[Incubus]

Hey! Its been quite a while since I last posted in here. This pic is about 1/2 year old, and when I did it, I was quite sure, that its finished, but now I feel like somethings missing. (Except for the background )
Since this a shadowrun-themed pic, I thought there should be some pretty dark shadows and some more defined highlights in it. But Im not too sure, where to place them.
Could anyone please give me a hint, where I should put the shadows so it looks a bit morer realistic?
http://www.geocities.com/icubus2001/girl.html

I dont really know why this geocities page-builder-thing is messing up the image-quality so badly... Hope you dont mind...

Thanx a lot!!!

[lalPOOO]

thats wicked, I love that style, the half cartoonish style. I can't really see anything bad, so I can't really give you crits.

[cptoonz]

Hi Incubus, I really like the drawing, her pose is good, and the SMG is done quite well...MAC-10, or some variant there of? Cool silencer Anyway, I would "backlight" her. That is, I would put the main light source behind her, and to the right...then maybe a secondary light source, like blue running lights in the floor, or something. Just my $.02 and worth what you paid for it

*edit: yes, the size dimensions in the html code are expanding the image beyond its actual rezolution size, that's why it looks "pixelly"...I would just check the dimensions of the image in PS, and then edit the html code on the geocities html page to reflect those dimensions...hope that makes sense *

[ July 23, 2002: Message edited by: cptoonz ]

[General Confusion]

some other things to consider are, what is the end use of this pic.. (this will also help you with future determinations) Don't look at the pic for only the obvious things like what kind of gun is she holding, what color is her hair, how big are her boobies... those things are obvious decisions to be made... but look at the pic completely

ask your self "How do I want to use it?" meaning is it for an illustration, a concept, a Marvel universe type output (where a simpe pose is all it needs) then this wil help with your lighting

see I have a point

if it's a concept, you're lighting wont be too dramatic,since it will probably be used as an inspirational image to lets say a 3-d modeler,etc, etc... and if that's the case then you could use portraiture lighting. A definite light source with a bounce light from whatevr the character is standing on or standing near (a very conservative lighting setup - but done this way so the ultimate ends that the mentioned 3-d modeler woudl need to be focused on, would be things like texture coloring, etc, etc, so when its modeled, they have a sort of inspiration to work off of)... you should always try to use 2 light sources to define the character properly... and then what you do is pretend a light is somewhere in the pic, and then you plot all the shads in the proper direction..

if it's an illustration, you can have fun with the lighting... be very dramatic with it, with heavy shads, etc, etc... but most importantly, figure on where the light radiates from then work all shads off of that center point... the shads don't automatically make it realistic.. everythign combined does that... shadows can lead a viewer to an emotion when seeign the pic, the realism comes from the PROPER USE of the shads, not from how they fall, is that clear, I hope to not make it worse for ya...

good luck with it

later

[Incubus]

@lalPOOO: Okay...Thanx!

@cptoonz: Running lights sound good to me. Hm...Backlighting... Never did something like that before. Worth a try! How does backlighting have an effect on contrast? Do I have to make the girl a bit darker, when I put a lightsource behind her?
The gun is actually an Ingram Smartgun from the Shadowrun RPG. I don�t have a clue if there is a real-life version of it.
About the pics dimensions and HTML... I guess I have tried that before, but it had no effect. But Im not at all used to that HTML-stuff, so I just might have missed something.

@General Confusion: Its supposed to be an illustration, so I want the lighting to be as dramatic, as it can be.

Thanx anyone! I guess Ill just give it try now.