Crits, Suggestions Please =)

[jessime]

Hello there everyone. I've been working on technique- hopefully this image shows some improvement over my previous posts.

Feedback, suggestions appreciated!

~J

[Brendan N]

I haven't seen your previous post but this one seems to be a good stab in the right direction - just stab further and you'll start hitting stuff.

Some things you might want to look at:
- Try to avoid soft edged brushes. Rather build up and refine with the hard edged one. The problem with the soft edged ones is most people stop before they're done in terms of strokes, and the forms never flow as they should. Using hard edged ones usually has one thinking more about the form and makes you appreciate it better. It also give more character to the painting and doesn't leave it bland.
- Unify lighting. I see a purple/violet environment, but her face and body is not lit accordingly. Remember to build your colours relative to each other. Skin tone isn't peach in EVERY environment, when a red light shines on it it becomes red, etc. It will also help with colour harmony, getting a certain colour scheme going that will unify your piece and take the collage effect away.
- Study anatomy. Especially make sure of your pose, which feels a tad stiff right now and not believable. If necessary, draw out the entire pose - balanced and all - and then crop your comp jst to make sure it's believable. Give extra attention to the anatomy of the face, it's automatically a focal point due to psychological weight. You also want to invest time into making the expression believable. It looks like she's smelling the flower in context but take the flower away and it's a girl with her eyes closed.
-Colour harmony. Repeat certain colours in your composition to create unity. The little yellow on the flower feel sort of awkward because it looks out of place rather than just creating a focal point. Repeat the same yellow, but with a darker value, in other areas (think it would work very well in her face) to create unity of the piece. sorry if this bit feels more like a rehash of what I said earlier.
-Study hair. I know it sounds silly, but you really need to invest time into looking at hair's dynamics, how it flows and falls over shoulders, and of course how light effects hair.

All in all I like this image, is going in the right direction. I especially like what's happening in the background - has me thinking of Tim Burton. Very cool. I suggest you start yourself a sketchbook - starting an sb on CA is the fastest free way I know of to improve your art.

Oh yeah, also check this out: http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
There are many thread on CA that'll teach you tons. Be sure to check out Idiot Apathy's Peer Project and Seedling's Concept Art 101 threads, very valuable info there, invaluable actually.
Keep painting, hope my post helped you out somewhere!
cheers!