[WIP] Female doll base

[Oddrick]

Hi! I'm not sure if any of you know what an avatar site is. Basically you create doll bases and people buy clothing for them with virtual money. I am working on a base for one of these sites and would love some help! Here is what I have so far:



It is rough and unshaded mostly because I am redoing it almost entirely. This is what I had done previously, but the client said he did not like the pose because it was too much like a model and not enough like a normal pose.

I would love any and all critiques. I want the anatomy to be like a slightly deformed realistic, and have every intention of completely redoing her eyes lol. I know they're kind of scary as is

Thank you for any help you may give!

[Oddrick]

Sorry for double-posting, I couldn't find the edit button.

A slight update. I felt like the above image was too rough, so I cleaned up the lines for better representation of the form.

[Mike]

Hey there!  What you have isn't too shabby.  Here is an edit I've done to help show what you could do.  (hopefully this looks alright.  My monitor is a bit screwy with colors)



What I did
1. The most important thing I did was change the hue for the shadows. 
2. Shifted your colors around so they have more contrast (greater difference between the colors.) Low contrast being less difference.
3. Changed her pose so she has more balance.  I'm not sure if that was a good choice.  Maybe you have her posing like that so it matches the clothes.  I don't know if they have been made yet.  Likewise that is the reason I didn't change her foot.
4. I attempted to shade her in the same sort of style you have going on.  Wasn't able to finish though.

Anyway hope this helps somehow.

Also I liked the pose you had before.  That pose is more interesting.  I can see why your client wanted a pose like this though.  Now the characters are able to hold objects and you can see the clothing better from the front.

[rikfuzz]

Mike, your colours look pretty crazy. The whole thing looks purple now. 

VERY quick colour edit.

[Oddrick]

Thank you guys for the critiques!

Yeah, I can definitely see how my colors were way off. And thank you so much for the edit, Mike! It's very helpful! Here is what I have changed so far:



Shading is incomplete, but I think I like where it's heading.

[Mike]

Was my edit really purple?  To me it doesn't look to bad...told you this monitor sucks!   Yours however looks like she is glowing with light.  I don't know what is right anymore...

Oh and no prob Oddrick!  I wanted to jump in and edit so hopefully others would help critique as well.  (I prefer your characters stance over what I edited.  I got hasty and edited out that nice arch for the back and the way it leads into the hips.

Looking forward to the finished piece.

[rikfuzz]

Was my edit really purple?  To me it doesn't look to bad...told you this monitor sucks!   Yours however looks like she is glowing with light.  I don't know what is right anymore...

Yes, my edit was bad and does look glowing with light (qucik photoshop job).    Oddrick seems to have got the idea though, latest version is much better!    Might wanna look into checking your monitor out, or your color profile or whatever's up. 

[Oddrick]

Hehe yes, I didn't want to say it but your edit was quite purple. Almost alien! You should definitely check into fixing that.

But it still reminded me to add purple to the tones to get a more realistic palette. I have no clue why I forgot that's what you're supposed to do, lol. I will post an updated version soon! I think I really want to redo her face, because the more I look at it the scarier it seems...

[rikfuzz]

But it still reminded me to add purple to the tones to get a more realistic palette. I have no clue why I forgot that's what you're supposed to do, lol. I will post an updated version soon! I think I really want to redo her face, because the more I look at it the scarier it seems...

re: colours
To be honest, I wouldn't think you're 'supposed' to do anything.  A good range and some contrast (between luminance AND hue) is generally a good thing, but it's one area that's very nice for experimentation. 

Having said that, since you're drawing a 'base', it probably warrants some subtlety so it fits in over all the backgrounds, but what you have now seems pretty good.   

[Joe]

Hi Oddrick.  I did this edit yesterday, but fell asleep before I could post.



The main things I addressed were the face and colors.  I think right now she's got this alien/uma thurman look going on, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't intentional.  The things that stood out the most to me were the eyes being too far apart, there being lighting directly above her eyes, and the absence of nose.  As my edit stands now, the nose could still use more definition/contrast.  The other thing I noticed was you are working on a white background.  Is the background of the avatar site going to be white?  Probably not, but even so, if you fill in the background with a neutral color you'll see how narrow the range of values is.  You should also avoid the use of pure black and white, in general.  I found the colors around the eyes and lips to be jarring so I used them for other things.  And I moved the navel down to elongate the torso but I'm pretty sure they're gonna be clothed anyway.  So overall I think you should pay attention to the lighting and making her appear more human.  Oh one more thing is you should elongate (her) left arm.  However as it is so far, I think you've done a very nice job on the body.  

Edit: fixed image link.