AuthorTopic: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair  (Read 5195 times)

Offline Boraka

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[WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

on: June 13, 2020, 09:43:50 pm
Hello there!

I'm working on a new portrait, and I always have a hard time with rendering the hair.



It is supposed to be a side ponytail 80's style and bangs, but I don't think that the bangs are very readable.

Offline dpixel

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Re: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

Reply #1 on: June 14, 2020, 05:02:31 am
Looks like you're trying to render too much detail.  Do you have a reference?

Offline Boraka

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Re: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

Reply #2 on: June 14, 2020, 03:50:17 pm
Yes, I am working with a reference, the problem is that I don't specially like the hair in that particular picture, and I don't have a better one matching a similar light and pose  :( so I was freestyling a little bit that part.

Offline eishiya

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Re: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

Reply #3 on: June 14, 2020, 05:17:09 pm
At this resolution, you don't have room for individual hairs, or even the smaller locks. Focus on the big shapes, the big locks. Prioritize showing the form of the head more than the details of the hair.

Quick edit to give you an idea.

Note that I only edited the hair. You have similar problems with noise all over the image. Focus on the big shapes, try to avoid single-pixel details.

Offline hANshOTtH3RD

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Re: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

Reply #4 on: June 15, 2020, 06:00:22 am
I disagree; I think it matches the over all style better the way it is.

as for fixing it, here is my attempt(did this before I spotted the reference photo):


...also the arm seemed a bit flat to me, tried to improve it a little, although i think you might need 1 more shade of red.

...hope it helps! ...what's the tattoo by the way? a monkey inside Lincoln's hat?
« Last Edit: June 15, 2020, 06:28:11 am by hANshOTtH3RD »

Offline Boraka

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Re: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

Reply #5 on: June 15, 2020, 11:46:55 am
Thank you both for your feedback! You have give me a solid base to continue my work!

There's a lot to work on still, I 100% agree, I didn't get to clean anything up, and some parts are barely sketched yet, like the arm with the tatoos :D I was very ofuscated with the hair.

Now I have an idea on how I want to aproach it thanks to you!

I'll post an update when I have dignificant progress  ;D

Offline Boraka

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Re: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

Reply #6 on: June 15, 2020, 06:16:47 pm
Here I bring an update:



I'll continue working in this direction. Thanks again!

Offline dpixel

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Re: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

Reply #7 on: June 19, 2020, 05:54:24 am
My edit plays with the light a lot with the hair.  Notice the difference between the darkest and lightest color in the reference hair. 

Also, there's nothing wrong with using bigger patches (clusters) of solid color.  Try to limit the use of single pixels...it's good practice and helps to define volumes and shapes.

Offline Boraka

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Re: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

Reply #8 on: June 22, 2020, 06:02:56 pm
Thanks dpixel for your edit, it was a lot of inspiration.

I bring what I think would me my last update



I'm pretty happy overall with the result ;D Feel free to critize it tho, I would love to hear what would you change/improve

Offline SeDiceBisonte

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Re: [WIP] Portrait. I need help with the hair

Reply #9 on: June 22, 2020, 09:42:49 pm
I like the aesthetic you've got going there, although the background feels a bit separate from the figure because they only really share the green colour. I don't have time to do an edit at the moment since it's getting late here, but you could maybe use the pink from the wireframe landscape somewhere in the person to unify the whole piece more. Alternatively, you could find a way to get more shades of green into the lower part of the image, particularly the background.

There are still some individual pixels hanging around, often as part of broken lines (such as the jaw, the straps on the top, the shadow between the arm and the body), which I think you could safely fix. Some of the ones around the mouth area are aging the subject up a bit in my opinion. I think you could strip out some of the colours around the mouth too. There's quite a lot going on but it's low contrast (e.g. the short line underneath the mouth to our left that's a slightly darker shade) and I don't think it's doing enough work to warrant being there. You could punch the contrast up a bit in the shadowy areas and get more volume into them.

If that all sounds very critical after you've posted a final version then I do apologize! Overall, I like what you've got here. Sorry again about the lack of an edit. If I get a chance tomorrow then I'll try to rectify that.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2020, 09:47:43 pm by SeDiceBisonte »