Picture Myself

[AxFROWNYxFACE]

This is my first self portrait ever done. It was done off a picture, don't know if thats cheating or not but here it is.

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/190/6/5/A_self_Portraitt_by_Clarks_Creations.jpg


Any feedback is welcome as I defiantly need to get better. Besides the blending what else could be done to make this picture better?

[skMOP]

Good job on your first self portrait! It's a cool hurdle to get over.
Here's some advice that I think will help make it better:

-When doing self-portraits, it's usually better to do them from a mirror. It'll help you in the long run and also end up producing better results. It may seem harder than a picture at first but it's just so much more beneficial. The reason why is because when you're doing it from a photo, the camera has already "translated" the image for you.

-Try to expand on your values. Your skintones for example seem to be all mid to light tones. Try to add some darker values to it. You can work on this by doing some grayscale portraits.

-On the teeth, don't use black lines to separate each tooth. Look at your mouth, the space between your teeth isn't that dark.

-I also suggest you try to do one in pencil.

-The background is drawing too much attention, in my opinion. Sometimes a nice gradation of a color is enough for a background.(Paint it yourself! Don't use the gradient tool). Right now it kind of looks like a photoshop filter.

Sorry in advance if any of these sound too harsh, but I hope it helps. Keep posting more self portraits in this thread!

[AxFROWNYxFACE]

that defiantly wasn't too harsh, great tips! And I would do some in pencil but I have absolutely no skill when it comes to that lmao. I know it sounds weird but I just cant seem to get it right when it comes to the traditional medium. Today I plan on doing some art studies to improve a bit, mainly on eyes and hands and the figures themselves.
And you did indeed nail it the background is just the cloud filter in photoshop