An attempt at realism?

Post finished and unfinished work here for critique and appraisal.
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dandelions
Lily Was Here
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An attempt at realism?

Post by dandelions »

I intended this to be a fairly quick picture...and instead, began it in April and only just finished it now. Actually, it isn't really finished, not completely, but I want to move on :P I've been fiddling with tiny parts of this for longer than I intended (and at points have left it completely for a few weeks). It's very, very tempting, when painting digitally, to keep repainting things until they look "right"...but once you've changed them, you realise that the new version isn't quite right, either. And I'm still not painting big enough; this is resized down a fair way, granted, but I ought to be working at double the size of my original.

Anyway. Enough rambling :)

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Helmcargh
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Post by Helmcargh »

This is amazing! I love the colours you've used and the serene look on her face, and especially the way you drew the folds in the fabric. I can see why this took you so long to finish.
anzuronamin
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Post by anzuronamin »

Wait, why haven't I commented here yet?

Awesome work, Jazzy. Really. I can't even hope to sketch that, let alone paint. My favourite part is most definitely the ribbons. Such a nice flow...

Do you mind critiques? I know you said you wanted to move on from this... but I have a small one: the eyes a bit difficult to make out. I know they're shut, but they seem to blend in too much with the skin, especially around the lashes.

Keep painting! Keep painting!!!
danceu4ia
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Post by danceu4ia »

I really can't critique since dance, not paint, is my forte. :D

BUT...I really like it
Especially the curls, the shading is so gorgeous on them!

How long did the curls take you? What was the hardest part for you?
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Dachusand
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Post by Dachusand »

The face. The dress. Everything

You did an amazing job. Congrats, you should be proud. I like how you decided not to do a black outline. However I feel the picture could use more contrast. That would bring more depth and drama to the picture. Experiment with it.

Good job :D
Kidnemo
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Post by Kidnemo »

I love your art Jenna. It's interesting to see some realism from you, the swirly bits are fantastic.
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bonecrivain
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Post by bonecrivain »

I'm very impressed by her elbows.

I don't know why I focused on that part, but there's something very pleasing about them and about the curves of the arms. I suppose I often see artists falter over arms and hands, so it's lovely to see yours done so well.

Your soft colouring is beautiful, as always, and I like the swirly fabric. It's a gorgeous picture. It reminds me a bit of Mucha's art, for some reason...it's probably the hair, fabric, and subject matter.

Love it.
dandelions
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Post by dandelions »

I can cope with critiques, as long as they don't involve redrawing the arms!

Anz: you're right about the lashes, I honestly forgot how light they were. I may go back and edit that.

danceu4ia: about ten minutes, literally :P They went hideously, horribly wrong and looked like I'd dumped a haystack on her head, so I went off to Google for some reference pictures of curly hair. I found a tutorial by rebekahlynn, which showed me where I'd gone wrong (to share the wisdom, hair has to come from somewhere, it's not just prettily placed strands) and with that in mind, I basically redrew the curls completely a lot quicker than I normally could. They're simple to do- dark base colour, lighter thick brush to pick out a "loop" of hair, slightly thinner (but still fairly thick) brush to highlight the loop, thinner again to highlight that, then finally a normal circle brush to add a tiny dot of highlighting.

dachusand: I suspect you're right, it was just easier not to bother with contrasty stuff at the time and I'm lazy, hee.

bon: the elbows took a lot of work, hehe. The arms were the very first thing I painted (it went base shape, arms, hands, dress, hair, face, hair) and I really wanted them to look as much like what I was picturing as possible. By the time I got to the face and hair, I didn't care so much...And I love Mucha's art so that's a real compliment for me :)
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