Not bad! You have some very nice face studies here! May I suggest that you are at a point where you might want to start considering the light a little more. For example, your latest female face is very evenly lit - she is essentially lit face-on with a diffuse white light. Considering the dark background this is an unusual light condition to have outside of a photo-studio. So consider experimenting with changing the light direction.

A nice way to experiment with light is to start with an even-lit face like you have and then create a medium-opacity Multiply-mode layer on top of it. On that layer, work not with black but with a darker hue of her skin (add a little blue to it for extra effect) in order to sketch out the fall of shadows. On a Normal-mode layer (again with a low opacity) you can then add highlights to surfaces facing your chosen light direction.

The good thing with using multiply/normal layers is that you can easily experiment without messing up the original face. you can also quickly try different lighting conditions to best bring out the face. Using light will also give you the chance to show off 3D features of the face that are not visible on an even-lit face, like the eyelids, cheeks and the length of the nose (the latter can of course also be shown by rotating the face, but this is a more complex affair and less easy to toy around with).

Just some suggestions, enjoy and keep training, good work so far!
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Griatch

Pat, Issabella, Erisian and Griatch, thank you so much for your constructive feedback, you have given me some great tips to work on

5 - our Jasmine...

Beautiful work!

Thankyou Erisian

RJKD: To my completely untrained eye you seem to have made a huge amount of progress in a very short time. Way to go - as they say!

Skinnyhouse, your encouragement helps and is appreciated

head 11, blue...

Well done RJKD

You work very precisely and you are developing character. Your Jesus struck me as a powerful image. One think I need to do is stop getting so absorbed in being "correct" that I forget to add atmosphere or feeling. I think daring to be bolder with light and shadow would add punch to your work but your knowledge of form is excellent.

This is a beautiful job of blending the skin RJKD I love the hair and lips too.

Thankyou sallyanne Erisian and molly. I agree Erisian, I fall for it every time - fear. It's my biggest mistake, being fearful of making mistakes. I so want to get away from the 'plastic' look and I've have great advice on this thread. I know we shouldn't really post religious things here, however the Christ head, for feeling, has been my personally most pleasing face.

Erisian - thanks very much for your tutorials, the outcome of which I have posted below. It is the first such tut I have attempted and I learnt a lot on the way through the two tuts. Doing it all with a mouse I also used a lot of arthritis cream on my wrist ...

It is obviously the start of a long journey but I now need to get a handle on hair!

Thanks again for your PM encouragement.

You can always take risks on a new layer if you like, until you are more comfortable. I found it is a good way to learn.


Careful with your wrist, OMG but you are going to get there. You have learned very fast and your use of colour is very good. Can I recommend using photo reference a lot when you start? When I was a child, I copied photos that I liked a lot. A lot of artists continue using reference and I should really! Also aim to simplify everything. Study cartoons and impressionism. My problem is that if I know something exists I have to paint it even if it damages the painting and I have to learn to step back and ask myself "Is this really needed?" Keep up the good work both of you!

OMG - had a go at overpainting yours. This is the result and I have also posted an xcf in the zip attachment that shows the steps I took. I hope it helps.

Erisian - thanks for that; I have had a quick look at your xcf file and the individual layers. Just shows I have a lot to learn. Still I've a few more years on me yet

Some more portraits...

It's really good to see how much you have progressed. You are working very precisely and I can see that those are portraits of real people. I think your next step should be to practice bringing in more contrast by using bolder shadows. What you might want to try is some casual sketching, concentrating only on the main shadows. Just something monochrome like an image that has had the threshold filter applied.

Great work!