really great. i think what i've struggled with most in digitally doing faces (so much so i've avoided doing them over pencil as much as possible) is the right level of contrast over the whole piece. its so tempting to do sharp highlights when all it does is overpower all the time and effort put into all the middle tones that make up the depth. you've done a great job at this and i think thats what stood out to me, very consistent tone. very soft pleasing color. since i dont know the subject material i can't say what looks right and what doesnt, but if i would spend extra attention anywhere, it would be noses. they're easy to overlook and underdevelop but subconsciously so important at bleeding out personality and pulling things together. the one here looks like it could possibly benefit from some sharper blacks present in its shadows/nostrils, like the ones along the crease of her eye, outline of the lip/jaw etc, just to match those other features. but the source picture very well could have been that soft so thats just nit-picking. its all very nice
Reviews for "Rachael"
Freaking awesome yo. Not much to criticize, but the neck seems a little flat to me(lack of variance in tone in that region I think). The nose where it flares out just before the nostrils is lacking definition on the left side. Her forehead seems too dark to me considering you can see sheen on her hair just above. Just minor stuff I had to really look to notice. Great job!
The key to skin tone (or any translucent material) is to add a saturated color to the transition between the shadow and the light part. When an object is very hard and has no light traveling through it, the shadow and the light are essentially the same color. When light enters into a translucent object, though, the light will travel into the shadow at different wavelengths and this creates a thin zone of bright color at the transition. It's called "subsurface scattering."
Look at the border of the shadow on this picture: http://goo.gl/mtsTv5
See how it looks like there's a red outline? You can actually do this very easily just by tracing around all the shadows in your picture with a bright red, then blurring it out and turning down the alpha until it looks nice. You can also add a bit more red to longer tapering shadows, simulating the light traveling through the skin at different wavelengths. This also works for marble, wax, milk, and any other material where light penetrates into the surface and bounces back out. Blue and green work well for marble, and yellow can be nice for wax. Just depends on the material.
I did a quick example on your painting here: http://imgur.com/w7MVhFU (If you don't mind me drawing over your art, haha. I like your painting how it is now, so this isn't necessary, just an example.)
Also, when painting strokes, if you follow the form of the face you don't have to spend much time blending later, since the texture of the brushstrokes enhances the form and doesn't have to be completely obliterated. You can also save time by forcing yourself not to use any (less than 90%) transparency in your brush until the picture is around 70-80% done. This chopped off huge amounts of time from my process.
This picture looks very nice to me though. The advice is just to help speed things up for you and get the look you want.
Wauw! I really like this piece. It might not be a real lifelike (photorealistic) portrait, but it is a very strong image and I do like the coloration! The subdued colors make it a very interesting, bit mysterious work of art.
Great art, i love the use of lights and how you can see a bit of red in the corners of the eye, just gives it that little bit more realism it needs. One question though, was this inspired by something(wondering that because of the discription)?
But i can gladly say, all work was worth it :D