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MalfaitIvy — A Warm Place
Published: 2005-08-12 02:56:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 807; Favourites: 15; Downloads: 38
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shut up, i'm allowed to paint him because i never have before. and i'm allowed to name it something cliche, too. ref: [link]or would kitty ears be better? i'm sure he'd be a big hit as a catboy. i dont feel very good today.
as with all my referenced paintings, critiques are encouraged. i want to improve. i am unhappy with the eye on the left, and slightly with his mouth, but i'm afraid to mess with it more.
edit: following some of 's advice, i adjusted some of the colors and added a bit more detail to certain shadows. i also flipped the painting and the reference and found a bajillion flaws, which i fixed best i could. i'm much happier with this now.
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Comments: 11
Instantly recognizable and gorgeous to boot... good job!
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this reminds me a lot of "oil wipe away drawings." where you lay down a tone and then remove the highlights. have you ever done anything like that? i think you miht do really well with it. anyway, this turned out very nicely, though that doesn't look like his chin really. maybe a bit sharp? i'm also no sure if i like the gradient on the left. i wish you'd included some more of his hair insead of havinng him sort of fade out
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about the gradient there; yeah, me too. the more i look at it the more i realize, it's a little sudden and throws it all off a bit. i'm still rather dissatisfied with the lower half of his face. i may go back over this again. i've actually never worked with oils, they intimidate me a bit 
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the bottom half of the face looks pretty good, i think, just a little stylized. don't be too hard on yourself. and don't be scared of oils! they're much more forgiving and intuitive than acrylics that's for sure! and i'd bet if you like doing this piece you would have a lot ot fun with a wipe away drawing. i really recomend you give it a try! it's mono-cromatic so it's fairly inexpensive and a lot less daunting
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I'm seeing the revised version, so I'm not seeing some of the things you were concerned about initially. I think you've done a fine job with this. If I had any complaint at all, it would be that something in the way you've arranged the mouth area causes an uncomfortable and sudden shift in perspective. By that I mean that if I examine only the lower lip, it is as perfectly prominent as it is in your reference photo. However, as I scan upwards along the mouth area, something causes the line of the upper lip and the area between mouth and nose to gain prominence, giving his face an almost cat-like structure (so maybe he would look good as a cat!
But feel free to ignore the above comments. When advanced critique is requested, I always try to offer something useful. That doesn't change my overall feeling that this is a very well done piece, and I like it a great deal. You've given what I see as a rather "dour" expression in your reference picture a warmth and self-comfort that I find refreshing and enjoyable.
Great work!
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yes, i agree there is something still slightly off with his mouth. it makes me crazy because it's the best part of the photo, i think, and i wanted to reproduce it faithfully here. if you'd like, i have this [link] in my scraps, it's (mostly, heh) the version before the edit. i greatly appreciate the critique! i still may attempt to adjust the parts you've mentioned, after i havent looked at this for a few days. (too bad i didn't save the psd of the edit, gah 
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Oh, wow! There's no question that the newer version is the better version. But looking at the two side-by-side, I almost see the fix to the mouth. Looking at the older version, part of the problem was that your highlights started too close to the left lower side of the nose. You fixed that, and that side of the mouth looks much better for it. However, in the first version, you had the left corner of the mouth perfect and then drew it out more in the newer version.
So, if you leave the shading as it is in the newer version, but put the left corner of the mouth back the way it was in the older version, and still weaken the shading on the right corner of the mouth, I think you'll have it!
Boy, aren't I a freakin' genius, considering I can't even come close to this kind of quality?
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With any painting, digital or not, I find its really good if you pick one or two aspects or one feature, and go all out on sharpness and detail. Something to counterpoint the smooth and ghostlike style you have, while not changing it altogether. Also, and this is just my opinion, monochrome works much better on drawings and things. For paintings 3 colours (or two pigmented ones, coupled with light and dark versions) gives a stronger look too. I hope I helped
-Ed
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thanks so much for the advice. i followed bits of yours, regarding detail (my reference photo is very small) i picked out a few favorite shadows and defined them further. i added two hopefully subtle different colors in certain places, and added a much darker version of my original base color in the shadows. then i shifted the whole thing a bit to make it a little warmer. thanks again for your tips, if only more people were willing to critique ;D i'm much happier with this now.
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Sublime! I'm so glad you found use for my tips. It looks really good
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