AuthorTopic: [WIP] Self-portrait.  (Read 4420 times)

Offline of bovasso

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[WIP] Self-portrait.

on: February 08, 2009, 11:14:21 am
Hello! I'm Bovasso and I've been having some trouble with a self-portrait. Here is an awful reference picture: http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp170/bovasso/art/pixel/pxWIPsp003.png
First and foremost, I hate hair and it hates me. I cannot tell you how many different mediums I've tried and I have yet to get the lighting down when it comes to hair. If you have ANY pointers for shading hair or locating a lighting source, I'd be more than grateful to review them! Please do ignore the ear. I erased it after noticing just how deformed it really looks. The neck isn't complete either. I'd also appreciate it if anyone can look over the shading or bring to my attention any flaws you may have noticed.

I'm just throwing this bit of an image out there to show the shading around the eyes. I'm not too sure if it makes a difference and if it does, for the better or worse? In short, C+C, please! (Minor detail, I'm new to this lovely community! :))

Offline balls01

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Re: [WIP] Self-portrait.

Reply #1 on: February 08, 2009, 12:56:06 pm
hey, well, i think this tutorial i digged up from jaeden on her website (www.autumnpixels.com)

straight:http://www.autumnpixels.com/layout_oct/tutorial_hair_1.gif>curlyhttp://www.autumnpixels.com/ap/images/tutorial2.gif

sorry for the nudity, jaeden tut tut tut.

your choice of color, is your voice of color
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Offline Ai

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Re: [WIP] Self-portrait.

Reply #2 on: February 08, 2009, 01:49:09 pm
Hello! I'm Bovasso and I've been having some trouble with a self-portrait. Here is an awful reference picture: http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp170/bovasso/art/pixel/pxWIPsp003.png
First and foremost, I hate hair and it hates me. I cannot tell you how many different mediums I've tried and I have yet to get the lighting down when it comes to hair. If you have ANY pointers for shading hair or locating a lighting source, I'd be more than grateful to review them! Please do ignore the ear. I erased it after noticing just how deformed it really looks. The neck isn't complete either. I'd also appreciate it if anyone can look over the shading or bring to my attention any flaws you may have noticed.

I'm just throwing this bit of an image out there to show the shading around the eyes. I'm not too sure if it makes a difference and if it does, for the better or worse? In short, C+C, please! (Minor detail, I'm new to this lovely community! :))

Advice for rendering hair:
 * Start out with a dark fill (either the darkest hair shade, or the 2nd darkest hair shade.)
   This will help you see the shading/lighting more clearly (and it tends to just plain produce cool-looking results :)
 * Look at the way hair is rendered in anime. Block it out like that.
 * if more shading is needed, you just kind of push the ends out as you reduce the brightness of the line -- you need to have a sense of how the hair is going to bunch up in 3d.
 * If you don't know how to light the hair, this means you haven't firmly established it as a 3d object in your mind. This means you probably haven't drawn a mesh for your head -- this is a vital aid! (this effectively requires you to fix the ear.)
This should be done BEFORE blocking out, on a separate layer.

Here is a quick (BSed) edit. it is not remotely correct; however, it may give you some idea what I mean.



Checking out jaeden's work might help you too... and fur, as in http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/5884.htm or http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/5647.htm
. Don't listen too hard to me though :) I tend to BS hair based on my understanding of how to render fur, as you can see in the previous two links :)

In the future though, my #1 recommendation -- do the entire picture at once, rather than adding parts afterwards. This is one reason you've drawn rather huge hair (vertically on the picture) and probably also caused the defective ear. Being methodical like this can save you from vast amounts of silly mistakes.
If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

Offline EyeCraft

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Re: [WIP] Self-portrait.

Reply #3 on: February 08, 2009, 02:53:41 pm
Hello Bovasso, welcome to Pixelation.

This looks like a promising project! What stood out to me at first glance was some face structure issues, primarily around the eyes. I had a go at an edit to demonstrate:



More minor issues were tweaks to the chin, nose and jawline shape. Hope it helps.

As for hair; I basically treat it as having rough, blocked-in shading of say, a sphere, it depends on the rough physical shape of it. Then bleed dark lines into the blocks in order to suggest clusters of strands, but never bleed them in too far, for instance don't bring shadow all the way into highlight. Slightly dull and reasonably broad specular. That's about the only guidance I can offer, unfortunately.

Offline of bovasso

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Re: [WIP] Self-portrait.

Reply #4 on: February 08, 2009, 10:42:45 pm
Thank you for the suggestions!

@ balls01: The links to the Autumn Pixels tutorial lead me to a 404. I tried to navigate through his/her website, but no luck. :(

@ Ai: I really appreciate the tips! I'm still a bit confused, but I think that once I bring it back into MSPaint, I'll be able to do a bit more than I could before this thread. Thank you!

@ EyeCraft: ...your edit is amazing. I'll be sure to use it as a reference.  ^-^

Offline Conzeit

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Re: [WIP] Self-portrait.

Reply #5 on: February 09, 2009, 04:19:56 am
Hey Bovasso...welcome to the way of the pixel!

some small crits....make your eyes closer together...make your nose sharper...and your face just a bit rounder, make the checkbones stick out!

Offline AlienQuark

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Re: [WIP] Self-portrait.

Reply #6 on: February 09, 2009, 04:53:35 am
The biggest discrepancy right now seems to be in the eyes. You've made yourself look far more oriental, which you are clearly not. Make the eyes rounder, with the widest-eyed spot being closer to the bridge of the nose and the iris/pupil area.

You also seem to have a slightly more rounded jawline, you've inverted that as well and made it more convex than it is.

It's otherwise a great start, I'd just address those little anatomical issues.

Offline EvilEye

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Re: [WIP] Self-portrait.

Reply #7 on: February 09, 2009, 05:44:19 am
Looks great, except it doesn't look much like the girl in the picture.

By the way, I am doing portraits for my game and was wondering if you would let me use your pic for reference.

Offline of bovasso

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Re: [WIP] Self-portrait.

Reply #8 on: February 09, 2009, 06:12:18 am
@ Conceit & AlienQuark: Thank you for the pointers! I also noticed the lack of similarity in the eye shape. I'll, hopefully, be able to get an update of my progression on here soon. ^-^

@ EvilEye: No problem! I believe I have more images of myself with a more relaxed expression if you'd prefer that instead.