[WIP] Sarah Connor (Terminator 2)

[SeDiceBisonte]

I wasn't planning to post any progress today but I'm not sure how much I can do over the next couple of days so I thought it'd make sense to pop something here in case anyone has any comments:


I messed around with the cheek for ages and I agree that anything more than the deep purple doesn't work. I might rein that purple cluster in a bit. My general thinking was that it couldn't enter into the shadow cast by the nose or extend round to the near side of her cheek too much. I'm not sure how well it works given the similar value to the blue, but the palette is still something I'm thinking about.

I had a play with the extra purple but I was finding it hard to make it work. I haven't tried an extra shade of blue yet but I'm still planning to test that idea.

Other than that, I've just started on the body. The arms especially are very WIP. I think the aforementioned extra shade of blue would probably help with the readability of the scar.

[Limes]

the new cheek is cool looks good.

I'm not a color expert so I wouldn't really know what to do for the pallet.
Maybe the new purple is too luminous.

The lightest blue should be prioritized before the new purple...

you could even go purple lightest blue the deep purple and the same lightest blue, and it would make sense to the eyes as long as the blue ramp is followed afterwards.

Same goes for New purple to lightest blue to deepest purple afterwards as long as the purple ramp is followed afterwards. Play with it.

[fskn]

Worked some more on her face. It's rough, still doesn't look that much like her, but I guess it's more "solid".
On yours, if you don't mind me saying, it lacks that dimensionality.

I had made her nose too wide before, I apologize for that.



EDIT: Also, by looking straight at us and squinting her eyes a bit it makes her look more fierce. On your last one she looks in doubt, worried, even fearful.

[SeDiceBisonte]

Neck, arms, top, and hair are all still very WIP:



Limes: I looked at what you did with the shoulder for ages and, while what I've done looks very different, it was actually heavily informed by your edit. I haven't tested out mixing the purple and blue ramps any more yet because I still want to get the face right. I've changed the brow a bit but perhaps there's too much purple on the near side still since she (like most women) doesn't have all that pronounced a brow.

fskn: I don't mind you saying anything at all I want to improve and I completely agree. Hopefully this edit addresses the issues with dimensionality. I've tried to improve the eyes. I still don't think I've got to 'fierce' yet but hopefully she looks less worried. With the new shading on the blue side of the face, I've also tried to unify the blue lighting so that's why the near arm has changed so much.

[Limes]

YES that face is really good. It's shaping up pretty nice here, I don't have and criticism I could give on this one. The eye's are a huge improvement.

[SeDiceBisonte]

Thanks so much, Limes!

I've started on the hair now. The ponytail is blank because I couldn't make it look like hair no matter what I did. I'll keep experimenting but it's difficult to get the right texture.

[SeDiceBisonte]

Bump with a small update:


I darkened the hair so she didn't look grey/platinum blonde, altered the "pink" nostril and threw the vaguest suggestion of a background in. I wanted a bit more going on in the background so you could properly see the shape of her head silhouetted against it, but any more than this looked too busy.

I tested a little suggestion of texture on her top on the pink side but I'm not sure if it's just better without. I'm also still curious to know if there's a way to improve the ponytail. This is the best I've got at the moment after trying a lot of different methods, most of which looked more like she had a lump of plasticine stretching down from the back of her head.

[fskn]

Her facial features are (still) very masculine... Mouth, chin, nose and eyes, brow, jawline... Her lips make it look like she's pressing them together, the nose looks too big. The length may be fine, but it's too wide.

The shading on the left side looks okay, but on the right side it kinda looks like it's been painted, like David Bowie in the Alladin Sane album cover.

It's a hard face to pixel, I've tried multiple times and failed, so it may take a while to get right. But I would put more time in it to try and make it look like her, because it's such a cool character and goes so well with your Ripley portrait.

As for the body, I think Boraka's thread has a great example of how you could shape that in terms of clusters of colors.
Studying it could help you with the hair too, I guess. Maybe you could bring the ponytail forward and over the shoulder like one of your references? You could then use more colors and define it a bit further.


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EDIT:



There, a bit more feminine.
Smaller nose, thinner neck, fewer expression lines, smoother face and rounder, softer lips.
Smaller eyes and irises, and the little highlight in the eye pointing towards us, which somehow makes it look like she's looking in our direction (yeah, I don't know either).


Before/After:


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Another try. Took it as a personal challenge as you may guess.



I tried to reshape her jaw a bit, and to give her a prouder (?) posture. Didn't fiddle too much with it, though.
The mouth is really, really challenging for me.
Hopefully she didn't get that generic mcgeneric face now.

[SeDiceBisonte]

Thanks so much! That was all very helpful. Here's my latest version. I've been busier with work and haven't been able to work on it much, but I've tried to correct everything you said about the face. Ignore everything else because I haven't done any more to the body and the ponytail looks very rough. I really liked the idea to bring it forward (I also think it accentuates her femininity) but I've not hit on the right way to make it look like hair yet. I've studied several portraits on PixelJoint and looked at Boraka's thread, and I'm sure I'll crack it at some point. It's been so long that I'm eager for more crits on the face though!



I'm hoping that the extra mid blue is reducing the painted effect, but I think I'll need to play with the values of all the blues to get it to work properly.

For some reason, I've only seen your second edit now as I'm posting this, so I'll have a proper look at it later.

Thanks again. I really appreciate all your help! Eventually this will get bashed into shape...

Edit: have looked at that second edit more and it's definitely not generic mcgeneric face! I really like the mouth. I'd intended to stick to a fairly neutral expression but you've got such a great likeness going on there.

[Gunpog!]

Hey nice piece. I've read nothing so forgive me if I'm being redundant but judging by the last version (which is good, again), I have the feeling that:
1-You're not making the most out of your own palette.
2-You could make some lines more appealing.
3-You could make some clusters more appealing, too.

I played with your pic just a little bit to strengthen my point and -hopefully- help you.

Just being playful, changing some clusters and curves to make them more appealing to me, fiddling just a little bit with your palette and adding some AA here and there. Nothing is a definite statement, just some food for thought!
 
So...
For point 1, you already have the colors that are needed to make things a little bit less rough (with AA) within your piece. Antialiasing is a delicate task because overdoing it is bad (and can be worse than not doing it at all). But you did some AA. So, why stop so early and end up with rough edges? Especially since your piece is an illustration, and more so, an illustration based on a photograph. If AA is not the right way to go here, I do not know when it is!

For point 2, some of your curves could respect the pixel art 1-2-3...3-2-1 rule a bit more. I mean it's okay to not respect it all the time (especially if you antialias it) but it's something you should keep in mind: a more encompassing gradating curve feels more appealing than a varying one (like what I did for her left shoulder).

For point 3, kinda same thing but even harder to explain. Really look at all cluster and judge it. Is it really the most appealing you can make? If not, try to change it a little bit. It's often about simplifying it, making it more round and soft or on the contrary, more pointy, depending on the context. The key here is to step back from actual anatomy and go into abstraction. Try to think in terms of pure "shapes" and the solution will often appear to you.

But clearly, seeing the awesome progress during the whole thread, you're totally on the right way to go!