wip - girl

this is part of a much, much, much bigger picture (several thousand pixels) that i only hope can be finished!! with no reference!! (this puts me in stress mode!)

the girl in the detail is in a room that is completely white. multidirectional light source yay, just to make it harder for myself. how to improve the shading?

Great job on this. It looks quite realistic.

To me it looks just like a baby. xD

Looks like a toddler to me (and I can see one pale streak going accross her face, ala raccoons, maybe darken that a tiny bit)?

I think it looks like an infant because the outline of the face isn't defined. Like an optical illusion, that face looks like its round--like a baby.

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See, you can't tell its a girl until you highlight the image to see the entire picture. I think that's where some shadowing can be done; right cheek and maybe right side of nose. Maybe the hair towards her forehead too.

thanks for all the feedback! really appreciate it. the girl is supposed to be a rough depiction of "innocence" - does that match the "baby" look you have been talking about?

did struggle with face shape, seemed to oscillate between "gaunt" and "circular" at times! seems i have erred on the side of circular!

thanks heaps butterfli - will try and work some of those in.


this was an old version of her face.

what i changed was the light source - tried to make it multidirectional "from everywhere" instead of "from above" as it is in the old version. so right side of cheek is a "ridge" that should be a highlight for a multidirectional light - would you say so?

in the new version i have made the bottom of her jaw dark because there is relatively "less light" there since her shoulder will go there.

maspan - which streak? raccoon? lol

I think the shading is an improvement over the "old version." The old version looks like it's a drawing of a porcelain doll... unless that's what you were going for.

I don't really see this highlight you're talking about on her cheek (but maybe that's because of the brightness/contrast on my monitor) but I get a kind of surreal feeling from the lighting. TBH I don't really have any suggestions on how to "improve" the lighting, because as always, I am envious of your talent (especially drawing noses... I hate noses.)

One question though: where is her ear? Is it going to be covered by hair or fabric?

thank you again throws

i also hated drawing noses until i looked up 5 different nose painting tutorials... haha

her ear will be covered by hair. a sneak peek of the #5 final version - not very final -

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 first draft

 second draft

- took butterfli/maspan/harrisonized's advice, changed her face shape
- rearranged some shading to give more depth to nose bridge
compared with before, she looks slightly like "ariel" now, lol (little mermaid) and slightly arabic. no idea why it turned out that way!

yeah i kind of smudged the ear, heh. if/when you see the whole thing, if/when its posted it up here (tinypic won't upload the full size because it's that big..), you will see the ear is an insignificant part of the picture. (that's my excuse, heh)

this is taking a very very long time. sigh!

I think the reason that she looks so like a baby (after seeing the "sneak peek") is that her eyes are a bit too large compared to her face. This gives her an infantile look. Also, there aren't any teeth in her smile...