Rachel

[StormrageJunior]

I was supposed to take a break from painting, but a few days ago I felt like painting some female portrait. So here it is. It took me about 8 hours, and all was done with PS7, using a wacom, without any references.
Painting steps : http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rachelpaintingsteps4zw.jpg
Thanks to my sister for finding a cheesy name for the title. XD

Thank you for watching.

http://img311.imageshack.us/img311/7583/rachelfini5wb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Zergaloth]

I think you shouldn't outline the nose and mouth like that. A mouth is connected to the skin around it, and it's not some paper lips pasted on a face.

Can't help you with the hair, but there's some room for improvement. Try a lot of different hairstyles and colors until you get them right. There's plenty of hair-tutorials on the net.

[Mr. Visions]

You've taken alot os good steps in this piece, but you can make it better. I agree with the previous comment about outling. You don't want to do that in a painting. Let your colors connect so your subjects parts are all together. This way features you've begun to develop like the nose are brought forward and pop. I would work with the skin tone just a tad. Add some reds and blues, there are more colors there than just your normal "flesh color."
The main things that stuck out to me are the eyes and hair.With the eyes, I would work with the structure. Remeber, eyes are round, not oval. Withe this said, your eye lids would take on a little more shape. With the hair, it's a good start, but look how light hits strands of hair. It won't outline the hair like you have here, instead, it will mold it. I would look a Vogue or InStyle magazine. Even though they are idealized light sources and so on, it with help lead you in the direction of where this piece needs to go. Keep up the good work on this one, It can turn into something beautiful.

- Visions

[StormrageJunior]

Thanks for the critiques :)

[melvin]

kind of has an early renaissance/botticelli feel to it. don't know if that was intentional or not though.

[rodrigo!]

i dont know much about structure but i feel that the skull is too large to be in proportion with the facial features, i think you should work on that for a bit. I spose you should just do a lot of studies from reference or life, you probably are, either way, i hope that helps.
also agree with the other critiques here, lot of good advice, hope you can take away something from it, were all here to learn :yayca: