WIP - Dead Peoples

[TechnoBabble042]

Alright, yes, it's only one dead person. But, still. She's dead. The Dead Peoples comment comes from a quote from the book that inspired this picture:

"You know what I realised today? Dead people are pretty. So very pretty."

Book's Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart. Go read it, it's frikin' amazing! The guy's such a wonderful author, and he gets the images across so vividly... but I digress. Picture!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/asutefalcon/deadpeople4.jpg

I've put about 7 hours into this, I'd estimate. Mainly because of my tablet problems, but I figured out how to get around those. Anyways, because this is my first digital painting that I'm -really- putting alot of effort into, I'd really, really love it if someone could just rip it to shreads with critizism, because I want to do this thing well. Really, really well. She -needs- to be pretty, or else the title dosn't work! =P I have more of an explanation for this, but I'll post in in the finished one. Oh, and btw - the background is going to be in color, to emphasize the -dead- part, and so that I don't have to do the bullet wounds on her chest. Plus, dead people are b/w in the book, so it's all good!

[Chяis]

she doesn't look dead, she still has a glare in her eyes dead people don't have that lively glare.

There eyes are flat and usually uninteresting.

and sorry but this is the wrong forum too.

[dogfood]

Well, I'm seeing this in the "Helpful Critiques" section, so if it started somewhere else, it found its way to one of the right places.

You really need to lay out the structure first and get all of your proportions down and make certain the anatomy works prior to putting in any detail (hair, highlights, glasses, etc.).
I hate to say this (with seven hours of investment), but I think you need to start over. Start with a non-white background (a medium grey would be fine), then block in the figure with large strokes, cutting away what you don't need by painting with the value of the background. Either that, or go the drawing method and sketch the figure in and then fill it. Use one medium value, then (still with a big brush), indicate shading with a darker value and the light side with a lighter value. Do this again with more intense values (start off with no more than 5). Once all the big blocks are in place, let your brush get a little smaller as you work in the detail, but try not to get too small too fast.

Also, don't draw the hair as individual strands, but as one big block, with the highlights giving the impresion it's made from different strands.

There are plenty of fantastic tutorials in the tutorial section.

Good luck.