Heads up - 2nd pimp - more practice

Manic

hi all, i posted my first pimp here about 2 weeks ago, took people's advice, and come back. although, i've only bothered with the head for the moment, as that's where i need most practice.

it isn't finished yet, the hair needs tweaking, i need to draw some ears, and some eyebrows, but i'd like to hear what you think i can do to make it better at this stage.

cheers

Manic

ScoobyDoofus

Good start! Not too bad for a 2nd pimp.

I'd say you should look at more photographs and study real-life anatomy a bit more. Try to see what differentiates your work from reality.

Some more angles on the head would help to judge the proportions a bit better, but at this point, I'd say the eyes are too thin. Make them rounder.
The cheek bones are a bit flat. push that out a little.
The lips are too narrow. The corners of the mouth usually line up nearly perfectly with the center of the eyes.
Your beard stubble is a little intense, try toning that down quite a bit. The base color for your skin tone seems a little yellow to me. He looks unhealthy. The hair doesnt appear to have any styling. Its just fuzzy-head.
Keep practicing & trying! Nobody becomes a great artist just by wishing!

Manic

*sob* i am working from photos! its just that painting something to look halfway real is kinda hard!

i've done what you;ve said, deepend the skin tone, pushed out his cheeks, widend the eyes and mouth, toned down the stubble...

the only thing i haven't done is his hair... i'm not a hairdresser! to be honest, when i'm bothered to, i have my hair like that!



Manic

ScoobyDoofus

It would help to see your reference, if your trying to make this a likeness.

I did a quick liquify & paintover (And I've gotten shit for this in the past, so take it for what its worth).
Its far from perfect, but perhaps will give you an idea of some of what I'm talking about. Its what I would do, not whats "right".

Manic

damn! that's good! my face is far too flat aint it?

edit: here's the ref

http://thnom.tehunlose.com/model_resource/male/white/w_poop.jpg

Ninjas

One of the really strange things about working from photos is the perspective distortion. You may have already figured it out, but I had a huge problem when I was doing some digital doubles. What made it work for me is that I set up cameras for the Front and Left view, and eyeballed the FOV setting until I figured it matched the photo, and then I always worked from the camera views. If you work from the photos in the ISO views, you get a head that looks much skinnier than real life, typically with a huge nose. It really doesn't look like you have that problem, but it just reminded me of it.

You should just go ahead and photosource the textures. Then you can fix them up, tone down the shadows, etc in Photoshop

Manic

shit! i never even thought of perspective distortion! i can't believe that! i'm working from a drawing from an anatomy book for the 3rd attempt at this now.

i don't want to photosource my textures, as i really want to learn how to paint them myself. plus i think hand painted ones look better in games, they certainly look more stylish in my opinion

Ninjas

I did 2 or 3 versions myself before I totally figured it out, and yes, I couldn't believe I didn't see the problem sooner.

Hand painting textures with a mouse borders on masochism. It is true that hand painted texures can look really great, but a lot of people who do paint textures use photo sourced elemeents in them anyway (mostly for dirt and grime, but other things too). I would still start off with the photos and paint over them, saving yourself a lot of work in getting it to look like you.

Manic

oh man, does it look like i used a mouse? i've got a graphire 3 (not great i know... but its what i've got)

i used to be quite good at drawing, but i havn't kept up practice... same goes for guitar... i'm slowly losing all my talents, oh dear.

EDIT: oh yeah, its weird when you ahve one of those moments where you realise something for the first time... the other day i finally cottoned onto how pressure affects the weather!