Hello people and peopledettes!

I'm a complete beginner and I don't consider myself to "know" how to draw or paint yet, but I'm trying.

Anyway, I would like to do this portrait of someone and I would be glad if I got some advice on how to proceed, because the picture seems very flat to me, and also I need to smooth the skin somehow..

First thing first. I started playing around with painting by doing the first (cave-)lady from my head.
Despite how she actually looks, she has atleast a little depth, and the hair looks pretty cool too.
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Then I painted the doggy.. Just want to know what you think of it. Not sure if I will continue or it or start from scratch when I'm better at details.
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And then comes the actual problem.
I find my painting lacking a lot of depth.. But still when looking at the photo, I can't really see much depth
in it except for the nose and chin. The cheeks come out slightly due to the slight redness.. But that too seems to be too faint for me to use it properly.. :/

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Comments?

The basic colors looks ok. But may be some more work in terms of middle tones, dark tones, highlights, shadows and base colors might make it look more real.

Give more emphasis on what you want the viewer to see and just work roughly on the details that are not important. In short directs the viewers eye to parts you want attention. Just try this link. Go on to the tutorial section you will find loads of tips on what you can do to further enhance your painting :

http://www.furiae.com/index.php?view=gallery

Hope this helps.

Teaspoon, you're heading in the right direction but you are right, your middle and dark tones need to be present before you can get that 2 dimensional look that you're after.

The problem lies also in the reference image that you're using. When a photo is taken face on and a flash is used, as in the girls portrait, it flattens the image and takes away any detail of shadow that may have been there. The dog on the other had has the opposite problem, it has too much shadow so you can't pick out the details as the light is behind him making the animal almost a silouettte.

I know its never easy when you work from reference photos, which is why I always try to take my own photos when I have a commisison. That way I am sure I will get something that is usable. However, I know that isn't always possible and sometimes you have to make do with what you are given.

There is a little trick to increase visible tones in a washed out photo. If you have Adobe Photoshop you can view your image there and use 'Posterize' - I think its in Image files. I can't remeber as I don't have the program here with me. At about the 10 setting, it will give you enough tonal variation for you to work with and you can construct your drawing from there.

What I do with portraits is draw a value map before I ever start shading so that I have an idea of what the tones are and where to place my shading. You can see the attached to show you what I mean.

Keep trying with this, you've done a great job so far!

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Thank you for your replies Dean & Islander!

Dean, I've seen that site quite a long time ago when I (again) attempted on some drawing. It's bookmarked now, even though it's made by an artist for artists - it explains things on such a high "just do this and that"-level that a complete beginner like me just ends up finding the nearest corner to sit and shake uncontrollably in. Hopefully I will have the guts to study the site more closely in the future.

Islander: I've been thinking that exactly because the photo is taken straight on and it's so pale (flash?) that makes it so difficult. For some reason I never thought of trying to make it darker and hope that it has some details hidden underneath. . I will try that soon.

Also, I did sketch the picture first, but in this case I couldn't do more than eyes, nose, mouth and chin because I didn't manage to find any lines or edges other than that. .

Here's the current status:
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I think this might start pushing the limit of what -I- can do with this picture. It's my first ever "real" painting portrait of a humanbeing. It probably takes atleast two to be good.

This is quite good Teaspoon. You've got a likeness there, just needs some tweaking to bring it to life. It is difficult as you can only go by the reference unless you feel adventurous enough to readjust the lighting in your own mind and translate that to the reference image.

Try your hand at another that has good contrast and see what happens.

It's quite better now Teaspoon. Much better I should say.

You have got the painting skills and I am sure that if you make use of some good references you will be surprised with the quality you can achieve. I wouldn't continue on this reference image if I were you. I would rather go look for a good one.

A good reference will avoid you frustration and it will help you better identify the middle tones, darker tones, basic colors, highlights and shadows. Try looking for one that is well balanced in terms of lighting. May be this website could help some here as image reference :

http://www.3d.sk (Caution Nudity)

Try the free section because some are not free: http://www.human-anatomy-for-artist.com/fr...ree_samples.htm

there are some high resolution images there and the lighting is really good. You can even see the tiny details on the skin.

Looking forward to some more work from you.

Hope this helps

One last thing, the nose is really nice.

I think one of the major problems with doing portaits is that people only use the flesh tones.
If you look carefully at the reference pic you posted, under the eyes and either side of and below the mouth there is greeny blue tint. Try experimenting with different colours to give the tone to the skin, never be afraid to try, you will be surprised at the colours you can get away with.
As an example here is one i painted, note how many colours are there on the face.

Hope this helps!!

RJS

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The main points have been covered already, but just my 50c worth...

The hair is a bit distracting. Try not to aim at putting in every strand, otherwise it will look like hay. instead, try see it as clumps of strands, and work with these. it will give your hair a more dimensional effect.

Teaspoon ...I think you have the right idea and like jeanette said you only need some tweeking ....I myself I am afraid to try painting or chalk...so good job .

RJS...awsome job on that painting ....and the green looks natural .. you cant tell its green and it works perfect with the picture.

Teaspoon, two things jumped out at me & take it with a grain of salt as I'm not a portrait artist! First of all, I was quite pleased to note that you ended the upper eyelid over the pupil (?) of the eye. Most first portraits have the eyelid at the top of the iris so I'm glad you were observant there.

Also, the overall portrait is very nice but the hairline could use some shading. Especially with a blonde or person with light colored hair, there is shadow along the hair line where it meets the skin of the face.

Second, take another look at the jawline on the right (as you're looking at the painting) - I think you'll see that it's a little too full.

All in all, I wish my first portrait looked as good!

J

Whoops! I wanted to comment on RJS's self portrait! Wow! What a proper English gentleman! Can one say "cutie patootie" to such a proper looking gentleman as that?!!!! Love it!

J

Teaspoon, two things jumped out at me & take it with a grain of salt as I'm not a portrait artist! First of all, I was quite pleased to note that you ended the upper eyelid over the pupil (?) of the eye. Most first portraits have the eyelid at the top of the iris so I'm glad you were observant there.

Also, the overall portrait is very nice but the hairline could use some shading. Especially with a blonde or person with light colored hair, there is shadow along the hair line where it meets the skin of the face.

Second, take another look at the jawline on the right (as you're looking at the painting) - I think you'll see that it's a little too full.

All in all, I wish my first portrait looked as good!

J

RJS - great portrait - it looks like you, is it? The reason I ask is the name of it is Colin.

J, the portrait is of my brother, i did it as a Christmas present for him last year.

RJS

Thank you all for the comments!

Dean:
Thank you for the sites, I will take a look and see if I can find something appropriate for me to try!
Infact, I think I need to do a lot of sketching first to learn to shape the human anatomy properly, so it will probably take a good while before I will get the sketches right, and even longer to paint it all. Sounds like a good challenge!

And as you both (Jeanette Included) suggested, I should probably move onwards to another reference that might give me more to work on in the first place.

Oh and about the nose.. I was suddenly quite amazed when I saw what I had done. I know it has a few details that differ from the photo (the real nose is actually quite "complicated" too as it's a bit "bumpy" and not completely straight), but I think the nose that I made is quite nice anyhow, and resembles her's enough to make the whole painting suggest that it's her.


RJS: You are totally right. I'm a -completely- newbie with colors (and drawing for that matter) that the thought of "using colors that shouldn't be there" is just too advanced for me, as I barely even know how to do simple shading. Also the link that Dean showed earlier about painting showed the exact thing, it had colors being used I only thought existed in cartoons. When I'm more confident in finding the forms and doing them properly in the first place, I might splash in some "random" colors to see what happens.
Maybe with the next portrait that I'll bring up here, when I think I'm "done", you lot can suggest what colors to splash in there if I already didn't..


3lansir:
That's true, the hair does indeed look a bit like hay
I did start off by laying some thicker "clumps" of hair, maybe these were too thin as well and that I overdid the single straws as well to make it as "hay":y as it ended up being. I will have to practice more on this as well, and take some hints from the site that Dean suggested earlier (it has completely photorealistic hair.. like everything else).

Kim:
Well I'm afraid too, I'm positively surprised on what I have accomplished because my general opinion is that I mostly draw like a kindergartener, so it feels like this is pretty good progress for me.
And since this is digital painting, I'm not worried about making a mess, and that I can practice as much as I want without wasting resources. Oh, and being able to paint in bed is quite amazing in itself, which I believe not too many non-digital people would attempt.

J-Lynn:
Thank you for the hairline-tip, even though, as I already stated in this post, I have put most focus on the problem with the depth of the face, so everything else has been left unfinished because of that.
And I'm proud to say that I had noticed before your remark that her left (our right) cheek/chin line is too round and doesn't make the chin stand out the way it does in reality.
Those things that would improve on the resemblance would be to fix that chin/cheek-line as well as a couple of details on the nose.

I'm glad that I had a grasp of these myself, gives me a bit of confidence that I (partly) know what I'm doing.

Also, I also thought that RJS made a self-portrait

*waits for RJS to come back and say "Well actually, me and my brother are twins, so I guess I shouldn't have corrected you" to J-Lynn*


Thank you again for your comments everyone.
This is a lovely place.

Actually though we look alike he is rather more....shall we say portly, he is sixty next year and i am forty eight. Other than that yes...we are twins.lol

Well, I wasn't sure as you definitely caught the family resemblence but I thought he looked older & heavier than you. However, 1) it's really hard to tell much in a little, low-resolution picture posted online & 2) you said you had lost some weight & I thought that this could be a "before" portrait.

Glad you cleared it up!