I've started on a portrait drawing of my girlfriend after doing a few basic drawing tutorials in flash, i would just like to get a bit of advice on the shading / colouring (i have just done a very basic fill) and most importantly any tips on drawing and / or colouring for hair. Hair has always been my downfall. any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Even a link to a useful tutorial would be pretty cool, i just want to see the diverse ways of which other artists here would use.
It looks fairly good. Flash really isn't the best program for portraits though. The outlines on the nose seem a bit odd how they seem to randomly break in places. Also it could perhaps look better if lines everywhere were the same width or closer in width.
It needs to be more detailed so adding more details, eye lashes, better eyes and more emphasized shading would be good. I often change the brush settings to paint selection when I shade.
The end of the hair looks bad. I suggest you sketch the end part of the hair with the brush tool on a different layer, using single strokes and try and get the outline/shape of the hair as a whole looking realistic. Then once it looks good either fill/colour in the hair to make it into one object and use the ink tool, or draw the outline over top of the sketch hair you've drawn.
Thanks cloud eater and homojesus,
I know the issue with the hair is terrible, i just put up the basics of basics, i will take all advice given and continue working on it when i get home from work. i'm not after a completely "real" looking portrait for the time being, more of a cartoony style, i have recently changed the line size of the outline to be the same as the inner lines on the face and ears, it doesn't look right. I will go about adding more detail, changing/ improving shape and smoothness of lines and try out the "paint" tool as you mentioned for the shading. Thanks again for the advice. i will carry on posting the image here as i go with it.
perhaps a picture of the model might be usefull to us..
World Famous Kasper Lundsfryd Illustrations
nilfisk
Allrighty.. Well first thing is that unless you want her and yourself to still be freinds after you show her this that you might wanna correct that nose. Right now it looks like she is on her way to a halloween party dressed as a oldschool witch. I think you should erase that part, wait a minute and start over.
World Famous Kasper Lundsfryd Illustrations
nilfisk
Hahaha, i know she has seen and already commented on that, i told her the truth, it is yet to be modified, it is just a basis. It is definitely on the agenda for change once i get home. Thanks for the advice. do you know of any tutorials or even images that contain hair that is not too real life detailed, but effective? some sort of reference that would be fairly easy to grasp and follow may help me.
Sure.. This onelooks like it may suit your picture..
World Famous Kasper Lundsfryd Illustrations
nilfisk
At 11/4/10 10:15 AM, Lundsfryd wrote: Sure.. This onelooks like it may suit your picture..
Thanks a lot dude
Hey I think you might want to try to look at shapes rather than lines; if you look at those references you posted, youll see that there are really no lines in there.
I did a quick, really crappy paintover to illustrate this. I didnt use any lines, instead you have areas of a certain color/brightness. Especially stuff like noses look a lot better this way. Of course you can use more or less different shades to get more detail/depth.
NEVER LOOSE FAITH IN MANCUNT
At 11/4/10 11:43 AM, J-qb wrote: Hey I think you might want to try to look at shapes rather than lines; if you look at those references you posted, youll see that there are really no lines in there.
I did a quick, really crappy paintover to illustrate this. I didnt use any lines, instead you have areas of a certain color/brightness. Especially stuff like noses look a lot better this way. Of course you can use more or less different shades to get more detail/depth.
that is very true, your example is very good proof too, i need to work a bit with colour as i find it a little bit diffcult to choose the correct shades especially when it comes to skin tone, i will try removing all of the outline and working from there, i will keep and work on later the outlined version to continue with a more cartoon style image, i.e Johnnyutah's artwork is a good example of what i mean. Thanks J-qb
Right, i used the setting one flash, i dont remember what it is called but it showed the lines of my line drawing in a different keyframe in green, i used this as a guideline and started again taking note of what was said, i scrapped the lines and used the brush tool. I'm awful with colour and i will work with it later but for now the colours used are not what i intend to have in the final product, i just want to practice this style, anywho. Here is what i managed in the short amount of time i had on the computer, any suggestions, criticism? as also mentiones by someone, i am leaving the hair until last and creating it in a new layer. maybe that was mentioned in a linked tut, i do not know :3 lol
At 11/4/10 05:28 PM, Toast-Tony wrote: Right, i used the setting one flash, i dont remember what it is called but it showed the lines of my line drawing in a different keyframe in green, i used this as a guideline and started again taking note of what was said.
Its already looking a lot better than it used to. You are going to want to eventually make the shapes a bit smoother, nice rounded shapes.
NEVER LOOSE FAITH IN MANCUNT
Thanks a lot, i'm pretty happy with it to be honest. I will get back to it tomorrow evening when i finish work again. so would i smooth and manipulate the shapes by using the black pointer tool the same as i did for the lines in the original? or do you have another, maybe more useful technique?
At 11/4/10 06:29 PM, Toast-Tony wrote: Thanks a lot, i'm pretty happy with it to be honest. I will get back to it tomorrow evening when i finish work again. so would i smooth and manipulate the shapes by using the black pointer tool the same as i did for the lines in the original? or do you have another, maybe more useful technique?
Black pointer tool? Try the paintbrush tool, it helps loads. You might also want to come up with your own colors as well...
At 11/4/10 06:29 PM, Toast-Tony wrote: so would i smooth and manipulate the shapes by using the black pointer tool the same as i did for the lines in the original? or do you have another, maybe more useful technique?
you could do that, but I personally prefer just using the brush.
NEVER LOOSE FAITH IN MANCUNT
Ok, i meant the default pointer so you can move and curve lines etc. ok, just smooth out the shapes with the brush :) Gotcha! i'll post results at the end of the night, depending if i feel i need a little more guidance. Thanks again everyone.
At 11/4/10 06:46 PM, DemocracyFTW wrote: Black pointer tool? Try the paintbrush tool, it helps loads. You might also want to come up with your own colors as well...
oops, forgot about this comment, yeh i do need to come up with my own colours, her skin definitely isnt that dark, i'm pretty bad with colour, it's quite a problem. All through school and college i never used colour in my art, this is a new start in a sense with both colour and flash itself. i have trouble finding a good fleshy tone in the colour pallette (i dont just mean the preselected colours)
I know if i choose a colour i can choose a darker / lighter shade of it with the scroll bar to the side of the colour pallette but this never seems good enough, the darker lighter tones of the colours i should use aren't within that spectrum in the bar, but elsewhere on the pallette. This is my fail and uncomfortable zone, i wish i paid more attention to this in school.
Alrighty then, tried to get a better colour for the skin, also smoothing it out a bit. made a new layer and just did a basic outline of the hair for now, still yet to add the darker shadows to the face, i feel uneasy sometimes with my decision for colour, if this looks right to you guys i'll get used to it, it's odd how i'm never happy with the colour. eyelashes / eyebrows i am going to find a tutorial for the next time i'm on the computer to make a start on them before the hair itself, i feel that will be my biggest challenge. So an update for now so you can put me back on path if i'm doing anything you feel could do with improvement / change.
I think maybe do some practice on paper, that way you can do it looking at her(real-life) and it's better practice, well I think.
At 11/6/10 05:15 PM, flashero wrote: I think maybe do some practice on paper, that way you can do it looking at her(real-life) and it's better practice, well I think.
although they are pretty decent, your just missing the likeness side of things.
Well using lines to draw faces is dangerous. Lines are usually very strict, they define corners pretty well but for something for an object that is very soft and has subtle bumps in it (e.g face) you should just use colours like some random dude in this thread said.
I finally got myself photoshop and am starting with that, same drawing though, i've looked at a few tutorials and i am following them as i go the same as before. i've got down the main skin colour and the mid tones, needs cleaning up a lot, i find photoshop very awkward, i guess i'll adjust to it. So here's my start for tonight :) any criticism, advice etc. as per usual? :)
Just an update, i need some tutorials with hair though.
