2D Female Character WIP critique please

rogermein1

Hi

I'm mostly a 3D Artist, but I've been working on a 2D portrait on the side that I would like some feedback on. It's a portrait for a 'Sister of Battle', a type of character from the Warhammer 40K mythology. I got the idea for it after seeing a 2D portrait by Andrew Leon called 'Lost Memories'.



I started off with a very general ZBrush Model to get the face, armor proportions and perspective. Then I just sort of continued in Photoshop to add detail, background, lighting etc.

I was wondering if anyone can spot any problems with the portrait (lighting issues especially since that is not my strong suite). Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

(Side note: I guess this isn't strictly related to video games, so if it is inappropriately posted, I will take it down).

rogermein1

Cibo

The upper lip looks a little weird for me but its hard to tell because of the face angle.

The lighting looks okay and the only "failure" i can see is on the upper side of the shoulder piece near the face. When i look at the other shoulder i have a clear side view and the bright stripe is on a plane with the direction to the ground. The edge highlight near the studs on the shoulder piece is maybe in the shadows too.

When i look at the other shoulder the 2 Shoulder elements are in reality one element but because of the hard edge from the shadow it looks seperated. Maybe give the shadow a nice falloff like Ambient Occlusion.

lotet

Hi, overall not thghat bad.

for starters you really need to tone down your contrast, and give the whole piece more focus. you have a lot of bright colors all over the place. the same goes with the highlights, you have a lot of hot spots that takes focus from the main subject.

I made a quick paintover:
lowered the saturation, lowered the contrast.
added some atospheric light

rogermein1

Hi guys

Thanks for the feedback. Very informative!

@Cibo:

I think I see what you mean about the shoulder area not being properly in shadow. I'll try and fix that up.

@lotet:

Yeah I know that contrast has been bugging me. The contrast changes vividly on different sets of computers so I get hesitant deciding what is 'right'. Good call on the colors being all over the place.

Sorry I can't seem to see/download the changes that you mentioned. Could you try reposting that please?

Thanks again guys.

rogermein1

rogermein1

Hi guys

Just a quick update. Fixed up the shoulder shadow that Cibo mentioned. I also toned down the contrast so the focus is more on the face area for the character.

@lotet: sorry it turns out I can see your fix, I just didn't paste it properly.



Any comments on the changes welcome. Thanks for the help.

rogermein1

rogermein1

More fixes that should make the lighting more natural and slight changes to the hair. Can anyone tell if the contrast in the image isn't too jarring anymore? Thanks.



rogermein1

LSheridan

The orange underneath her jaw, thanks to its brightness, kind of lifts her head off her body. She appears to be behind the armor, rather than in it.

slosh

This looks great so far! I think your iris are different sizes. The left iris, the green one, looks far larger than the blue one. I also think it would be further in towards the center of the face if she is looking in that direction.

Cibo

The highlight is not anymore but i think the edge is to hard, follow the edge and at the right side its looks very round and used.

By coordinates 300 /1000 the shadow is in my opinion to dark for such an exposed position.

By 350 / 970 why is the stripe so much brigther than the dark area below, i mean its one plane with the same orientation. The transient is very harsh.

By 150 / 940 the edge is really sharp to but a sideview from the left shoulder shows a round form.

In my opinion by 150 / 940 must be the darkest area and to the north and south is must become brigther. The south a little brighter than the nord because of the light angle from above.

rogermein1

Hi guys

Thanks for the feedback!

@ProjectEagleeye and @slosh
I think I see what you're saying about the eyes being mismatched and looking at different directions. Will definitely fix that part. Thanks for the catch!

@LSheridan
Ah, I see what you mean. The glow from the embers is too bright which throws off her head depth. Will fix that.

@Cibo
I think I know what you mean by the edge. It was me attempting to put depth perception in to the image with bluring which may be skewed especially around the edges. I will need to check this.

Thanks for the comments on lighting with the coordinates. Really helps me pinpoint what you're referring to. I will need to re-evaluate these sections like you said.

Thanks again for the help guys (girls)! Really helpful tips.

rogermein1