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vest — Larz's Wife Colored VER2
Published: 2004-11-05 03:56:24 +0000 UTC; Views: 2007; Favourites: 6; Downloads: 452
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Original lineart: [link]
Second piece of his that I've colored. I wanted to go for a much darker color scheme, but use a very saturated shadow. Instead of going with the tone of a color, I wanted to complement the highlights and shadows with the warmth of the color instead of simply the difference between light and dark.
This is the first version. I don't want dumb two-word messages on this. I want some wholesome criticism. Tell me what works, what doesn't, and most importantly, what would. Comments appreciated. Criticism honored.
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Comments: 14
I like the general feel of the coloring, and the idea that you've used different colors on the shadowing and higlighting the skin. Although you want to use a color to shadow, it's always important to also work with the right values, and I think you're shadow could be a little darker. Or perhaps, more gradual, beginning as a bit softer thatn it is now, and working it's way towards a darker color. I feel the nails and the belly buttons need sharper highlights. I think you could have taken a little artistic liberties and dotten rid of the lines for muscles, and tried to nail them down with contrasted coloring and shadows instead. Also the clothes, especially along the breasts where there are lots of shapes, could use some shadows, noe you've mainly got highlights, but everything else is just the same color (or colors).
My biggest cause for complaining is the hair, though. Hair flows, and cartoon hair flows even more so, because it's simplified hair. Your hair has a rugged texture, especially enchanted by those random blue spots in there. Now I'm all out of energy, blah, that's what being sick does to people. Since I can't think of a way to tell you what you should do, I'll just aks: have you seen merekat's hair tutorial? Check it out, I loved it -> [link]
Ideas about hair baing chunks, flowing, having highlights and shadows... it's all over there.
I think you've improved since your last coloring though, you're definately getting more texture in there and depth too. Sorry if I was rough, I just hate being sick >_<. Maybe I could come up with some useful stuff if my brain was working right.
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This looks nice the way you've done it - I always find it difficult to colour somebody else's work, as you might not know where certain undrawn lines are intended to lie, if you know what I mwan; for example, there is no line drawn to define the muscle in some parts of the arms, neck and legs etc, so you're having to work mostly on guesswork and common sense.
What I like most about the way you coloured this is the blue-tinted shadows, rather than just making usual boring grey shadows. It sets her in her background more definitely, whereas if you had coloured using greyer tones or darker tones of the midtones, she would have looked somewhat superimposed - like on some TV programmes from way-back-when technology wasn't as good as it is now, and they would superimpose an actor on a landscape and you can tell just by the colours and the way the shadows work, that the actor isn't really there!
I like how detailed your shading and highlighting is - like I said, I'm impressed with the way you added definition of muscle and bone. I would like to see perhaps some more detail in the face. Look closely at her facial features, they look far too smooth to me; now if you look in the mirror at your own face you'll probably find that the shadows and lighting are a lot more detailed. The smooth features give her an overly smooth look which actually kind of reminds me of Odo [I think that's his name] from Star Trek DS9. Not sure if you're familiar with the series but I'm sure you understand what I mean. While the over-smoothness isn't hugely noticable, touching it up could really help!
Another thing that's bothering me a little about the face is that line of shading along her right cheek [viewer's left]. I think it's too close to the [our] right and should be moved across a little, so that its just a touch closer to her hair. Because the highlight is indicating that that particular line - the strongest bit of highlighting in the area, is the part of her cheek that protudes the furthest, and suggests a very slightly squashed look, as if she were pressing her face against an object or pulling a disgusted expression - which she isn't.
Also I think it would look nicer if you colour in white the parts of the eyes that should be white - the sort of whiteless style can look very nice on some pictures, but I think it generally looks better on images of characters with minimal shading as its more of a cartoony feature. The shading on this figure is quite detailed and so should be the actual coloured features, the base colours, if you want to keep it all consistant ;D
It would probably help to have the eyebrows a touch darker as well - most people have slightly darker eyebrows than their hair - the eyebrows here don't so much look darker as brighter. Maybe make them more of a brownish tone. Although, since this isn't your character [I think?] then perhaps its just a feature of the character. Something to think about though.
I think it might be nice to see some more intense shadows on her body. Incidentally, I attended a life drawing class about 2 hours ago and we had a spotlight on the model which threw sharp shadows across him and across the floor, shadows that would always have been there, but perhaps we mightn't have noticed them with a softer light. Some parts of the body will cast shadows onto other parts of the body - for example, our model, Charles, had some intense shadows falling across his neck and one arm where his head was in the way of the light. I can see that you have actually shaded in the areas where these shadows should fall, but the shapes are rather soft and faint. I think the shadows should be a little more detailed considering the intensity of the variation in colour - it looks like the light must be fairy bright, but small, as it's casting some very pale colours onto her body in areas, but isn't strong enough to fill the room with light - and there's quite a lot of contrast between the highlights and shading on the figure overall. Some slightly sharper shadows would help to make the shading [ie. the strength of the light] look more consistant; also, I think you should make these shadows - such as the one cast onto her thigh by her hand, and the one just beneath her top - noticably darker. They're very subtle at the moment, about as subtle as the shading that suggests at the muscles and bones in her body, and look at first glance like they could be indicating body shape rather than shadows cast onto the figure - for a second I thought she had a dent in her leg!
Where exactly is your light coming from? I know its coming from the top right of the frame but is it behind the character or in front? It looks to me, judging by the brightness of the highlights you've used, that its in front of her. therefore, maybe some of the areas that are further away from us should be darker - such as the lower legs which are just visible beyond her thighs, and the arm that's reaching back behind her body.
It's always very usefull to define your light source as exactly as you can - not just the positioning but also what kind of light it is - how large it is, the colour of the light and the brightness, etc etc. [actually, this only occurred to me for the first time today, during Life Drawing class, but it seems to make sense so far!]
I think the hair could do with some improvement - it looks okay but the colouring looks a little untidy and sloppy. Again, the shading looks soft - perhaps you should try making the details sharper - the shading on the skin is soft because skin itself is soft, whereas hair has more intense detail and texture than skin. Its nice that you've defined some of the individual strands - I think it would look even nicer if they were more consistant with the outlines. You see the outlines drawn in at the bottom of her hair and partially going up into her hair? Try shading along that line more obviously, and carrying on the line with your shading after the black line itself ends - the hair will look more lifelike as a result. At the moment it almost looks like more of a solid shape that is covered in fur or hair, rather than actual hair extending from the head.
I like where you've used shading and lighting to define where the parting is though - more of this sort of method on the rest of the hair is basically what I'm suggesting ;D
I like the shiny texture of her clothes - the colours all look nice and the smooth shading and lighting works well and suggests the smooth texture. Perhaps you could add a touch more shading around the clothing folds and creases for extra depth - although be careful not to overdo it!
Also, a little more shading under the breasts might work well - since her boobs ae so big, they would cast bigger shadows XD
And.. I think thats all I can think of to say! ;D Hope this is helpful to you!
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Oh yes, extremely helpful. One of my good friends who is also a deviant on this site, the one who isn't afraid to tell me when my work looks like absolute smut/drivel/fanart/crap (and I love him for it), says that the light logic on my work needs a lot of work.
It's good to know that you're fresh out of a class that did studies on light logic, and you have good points all around, all of which I am extremely grateful for. It's best to come into a critique with your mind still fresh from important principles of artwork. I've found that I slack in my critiques when I haven't done work in a long time. However, I find the quality of my critiques improve the more my mind is set in an artistic mode.
Excellent, fair points all around, and again, I'm most appreciative for the time you put into this critique. I definitely owe you big time for this, and thus far, the least I can do is to put some more work into this. Especially around the hair. I agree, that it looks just as soft as the skin though the tones should carry more significant contrast. Hair has been one of my more troubling parts, especially with a mouse. Looking at her hair makes me wish I had a Wacom tablet.
As for the light logic, I have also been trying to improve upon it. It wasn't until recently that in my own concept drawing class that I learned there was more than just shadow and highlight. There are so many elements to light, things that I'm still trying to get the hang of. For instance, there's the core shadow, and though one would think it's on the complete opposite end of the placement of the highlight, it's really the part closest to the middle tone. Then there's reflected light, light that bounces off the wall behind the character, so it would have a subtle "illumination" on the shadow. In a nutshell, it would go from the highlights extreme brightness, the middle tone, the darkest core shadow, then the gradual return to an ever so lighter tone from the reflected light. Managing to nail all four of these elements on one surface like this is admittedly difficult.
Again, thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this.
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I colour using a mouse ;D I have a tablet but I don't use it much because I suck with it and it tends to go wrong a lot >.<
Probably an irrelevant question: have you used a tablet before? o.o
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woo hoo a new version. the eyebrows look better..i think. im used to having both images to compare between. theyre bright though maybe a little too bright. the window looks good, ill give ya that, i was thinking a less illusionary BG wouldnt work as well. shes still really blue, i see now that thats the technique youre using rather than some freaky blue tinting, but its still blue tinting. can you saturate with something warmer? it would match her more and maybe level out her brighter hair
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The skin tone looks great. I like how you colored it; it makes it look realistic. But on the legs, it looks like you used too much blue. You also did a great coloring job on the hair, but it also looks too blue. I think her clothing is too shiny though. Also, her eyebrows don't seem as detailed as the hair does. And what about the background?? Is that a window?
Overall, you did a great job. If you're doing another bersion, I can't wait to see it!
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i think the BG is one of the great elements of the picture. im not drawn to it, but if i do take time to study it throws me back to the lady. her right thigh looks more frostbitten than shaded, i think thats just an overage of blue though, maybe a different shade there. im in agreement with the eyebrow comment, theyre like construction paper on top of oil pastels, the rest of her hair is excellent id love to know how you did that part. and lastly a minor thing, the left strap of..whatever top that is..looks disturbingly angular. not your lines i know, but it bothers me just the same.
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Wow, a real person with skin blemishes! Why is it that artists like to create people with Brooke Shields type complexions? I just love it when someone who looks like a real person appears in a drawing...
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WoW!!!!!!! hey man, like the camo-cloth aloot, guees that the other guy is true, the eyebrowns and the background needs alittle more time, but fuck it alike it, thanks for color me man,
thanks so much!!!!!!
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Redhead, nice. Very nice job on the angle by the way, I find that one a hard one to grasp.
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I like how you colored the skin in this one. It shows the reflected light off the sheets and background, as well as more skin itself. In fact, I think the skin and the camo clothing are the best parts of this picture. 
However, I think you could spend a little more time on the surface she's kneeling on. Is it fabric? Is it solid? Is it liquid covered? Show more about the environment she's in--it'll help set your mood a bit better, and tell the viewer what exactly you're going after. Also, I like what you did with her hair, but those eyebrows really would look loads better if you shaded them along with the hair.
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Good points all around. My most gracious thanks for taking the time. The background was pretty...haphazard. Probably no more than ten minutes of actual work. I just wanted something that would fit the, admittedly, akward looking shadow/highlight scheme on the girl. If you see her all by herself on a flat white background, she looks bruised and beaten with all the blues and purples used.
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That's why I felt your use of color reflections were particularly good here.
Just another five minutes on that background, and you'll probably be fine. 
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