Portrait study
3yr
Nathan Hayley
This is a digital painting I created as a portrait study; as a hobbyist with no formal training, any feedback would be appreciated! In particular, something seems off the more I zoom out, but I can't put my finger on it when I zoom back in. Original photo attached for reference. (The original photographer is "c_byn", and the model is Olga Alberti)
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Nick Lyre
3/4 rule - cut the part of the canvas that is "dedicated" to the background, it only distracts attantion from the portrait. make it so the portrait fills +- 3/4 of the whole canvas.
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Nathan Hayley
Thanks eleftheria, I wasn't aware of that convention!
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Gabriel Kahn
Hey there! Great work! It's only my opinion but I feel like you are taking a way too realistic approach, which leads to a lot of airbrushing and messy values. It's not necessarily a problem, but maybe you should take a little more abstract approach. Try to break down the reference into shapes, instead of airbrushing everything together. @Sinix has several videos tackling this kind of issue, I think you should check him out! :) I'd really like to see some original work from you :) I hope I could help! Keep up the great work! :)
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Nathan Hayley
Thanks Gabriel, I agree with you that I need to work on developing a more economical, painterly approach. I'll check out the Sinix videos you mentioned, thanks for the tip!
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Jared DiPietro
Hey Nathan, like the others have said, this is fantastic work! You've definitely gotten the likeness. I believe that the fact that you've got things so close is what's making it so difficult to see what's off. On my initial review, it seemed that the eyes may be a little large and/or slightly out of position. Particularly her right eye (on the left side of the image) My second observation was that something may be off with the angle/position of the nose bridge where it meets the eyebrows. As I mentioned though, it's so close so I wanted to be sure. I quickly popped it into infinite painter on my phone to do some one to one comparisons. One of the things I love about digital is how easy it makes it to compare your pieces to the originals with layers. In the first image I did a rough trace of the original photograph and fit your painting inside the head. You pretty much nailed the proportions of the overall skull so well done! Some of the things that stand out are that there is indeed something off with the eyes (and the irises) and nose bridge. Additionally I realized that the tip of the nose was a little off as well. Other things that could possibly be the culprit for it looking off are that the shoulder is lower, and the space from the edge of the arm to the seem has been shrunk. That last possibly major contributor is that the hair doesn't quite go high enough. There are a few other minor areas such as her left brow, her neck and the shape of shirt above where the scarf overlaps. I made a quick, rather messy adjusted image with the liquify tool, and included some side by sides for comparison. I may have missed some things but hopefully this helps you to nail down what was "off" about it. I've recently been grinding out head studies and they can be a real pain to get "perfect." Probably because we see them so often that we're very attuned to noticing when something is not quite right. Once again though, awesome job I can't stress this enough. It may seem like I listed a lot, but for every one of those there were ten that you crushed! Keep up the great work!
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Nathan Hayley
Jared, thanks for taking the time to do the overlay comp! I'm kicking myself for not thinking to do that, I guess I thought the issue was more related to a value problem (though that might still be true.) But, looking at the adjusted version you created as a thumbnail, I can see those adjustments you made do make a big difference correcting what felt "off" to me. Guess I need to go back to work on my "laying in" skills. Thanks again for the feedback!
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Johnathan
It might be your own perception that you think something is off, but the likeness is spot on and the shadows of the face look well valued. The only thing I can think of is the coat is not as rendered as the photo, and also the photo has a dark gradient of the left edge.
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Nathan Hayley
Thanks for the kind words! Initially I had drawn the collar of the coat in higher detail, but chose to soften it so it would draw less attention from her face.
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Jedidiah Buagbe
I'm with Jonathan on this one! It's a well done study
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