Wwii... Spr

[dyoung]

This is a screenshot from Saving Private Ryan. Though I personally don't believe that the character looks like Tom Hanks, I decided to post it anyhow. Hope you all like it, and as always crits are welcome.
http://www.dmfy.com/images/Tom-Hanks2A.jpg

Cheers!
dyoung

[dusty imp]

You have a somewhat typical problem for someone who was learning by himself, namely you are afraid to use color.
Painter has to interpret what he sees.
Instead, you draw from what you know.
You know that the trees are green, so you paint them green.
But they have many more colors then that.
Same with everything else.
You use very few colors in it, resulting in a plain, washed-out looking image. That being said, your use of light is very good, and the facial expression looks good, although the face itself has a few minor mistakes (such as overly big eyes and alignment of pupils and retinas) Look at some works by famous painters and take note of their use of different colors. Here's an online sourse i can think of off hand, Craig Mullin'ssite (http://www.goodbrush.com/mainpage/index2.htm). Check out his digital gallery section.

[dyoung]

Yutani

Thanks a ton for the great crit. I do get nervous when it comes to using color. I am always afraid that I'll turn the image into mud. I looked at the site you recommended and understand why you recommended it to me. Craig Mullins surely is an excellent artist. Thanks for the advice!
dyoung

[Happy Camper]

Here, try this. http://www.epilogue.net/art/tech/socar_color/ Maybe you wont be so nervious about colour if you understand it better. Hope it helps, there's alot more to know about colour theory than just that, but it's a start.

[dyoung]

Happy Camper-

Thanks for the link... it was very helpful. I have been looking at books on Color Theory so that I may increase my understanding of it and found a book which was highly favored on Amazon. I was wondering if any of you had ever heard of it.

The Elements of Color
by Johannes Itten

It got a great review, and I thought I might buy it. Right now I am reading a book called

Color
by Paul Zelanski and Mary Pat Fisher

Thanks for the help!
dyoung

[Mighty Pea]

judging by name alone, i'd say the johannes itten book is well worth it's money, but i javen't read it myself.
run a google search on johannes itten though, and i think you will see he knows more than enough about the subject :)