Teeth

[Téa_Passer]

Okay, I got a problem that I must solve, with help or on my own.

I got everything good in this one project I'm working on. But the problem is I can't get the teeth right. I've never been good at teeth, and the worst thing is that the reference photo is not sharp enough. Any ideas/advices on how to draw nice teeth? They must match the reference, but I can't get them even to look like teeth, much less the reference's teeth.

Thanks to anyone who lends a hand! (or thought)

Sorry if it's in the wrong section.

[Raceme]

It would reeeeeeeeeeeally be helpful to post pics of what you're talking about. Even if you take em with a cell phone. Hard to read your mind from this far away.

[Téa_Passer]

I think I figured it out somehow, but see for yourself:

http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/ss186/tpasser/teeth.jpg

I'm gonna fix the lips later.

[tandy1000]

It looks as if there is a larger halftone on the edges of the shadow underneath the nose. I can't say for sure since the image is cropped and it's low quality. If I saw the full reference maybe I can give you a better judgment.

As for the teeth, they look fine. Preferably I wouldn't have accentuated them as much as you did but that's just biased opinion.

[Téa_Passer]

those are my first teeth, man. I don't even know how to not accentuate them. That would actually be my preference also, but I spent too much time on them already, and I don't want to redo them. Though for future I'd like to learn this, if anyone knows a neat trick or something.

[Samuel Gray]

There are no shortcuts. If they are your first teeth then you are on the right track, but don't think you spend too much time on anything. Just keep practicing.

[tandy1000]

Yeah, as Sam said just keep doing them. I didn't know it was your first set of teeth, you said it was for a project so I figured I'd input how I'd do them, sorry if it came out to sound critical.

[Meloncov]

I'm not sure if it's your problem or not, but it's very easy to paint teeth in a higher value than the actually are. Under most light, teeth will be darker than flesh highlights.

[Téa_Passer]

thank you all very much for helping out! sorry for being so demanding.

There are no shortcuts. If they are your first teeth then you are on the right track, but don't think you spend too much time on anything. Just keep practicing.

ah thanks for the hard truth, I appreciate it :D I'm sorta in a rush with this painting, so I have to solve any problems on the go.

Yeah, as Sam said just keep doing them. I didn't know it was your first set of teeth, you said it was for a project so I figured I'd input how I'd do them, sorry if it came out to sound critical.

no no, you didn't sound critical at all, I'm just in time pressure.
And the shadow under the nose turned out darker, thanks for pointing that out.

I'm not sure if it's your problem or not, but it's very easy to paint teeth in a higher value than the actually are. Under most light, teeth will be darker than flesh highlights.

yeah they are considerably lighter and less yellow than the original photo. I tweaked the original's colors a bit to get things done faster.