[TheNeverman]

Came here asking for help on doing realistic skin texture... guess no one can see past the 'outlines'.

n8

[edible snowman]

I'm pretty sure painting this way won't make you any better, but you can do what you want.

[Simoom]

just curious, why's that?

[Max]

Hey, I was on your site. Nice work I have to say. The surrealistic ones are great!!!

[gezstar]

[Dekard]

Was wondering if it was implied it was a traced image then blurred to start painting. Not sure if it's the case but could be what was implied? No? Nice start if shadow and all is legit.. Seems you're right on..

[TheNeverman]

Eddible Snowman: You seem to have no problem expressing your opinion... But how bout some constructive criticism? That's why this piece is here afterall...

Gezstar, yes, very, very blotchy looking. This is how most of my pieces begin. I draw a rough outline (sometimes in paper, sometimes on computer)of the subject and fill it with colors defining rough shape and tone - continually refining it over and over. I 'do' use photo references most of the time. I'm not yet to the point where I can draw straight from memory.

Dekard, I understand you point of view. A 'paint-over' as you describe would totally defeat the purpose of me posting this piece here though... I'm curious of the workflow the general population use in doing portraits. I've been a 'line-drawer' for most of my life - and it's very evident in my Angelina Jolie piece for those who've visited my website. I think I've progressed a reasonable amount since her pic - but my work is still lacking something else I see over and over again in other peoples photoreal art - the texture of the skin... How do they do it???

Thank you for the kind words,
n8

[oDD]

i'm with MR snowman !
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[Drew]

Neverman, I'm not trying to bust your ass here, but snowman is right on.

>Dekard, I understand you point of view. A 'paint-over' as you describe >would totally defeat the purpose of me posting this piece here though...

Neverman, I think you've missed the point of what Deckard was saying. You're saying that you do not trace an image, then blur it before painting. However, according to the tutorial on your site, you trace an image, and then sample the colors from the original image to color it.

I'm assuming that in your tutorial when you said "Here I took a black background and created a new layer above it called 'outline' and drew a rough figure with a light blue color" what you meant to convey was that you traced the image. A quick check in photoshop shows that that is indeed what you did. And that's fine, if that's what you want to do.

But if you're serious about creating art you need to drop that technique immediately. It's not helping, and it's not producing quality work. Don't trace, and don't sample the colors. Post your work here for critques. Study anatomy. Observe life. Watch what the pros in here do.

Good luck.

[gezstar]

apologies edible snowman - didn't really realise you were talking about tracing, which is a topic i'm not even going to start on... life is too short