HELP!: Persian Cat

[imzadione]

I'm new here, looking for criticism. Tear my stuff apart!

This was done in PS 7 with a tablet. Im going for a realistic effect, but i think i havent gotten that yet. Any suggestions?

http://studentweb.uwstout.edu/hagenda/artwork/shaji.jpg

Thanks.

[infinitipo]

I think the fur needs to look softer, especially around the edges. Also, there needs to be more shading on the fur near the back of the head and beneath the chin, though soft like I said. You should add some more highlights on the nose and eyes, and perhaps some pupils? Unless the light is incredibly bright, I don't think the pupils would disappear altogether;)

A little detail about softening up the fur: I think some of the areas on the body are too sharply textured, if you're going for realistic; you could try blurring/smudging bits or going over it with a finer brush, then shading it as I mentioned above. And maybe you could better define the ears?

Looks good, though. I have around seven/eight cats (four we own, the others just live here):rolleyes:

[nikia]

Your nose and mouth are too short, or too close in to the eyes. If you make the nose longer and bigger, then put the mouth in, it should look about right. I think everything else is okay. Love the eyes and ears, you did a good job on them. The eyes would look exactly like that in bright light, but as Infinitipo says in normal light they would be darker.

[imzadione]

thanks for the feedback guys. I think you're totally right about the softness factor. and defining the ears a bit more. as for the proportions of the face, well, Im going off a reference photo (which some people would say is cheating, but whatever....) and everything is in the exact place it was on the photo, i basically traced an outline of the photo and put it on the top layer and worked under it, removing it when i was done. I'll try to do some more work on it and post it when i am done.

Thanks for the feedback, it was helpful. this is my first time posting, i will have to do it more often!

[Patton Art]

this is pretty sweet mayn.

i think that you need to tone down the white in the fur a bit. the light would have to be very intense and very close to the cat for the fur to be that bright. In Ted Seth Jacobs book "light for the artist", he talks about how a light becomes less intense the further it gets from the light source. Look at a lamp and place it on the ground or next to the wall, and take a look at it. You'll notice the light dims down after 20 feet or so (really, it totally depends on how intense the light is). So, let's say you have something next to the light, the brightest highlight might be a 1 on the "value scale"; but 20 feet away the brightest highlight will only be a 3 or 4 on the "value scale".
I'm guessing that you used flash photography, but in reality, you don't percieve anything like flash photography (unless you have a bright light on your forehead). Soooo, yeah, tone down the white there, even though the photograph probably looks pretty bright white.
You could put grays on there to help model forms, and then leave the intense white for highlights. That could work good.

[imzadione]

Heres an updated version. I tryed to blur out some of the fur, especially the edges, so it would look softer. I also added to the eyes, and nose. Theres some shadow under the chin/mouth too. Did this help? Did it not? Let me know.

http://studentweb.uwstout.edu/hagenda/artwork/shaji2.jpg

thanks

[fever_tr]

I think its nose should look more wet and there is something with the shadow under the chinbut I dont know what :)

[dcorc]

I think it's looking pretty good. Persians do tend to be very flat-faced, just like that. With regard to the eyes, this cat has wide open pupils, probably because the reference photo was taken by flash and the cat didn't have time for the pupils to contract down to the vertical slit-like conformation which people think of as "cat's-eyes" - the green areas are the irises, and the blue-grey areas are the pupils, with some light reflex from the pigmentation of the tapetum at the back of the eye - in cats this gives a blueish light reflex, rather than the red/orange one (of "flash red-eye") seen in humans which is due to the orange colour of the light-bleached rhodopsin of the retina (as we don't have a tapetum!). Flash photography would also explain the rather flat frontal lighting which your reference photos presumably has, assuming that your painting reproduces it fairly accurately

[madster]

Nikia was incorrect in directing you to lengthen the nose. As a breeder of persians, trust me, the first version looked waaay better than the strange second one.

Your first piece was fine. It's major shortcoming was you did not represent the "depth" to the undercoat of fur that persians have. It's that fluffy, downy undercoat that makes them look so fluffy and silky at the same time.

Fastest solution (Only if your black background is separate from the cat image on it) would be to sandwich an undergoat layer of a muted gray in the rough shape of the cat between the two.

Also, the perspective of the front of the nose is too low for a persian. The "scrunched up" effect is what is so carefully bred into them, and is a determination of quality of breed.

Actuallyl, you should stop reworking what you had, and instead start again from scratch. Each piece you do will improve your skills far more than second guessing and reworking a piece does, plus you retain all works to see your own progress and areas of improvement as you improve.

Since you're working with PS7, use your reference pic as a reduced opacity layer above your active layer to ensure better placement.

Imagine if sketchbooks only contained corrected versions of renderings!

[Elwell]

Originally posted by madster

Actually, you should stop reworking what you had, and instead start again from scratch. Each piece you do will improve your skills far more than second guessing and reworking a piece does, plus you retain all works to see your own progress and areas of improvement as you improve.


Just wanted to pull this out for emphasis.

[madster]

Thank you Elwell, but PLEASE, correct my "not-paying-attention) typo in spelling "Actually"... Thanks!

[Elwell]

Done.

[imzadione]

Thanks for the input guys! I never knew that Persians were that specifically bred. Your comments helped a lot. thanks again!