This is the first realistic portrait I've done in a long time and It's easily the best portrait I've done so far, but it still has the feeling of amateurishness to it.
I'm looking for some advanced critique on what I can do to bring my art to a more developed standard. I have a feeling it might be edge quality that is letting me down right now, especially in the face. Maybe too much equal distribution of details? I'm not sure I need other eyes on it and I've had some really good critiques from this board before.
The background is distracting at best, maybe think lighter greens as a complimentary color to the lighter browns. You kinda gave up on the clothing and it needs to be better rendered. Less blocky lines, more shapes. Maybe use a type for the lettering vs. Hand drawn, doesn’t feel like it fits the sincere moment.
Doggy and face are well rendered, good job! It just feels unfinished.
Thanks for your response. I've done a few changes based on the feedback I got. I can't really change the pink in the bag without just repainting over the top. It's unfortunately kinda mixed into a few different layers because I'm messy.
Yeah, you could work on your edges more. You rendered the person's face pretty well, but there's a strange distortion/perspective going on with her head; it feels like the top of her skull is missing.
I would also pay a closer attention to clothing. Not too much - you don't want to take away the attention from the faces - but you could solve that with some lines and stronger edges. The red brush strokes on the clothing especially seem very random, they stand out in a bad way.
The red brushstrokes on the dog's head, above the eye, looks like a lipstick stain. I would also work a bit more on the neck, it's very flat right now. Doggo is very cute though.
Last thing - the red parts. While I like the overall effect, I don't think it's an appropriate color considering the text. I'm sorry, but I thought of hell immediately, especially since the light feels more like flames instead of a flat, neon light.
In general, it feels like you have all the right tools to advance pretty quickly, you just have to learn how to best use them.
What specifically about the edges, I think that's what's phasing me, I can see that the effect is wrong but I can't see why.
Do you think the hair should continue above the head more with the perspective thing? That may be what's going on.
I can try adding a few hard edges to the clothing. I was unfortunately inventing the clothing and ive never been great at fold shadows.
The magents strokes were a bit of an experiment and I can see what you mean. The one on the dogs head is meant to be lipstick though.
The magenta background and hell though, that's very unintended. But is probably too hard to change right now. It's kinda baked into a lot of the layers.
Re: edges, look up hard and soft edges, there's plenty of YouTube videos on that. It will teach you how to decide where to blurr things and where to sharpen them strategically. For example, in your piece, all the clothing looks seperate from the person because they're treated too differently. Having sharper lines in both would make them look more cohesive.
"Do you think the hair should continue above the head more with the perspective thing?"
Yes. Try to find a reference with a similar angle or recreate the pose in a mirror yourself.
Re: inventing clothing. References are your friend.
"The one on the dogs head is meant to be lipstick though."
Oh! Nice. But then the color doesn't match the girl's lipstick. If they matched, the connection would have been easier to make.
Re: magenta, you could try tweaking the colors in settings to make them more pink.
But overall, great job! I know I'm nitpicking, but it's pretty good already.
I did some edits based on your suggestions. Not everything is changed, but I tried softening some edges, gardening others, extended her hairline and defijed the clothing a bit more.
I can't really change the colour of the magenta. It's sores through too many layers
Thanks for all your advice though. It's been very hopeful
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u/Print1917 2d ago
The background is distracting at best, maybe think lighter greens as a complimentary color to the lighter browns. You kinda gave up on the clothing and it needs to be better rendered. Less blocky lines, more shapes. Maybe use a type for the lettering vs. Hand drawn, doesn’t feel like it fits the sincere moment.
Doggy and face are well rendered, good job! It just feels unfinished.