Wip - Portrait Help

[shamus306]

Hello,

I haven't worked on this piece in a while because I'm currently stuck on getting the hair down. I'm fairly new to digital art, and I don't know a lot of traditional art theory either so I'm kind of lacking in techniques on how to paint in general. It took me quite a while to figure out how to paint decent skin, but I would really like to complete this portrait by adding some hair.

I'm open to any suggested techniques that would seem suitable for this picture. If it helps, I'm using wet gouache round brush on Painter 11 with an Intuos 4 tablet.

Thanks.

[jeeshwa123]

are you seriously asking for help? lol this looks pretty incredible. the only problem I see is the length of the lower lip, I think you should take a little off it. Otherwise, it's fantastic :)

[shamus306]

Haha yes, I seriously am looking for help. I have tried again and again and I can never get anywhere with it. I do agree, the lower lip is a bit messed.

Thank you for the comment

[Luxembourg]

At 4/4/10 05:30 PM, jeeshwa123 wrote: are you seriously asking for help? lol this looks pretty incredible. the only problem I see is the length of the lower lip, I think you should take a little off it. Otherwise, it's fantastic :)

Just because what he has now looks great (which it really does!) doesn't mean he's all-knowing of what to do with the piece. I've had a hard time knowing where to go with drawings plenty of times, so I can relate.

Before your question can be answered, I'd suggest you plan out the hair; where you want it to fall, what style it's in, color, length, and texture. I'm not much of a painter so much as a drawer, so I can't offer you much actual brushing advice, but it could be pretty helpful to throw another layer on there and use that to make a rough sketch of the outline of how you want the hair to look, then use that as a guideline when painting.
Layers and their flexibility are easily some of the best things about digital art. They're great for planning.

[shamus306]

I guess the sketch would've helped people know where I was going with this.

[ornery]

At 4/4/10 05:44 PM, shamus306 wrote: I guess the sketch would've helped people know where I was going with this.

You seem to actually have a pretty good idea of where its going. My suggestion is just put in the hair, put something there at least, then we can help tweak it. Its hard to offer tips on something that isnt there. Just start with something, don't worry how it looks at first. the great stuff about digital art is that there is history and undo buttons. if you don't like it the piece isn't ruined.

[shamus306]

Thank you all for your input so far. I will try working on it a bit more and see where I go with it. Then hopefully it'll be easier to critique and go from there.

[J-qb]

Id say the chin/bottom lip should be a bit more backwards... other than that; listen to ornery