Viktoriya—Art School Journey

[WeirdOwl]

Did a head study as well as shading practice this time. I know the proportions have not turned out exactly perfect (haven't drawn by pencil-measuring technique in such a long time!), but I hope with practice it'll come back to me.
As always, critique, suggestions and recommendation are welcome.
Reference:

Drawing:

Reference:

Drawing:

[systemsoperator]

Nice portraits! It's great that you're going all-out and finishing these.

Maybe this post/video will help:
https://www.proko.com/top-5-shading-mistakes/

Also, I know Marc has said to start with a soft brush but I disagree a little bit — not completely, just about the type of softness. PS's standard soft brush is like an air brush, which can be difficult to get nice results with. A lot of beginner drawings have an overly-airbrushed look where forms get lost and look blurry. (Even in pencil, like this. Compare to this where they started with hard edges and blended, & another.)

A fuzzy brush can exacerbate that. Another way to soften a brush is to use one with hard edges (even a square brush) and use extremely low Flow. Like 1-3%. Try it!

Some more nice examples of blocked form to softening:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QzrLe3

—

EDIT: here we go! I think the section title is too harsh, but just happened to find a similar explanation from Proko (page-search for Self-Delusion): https://www.proko.com/top-7-digital-painting-mistakes/ — the two side-by-side portraits are a good example.

[WeirdOwl]

Ohh! I like this block out technique! Determined to try now. And yes, I agree, seems like all beginners' shading looks like airbrush everywhere. I'm really trying hard to get away from that.

[WeirdOwl]

Posting here my folds study. I will get back to it eventually trying to make my made-up folds better by observing different real-life samples.

[WeirdOwl]

So I went ahead and colored the character design I showed on Saturday while trying to implement the critique Marc gave me. Let me know what you think. Any critiques/recommendations are welcome.

[WeirdOwl]

Working on a new spin to the archivist character design. Any favorites?

[lip3chi]

Wow, really really cool ;D. I like the first and the fourth ones of the second image.

[WeirdOwl]

Thank you! I like the #4 hairstyle too, but do you think it feels more like a priestess than an archivist?

[lip3chi]

A bit of a mix I think xd

[Mimhesis]

Hi WeirdOwl,
I love your character design all off them look awesome!
But when I have to choose,I prefer the third (her hairstyle remind me of an historical person in the 14 century..I really don't know why )
She look very unique with her hair.
And I like the fourth,too.
Her hat looks so cool
She expresses wisdom and a kind of power with her hat.

Maybe if you change the height of the hat a little?
I know what you mean she look like a bit of a priestess, but I think it is either the height or the form.
I wish you luck!

[WeirdOwl]

Thank you @wum.laumann for sharing your preference! I agree, #3 is the most unique here. Maybe not the best choice for this concept, but I'll store this hairstyle for some other time
I do like #4 a lot too. Guess I'll cheat and see what Marc says during his critique.

[chiara.arcidiaco]

@WeirdOwl your character designs are awesome!! Also the way you colored the one seen last week at the stream is really great.

For the second one I like how you make her a bit sexier (I remember that you wanted to put it in your design from last Saturday) and the idea of the key is great. The only thing that, I don't know, it's a little bit strange is that her heels seems unstable, also because she is carrying a lot of weight with her.

But for the rest I like it!! Yes the forth one seems a bit more willowy and slender, but I like all of them Great job

[WeirdOwl]

Pretty much set on the flat colors and outline. Somewhat scared to start the shading on a complex character like this.

[cedricgo]

She looks awesome so far! I love all the nice details. I'm sorry in advice for saying what I'm about to say since you are already far into this drawing, but I think there's just some small anatomy issues, mostly with her right arm, which I believe might be too short. Also, the hand holding the key looks a bit starnge to me, but I'm not sure. I'm kind of rusty, so I apologize for the roughness of my paintover, but I think it should look more like this

But other than that, I don't really have anything else to say. That's a really cool design, I like the colors and the line work is pretty solid. It will be awesome once rendered. Keep it up

[WeirdOwl]

Thank you @cedricgo for a thorough review! I love this sort of constructive criticism that makes me double check my judgement. I believe we have a little misunderstanding on the base pose with you. I did make her proportions slightly exaggerated, so it might be a bit confusing.
Here are my construction lines:

I believe I will lower the right elbow just a bit, however the position of the wrist will not allow the arm to be going forward. Instead, it's pulled back a little.

[cedricgo]

Oh, I see. That makes a whole lot of sense. My bad then, haha.

So maybe the direction of the folds at the elbow would need a bit of modification to show that a bit better then. Because I feel like they go against the form a little bit. Something like this? Or maybe I'm just seeing problems where there are none

[WeirdOwl]

@cedricgo you have a very good point here. I will definitely incorporate the elbow folds during shading process. Thank you!
Btw, I did start doing character designs at first doing proper human proportions, but I soon found that once you put intricate armor on, they start looking super bulky. So now I'm experimenting with distortions that don't look too unbelievable.

[cedricgo]

Btw, I did start doing character designs at first doing proper human proportions, but I soon found that once you put intricate armor on, they start looking super bulky.

Oh yeah, I get that. I like the proportions you went with though. I think they work really well. The whole thing is really cool

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Viktoriya this is amazing!!! And I love how you modified her heels hahah
I think that at the final stage she will be a very gorgeous piece to include to your portfolio

[WeirdOwl]

Thank you for your never ending support @chiara.arcidiaco
Lets see if I butcher the background this time