i always seem to get stuck when putting in detail-need help

[sox]

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/582/screengrabkt4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


thats what iv done so far, i am just trying to do a bit of a study of this old guy i pulled off google to get an idea of how to do skin textures and wrinkles and such with light reflections. i do have a bigger copy of the image that matches the size of my sketch for better detail, that small one is just there for your refference.

i always seem to get stuck after blocking in colours. i can sketch in quite good detail, but when it comes to colour and colour blending, things seem to go a bit astray for me :(

any ideas as to where i should go from here with this drawing would be much apreciated.

[Seedling]

A couple of hints - always cover up that white space with a color more relevant to the image you are painting. If there's an element you want to leave out that is important to the image, then at least scribble it vaguely in, so that your audience doesn't wonder why the top of someone's head has been amputated.

You aren't ready for detail yet. And copying a photo isn't going to help you learn well. Try setting up a mirror and a light and painting yourself.

There's a link to "Concept Art 101" in my sig that may interest you.

[Trashy]

Hey there sox,

seedling has a good point about working against the white background. Sometimes it does help to maybe put a color in the background. It just usually helps the overall drawing. I think you got your light sourcing pretty good and the colors are good as well. Proportions are all in the right place also.

Mainly you just need to smooth everything out. Here is what I'm going to suggest to you.

First, finish sketching everything out including his hat. Once your done I think what you should do before fully committing yourself to this piece is maybe do a couple simple studies. Whether it is a circle or square and try blending two or three colors. I highly suggest taking a look at this thread on doing studies in Photoshop http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47859.

You will learn alot about blending there in Photoshop and might benefit by doing those studies as well.

You’re on the right track! Your values are pretty much there. Just work more on your line work. This is a very complicated image actually and will take some time to complete, but I think it will look pretty good when you’re done. Just take your time with it.