Frank's Art Hangout - I'm back!

F87

Helloooo PA! It's been a while.

I've been slowly feeling better and better lately. Now I've started painting again and I'm sooo glad to be back. I spent the last couple days working on this:



I'm not too sure about the consistency of the lighting and I know it needs a bit more work / cleanup. Also the proportions could use some work. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

This one is a homage to my new bald self!



And bonus random sketch:



Back to my routine now, so I will be posting again!

ChicoBlue

Good to see you back at it!

Regarding your first image, I think that her head might be turned a little too far towards the audience for that position to be comfortable. Turning the torso might make it look a little more natural.

F87

Hey! There is a great reference I wish I had earlier. I'm so bad at finding those. Thanks Chico!

Edit: Updated the image, I gave it go and I think it looks a lot more natural! I will keep at it but I'm also going to start something new today.

Scosglen

The darks on these are pretty heavy. After lightening up the first piece in photoshop a bit and seeing that there is actually some detail in those blacks, I am wondering if you might be working on a monitor with the brightness cranked super high or something. Could be my end but my desktop and macbook are both reading that way.

Speaking more on the first piece, the color palette is somewhat muddy overall. She almost looks like she's been working in soot all day. I find from experience this tends to happen when the flesh is not painted fleshy enough-- that is, not enough reds and oranges, and a lack of hue variation in general. This is particularly noticeable on the face but even the shadowed flesh could easily have some (cool) colors incorporated to help spice up the palette.

The anatomy on the outer contour of her lower back doesn't seem quite right. Her pelvis leading into the lower back seems out of perspective with the upper torso / shoulder line.

F87

Yay Scos! Thank you very much my friend!

I can't figure out how to make sure my monitor is super dark or super bright... and you are right about the skin / anatomy.

I really appreciate the critique! I will try my best to fix her up today.

NightDragon

I've always used this site to check my monitor calibration. It's pretty thorough, and lets you know of problems you didn't even know a monitor could have! :P

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

As a note, if you have a non-IPS monitor, your viewing angle may be contributing to the problem. There are also a few tests on that site that let you know how much of an issue that is, too.