AuthorTopic: Stuck on a portrait  (Read 1557 times)

Offline DTE462

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Stuck on a portrait

on: August 16, 2018, 04:20:03 am


This is a portrait I'm doing from a photo. I'm not sure why I'm not quite happy with it. The overshirt definitely needs more work but I've always struggled with cloth. And the hair doesn't stand out to me as being horrible, but I know it could be better.

Does anyone have suggestions what this is missing or where it could be improved?

Offline eishiya

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Re: Stuck on a portrait

Reply #1 on: August 16, 2018, 03:35:03 pm
When working from ref, you should include the ref, so that people can know what comes from the ref, and what's your take/understanding of it. If the ref is one you can't post, you should mention that, so that people like me don't spend a paragraph asking for it ;D

The middle colour on the face is rather low-contrast, and looks a bit greyish. I think a darker, more saturated (possibly hue-shifted towards red?) would improve it. You're also not using that colour anywhere outside the face.

Try to avoid using pure grey. Grey objects are rarely pure grey because light from surrounding coloured objects affects them, and pyre grey usually stands out as looking strange when surrounded by colour, like here. Adding even just a little hue can help, even if it's not "true to life."

The crop you've chosen is one that makes shading the body (=shirts) tough, since we can only see the flat part of the torso, there aren't any interesting form shadows, only cast shadows from the head, collar, etc. To make the shirt look less flat, you could add a subtle pattern to it (pinstripes, plaid, etc) and show that curving around the chest and shoulders.

Here are some ideas regarding the colours, hair, beard, and defining the eyes, ear, and nose better:

Since I don't have the ref, they might not look like themselves anymore, but I hope you'll get some use out of it anyway.

Offline DTE462

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Re: Stuck on a portrait

Reply #2 on: August 17, 2018, 03:09:08 am


This is exactly it. The hair is a lot better. And that mid tone (and the in between tone) makes a big difference.

I tried some stripes on his shirt but it didn't really come together. I'll have to get more comfortable with cloth first.

But otherwise I'm much happier with it. I could include the reference picture but I wasn't necessarily trying to copy it exactly. I think all the things addressed here are what I was feeling were missing. The nose looking a little more natural, the hair and the general shading of the face.

Thanks for the suggestions and example. It makes all the difference. And also thanks for the note about the use of gray.

Offline eishiya

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Re: Stuck on a portrait

Reply #3 on: August 17, 2018, 01:19:08 pm
Glad you found it useful!

Some additional notes:
Thick moustaches usually don't have that much space between them and the nose. There's some distance, but usually not a pixel's worth at this size. I left that pixel distance in my edit because I wanted to keep the changes to the nose clear and obvious, and then forgot to mention it.
Having the hair colour run straight into the skin looks rather harsh. You can use lighter colours to ease the transition and make it look like there are some thinner/less-numerous hairs there. I did that in my edit, using the darker skin colours.
With the hair, the main change was adding indication of where the hair's coming from - the part, and the growth at the edge above the forehead. It looks like you got this, but I wanted to make sure you understand for your future works.
The eyes are a bit hard to see. Some darker colours to highlight the shape of the skin around them would help. I did a little of this in my edit, but didn't take it far enough.
« Last Edit: August 17, 2018, 01:28:01 pm by eishiya »