[L99Relm]

I'm back again with a picture too -and this time it's a dude in blue Er...anyway, I (for some reason or another) decided to draw a snowy scene and here it be. I'm pretty proud of this one because I didn't use a single picture for reference (mostly because I couldn't find one for the snow or guy). The snow was a pain in the bowser-booty to draw...and I'm still not sure if it looks very realistic. Well, please tell me what you think and what you would do to improve this. Thanks ^_^

[CapnPyro]

neat surreal picture, its sort of apparent you didnt use a photo ref for the guy, he's lacking any real features to his face, and it has a really soft look. it's not necessarily a bad thing, because i dont know what you were shooting for with his look, it's obviously going to be nigh impossible to get a photo real look with no reference, hes sort of realistic cartoonish. his eyes have a neat glow to them. The moon looks a little bit weak.. other then that i like everything, neat surreal work on his face and jacket. Howd you manage the soft feathery look on his neck?

-Capn

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http://home1.gte.net/capnpyro

[chalker]

neat picture, I love the soft tones and the fluffy white collar is great..

like the overall picture, and it has got a surreal touch to it..

[nil900]

cool (hehe) pic. I would work on the color of the skin and the shadows. The shadows are not dark enough (take a look at the holes of the nose) in my opinion.

[shahar2k]

wow, great style in here, but I'll do the crit thing and tell you that the shading on the shirt causes the picture to flatten out a bit... (mostly the non face areas , they look just flat) try eccentuating the shading? I'm not sure how to unflatten it really...

[L99Relm]

Thanks to all that have taken the time to respond. Would anyone else care to comment? I'm still wondering if the snow looks decent...I keep getting the comments that my work is surrealistic/cartoonish (not something I was aiming for), so my question is how would you fix it to make it look more realistic? CapnPyro, I did the fuzzy stuff around his neck by using the smudge tool set on one of the more strangely shaped custom brushed that came with Photoshop (the one right under the smaller of the two stars, at about 90% pressure)...

[]Aratex[]

Woah... Nice pic.. I have to agree with everyone else that it has a cool surreal feel to it... My main concern is that the guy's face/head seems a bit wide.. Perhaps that's part of your style, but it looks a bit odd..

Since you asked about the snow, it does look OK like it is... My suggestion, though, would be to do the same effect with a six-pointed star instead of a circle.. I think that would make it more realistic. I know that it made a big difference in the piece I'm working on now...

[eetu]

hola.

as the others, i think the main problem in getting this to look more realistic is lighting.
your lighting is perhaps a bit too uniform and doesn't have enough contrast.
to try and get more 'dimensionality', think how much light would reach a given place.. e.g. under his collar, the furter 'in' you go, the darker it should get.

having a more defined direction for incoming light could help..

also some of the features (e.g. the eyes) betray that this wasn't done with reference. they seem to be a bit like 'idealised versions' of eyes - your mental image of 'how an eye looks' rather than just thinking about the slabs of meat that actually make that portion of the face.
well who am i to say, i couldn't draw anything like that without a reference.

hmm i put together a fast and real dirty version to show some of the points..
it's definitely a bit ugly but maybe you get something from it..
(i ain't too sure 'bout the snow, well, we'll get our's soon enough..:)



i'm not saying it's bad as it is, it's really quite beautiful already, but you were asking..

another thing tha could fit a pic like this is ye olde softening trick (or lens diffusion or whatever you wish to call it):
copy your image to another layer, gaussianblur a few pixels, tweak levels/curves a bit to face out the darker parts, set layer to screen, a couple dozen percent layer opacity..
..play around

ps, i'd say circles are more realistic than the six-pointed-stars, as you usually don't look at them close enough and you usually don't focus on them as the float around..

eetu.


[This message has been edited by eetu (edited October 31, 2000).]

[Dean Welsh]

I don't think they ALL have to be stars but maybe one or two close up rendered Flakes would just give it the touch it needs?

-Dean

[L99Relm]

It's taken me long enough (school crap takes too much of my time)...but I finally got a chance to mess with this pic some more. Not quite sure why I changed the chin. And I didn't really mess with the snow either. See anything else I should change?

PS Thanks much eetu, the version of this picture that you made really helped me =)

[TheMilkMan]

Wow..I thought that picture was cool to begin with then I seen L99 work and man I am impressed. It is amazing what you can do with a little light and shadow...good work guys...everone I mean!!!

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No im not your daddy I was off that day.....
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[eetu]

yeah looks good now :)

good thing you didn't touch the snow..

i still think the 'insides' of the collar could be darker :) ok ok i'll shut up now

glad to be of help,

eetu.

[L99Relm]

The one problem with making the insides of his collar darker is that, when I go to print this thing, that area already appears so dark that the line between the shoulder and collar of his coat is kinda hard to see. Any darker and it'll be just one big black ink blob...

[Jezebel]

Hola!

First off I wanted to say - love the fluffy stuff. It really looks like it's supposed to be very soft, like maribou feathers or rabbit fur.

The eyes on this guy are beautiful. They are very bright and stunning, I think they really stand out. The snow effect is neat as well

Really the only weird thing I see with this image are the lips. He almost looks as though he's wearing lipstick or something Maybe lose some of the highlight on his upper lip? I feel like the definition of the upper lip is what really gives it that lipstick look. Generally speaking when drawing a male face you want to leave the upper lip a little less defined specifically for that purpose.

I tried to find an image real quick to show you what I meant. Here's one from the mighty Boris.
http://www.borisjulie.com/details.cfm?Id=580

Hope this helps

-Beth

[shahar2k]

well I havn't seen the forum for a while (2 days is a LOT on here, I'm drudging through 4 pages of missed posts) I'd say your image improved quite a bit, I like what you did with the shirt, and I liked the chin before, it looked like his whole face was pointed up, as for the lips, well the best looking image is the second to last, to check the lips just draw a straight line from the Iris (hole) of the eye, down, and that's where the lips should start.

anyways, great improvement, you really have awesome controll on this pic, I can see a few things wrong with the perspective, like the ears looking too much like a sideview. but you've improved quite a bit

[eetu]

l99: actually the collar looks fine now, my laptop's gamma at home is weird :)

hmm inside of the should be darker, though

eetu.


[This message has been edited by eetu (edited November 06, 2000).]

[Impus]

Looks great! Getting better with every reincarnation....Just a suggestion use the full range of tones...Black->full bright. You've added a lot more darker shades which offer a contrast to the bright colours.


Don't be affraid to use black.

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Impus-Netus:
Whatever and ever Amen
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[YourMum]

Nice pic! I like the colors and feeling. I dig this one.

He's hair looks like Leonardo DiCaprio's one. Just came up my mind...

-Juha-