and shades by using think lines dont 'bubble' it out on one side. try to make it snake like, or like a concave mirror. dont make your line a convex lens. (if that makes sense). in other words, dont taper the line at the ends and have it fat in the middle. try to keep it swaying one side or another. true there are times when you can do that, but when i edited thats one of the things i fixed. hope that makes sense
also try to keep your curves fluid and nice, opposed to using diagonals when it should be curved. hmmm you probably already know but ill mention just cause. use odd numberd lines to make curves.. so say for a circle. the edge(longest line) make it say 7, then next line 3,2,1,1,2,3,7. a rule of thumb though that i usually stick by is dont go much bigger than 3 or4 when its not your long line unless your long line is 11 or longer. just double it. by using the odd numbers it doesnt look 'uniform' thus adding more of an organic feel.
if im confusing perhaps ill try again to explain better

[AlexHW]

Spotted something else..
the nose ridge(i think thats the right term) is too low. Where you have the dip in the nose should be more level with the eyes. Might help to study the structure of a skull to get an idea of the forms underneath the skin.