self portrait (photoshop)

[Setherial]

ok here goes. I'm not particullary proud of this one but I'm taking my first steps towards digital painting and I figur I can keep lurking forever.
If this drags the level of art at this site down, just tell me and I'll practise for half a year longer and then post again :)

http://users.skynet.be/david.opdebeeck/temp/portrait2.jpg

here are also a few older drawings (pencil and paper)

http://users.skynet.be/david.opdebeeck/portraits/small/scan0001.jpg

http://users.skynet.be/david.opdebeeck/portraits/small/scan0002.jpg

http://users.skynet.be/david.opdebeeck/portraits/small/scan0005.jpg

http://users.skynet.be/david.opdebeeck/portraits/small/scan0004.jpg

cheers (all crits are welcome, good, bad, constructive, destructive ...)

David

[Forge]

man, first of all, everibody can post there is no selection here... your skills are good don't be ashamed see ya on concept art
forge.;)

[Ian Mack]

I love the expression in the second one!

I can tell you're missing a few colours in your digital painting but I'm not a painter so i can't tell you which. But there are several threads on here where you could see progress's.

and hey, we all gotta start somewhere.

[Setherial]

thanks guys

here's the one I made yesterday

http://users.skynet.be/david.opdebeeck/trashcan/portrait3.jpg


David

[brandy]

Okay, you might want to take my words with a grain of salt, check out my homepage (but the more recent side of it) to decide whether to believe me, but..

I really really like your work, it's certainly better than mine, but (in the sketches) you seem to be getting a little lost in the detail of areas, rather than looking at how the form of a small area contributes to the whole scene.. particularly with scan0004.jpg ..
if you thinking about building a scene rather than catching the details in it then you'll really get somewhere with those sketches..

and in the digital paintings: I agree with otherside about missing a few colours.. if you look at some masters' works, and at real faces, you'll notice that there's a lot of cooler colours where the skin gets thinner on the face.. just look on www.artrevival.com (I think, someone tell me if I'm wrong) to find some masters' works if you can't see any in real life..

you look like you're losing a lot of definition by using softer brushes in these pics too.. if you use harder brushes, and only smooth gradients that need to be smoothed, then they'd come out way nicer than they do now..

Keep it going!

[Ni*]

Setherial, these are nice, they have alot of character to them. thats something i find very hard to get across, so well done. you should take a look at the Guest self portrait thread under androids SP of the day. Obviously look at androids work too, but do us a favour and look at it after ours, it makes ours seem better :-p

Good advice Brandy, mind if i steal it for my own gain? :)

cheers

N

[Setherial]

Thanks brandy, I totally agree with you about loosing myself in details without keeping the rest in mind. It's something I really have to resist.
For my next attempt Ill try hard brushes and a minimum of smoothing. Would you advice a beginning painter (I've done a lot of charcoal drawings but never really painted) to work with very transparent brushes or rather the oposite. And should I use the pressure of the wacom to alter opacity or stick to fixed values ?
In fact do you think I should use the pressure sensitivity for anything (like width or opacity) or not ?

cheers

David

NI* : I didn't know there was a guest portrait thread, LOL, I will certainly check it and participate as it is absolutly my thing. And ofcourse I follow Androids work, he rules !