Art Discussion

[AquaAurion]

Agh, downloaded sculptris to play with. And it is fun! But very different! I'm trying to sculpt Reynir, and am in unknown territory. I like the nose. But that chin is a lot more forward than a chin should be. More may follow.

I think it looks good so far! I also started playing with it a few days ago.
If you want to move the chin back, take the move tool and select the whole area you want to move, then move it back carefully I had the same problem when I was working

Here's what I did

Spoiler: show

[Unlos]

I think it looks good so far! I also started playing with it a few days ago.
If you want to move the chin back, take the move tool and select the whole area you want to move, then move it back carefully I had the same problem when I was working

Here's what I did

Spoiler: show

Thank you, now I know to look for the move tool! And ooh, nice elf!

*EDIT*: THANK YOU for leading me to the move tool!!

[Unlos]

I think it looks good so far! I also started playing with it a few days ago.
If you want to move the chin back, take the move tool and select the whole area you want to move, then move it back carefully I had the same problem when I was working

Here's what I did

Spoiler: show

So I had time to fiddle some more with it today, and now the sculpt looks a lot more human, although not quite like Reynir. He has a very characteristic jawline that I'm having trouble with. But here it is now:

[AquaAurion]

Thank you, now I know to look for the move tool! And ooh, nice elf!

*EDIT*: THANK YOU for leading me to the move tool!!

The move tool is the tool I used the most and I'm rather impressed what you managed to do without it!

Thank you =3

So I had time to fiddle some more with it today, and now the sculpt looks a lot more human, although not quite like Reynir. He has a very characteristic jawline that I'm having trouble with. But here it is now:

Yes, much more human I think it will look more like Reynir when you do the hair

oh and a tip is to fix the ears before the hair!

[Fauna]

So I had time to fiddle some more with it today, and now the sculpt looks a lot more human, although not quite like Reynir. He has a very characteristic jawline that I'm having trouble with. But here it is now:

Looks nice! But pay attention to how the neck attaches to the skull and the jawline. It seems the figure is jutting the head way too much forward. In a pose like that, there's a rule of thumb. In profile, you should be able to place a ruler along the edge of the throat, which is a relatively straight line. The ruler should then run across the eye socket area. Here's a ref:

Spoiler: show

[AquaAurion]

Looks nice! But pay attention to how the neck attaches to the skull and the jawline. It seems the figure is jutting the head way too much forward. In a pose like that, there's a rule of thumb. In profile, you should be able to place a ruler along the edge of the throat, which is a relatively straight line. The ruler should then run across the eye socket area. Here's a ref:

Spoiler: show

I had no idea, thank you for adding it to the thread!
Seems like I made the neck too thick in my piece

[Unlos]

Looks nice! But pay attention to how the neck attaches to the skull and the jawline. It seems the figure is jutting the head way too much forward. In a pose like that, there's a rule of thumb. In profile, you should be able to place a ruler along the edge of the throat, which is a relatively straight line. The ruler should then run across the eye socket area. Here's a ref:

Spoiler: show

Thank you, good to know! (I love reference lines so will definitely add this to the collection.)
That neck is definitely attached too far back, yep.
My arms feel like they're made of lead right now so I think I may have to stop for today. Progress under the spoiler, and thank you for the help

Spoiler: show

[Sc0ut]

Seems like I made the neck too thick in my piece

Not necessarily. Men generally have thicker necks than women (the muscles on and around it influence this), and the model in Fauna's reference has an almost unusually thin and long neck imho.

[Cliodna]

Thank you, good to know! (I love reference lines so will definitely add this to the collection.)
That neck is definitely attached too far back, yep.
My arms feel like they're made of lead right now so I think I may have to stop for today. Progress under the spoiler, and thank you for the help

Spoiler: show

It seems to me from the final image that the back of his head is lower than his jawline. That's generally not the case in humans, though it's possible that it won't stay visible once you stick some Reynir-hair on it. It looks good, but I'm having trouble seeing the similarities between it and Reynir. =) Perhaps if you worked a bit further on the eyebrows?

Here's something I've been working on

Spoiler: show

It's meant to be a sort of companion/sequel to this picture, and depicts a few childhood scenes of a blind character of mine. I currently try to just...paint over it, as many times as it takes until I get it to look right but so far I haven't succeeded. One thing that I'm having especial trouble with is the lighting - I'm trying to go for this sort of warm, but really harsh direct summer light. The kind that comes through windows, lighting everything up, yet casting strong shadows.

[Unlos]

It seems to me from the final image that the back of his head is lower than his jawline. That's generally not the case in humans, though it's possible that it won't stay visible once you stick some Reynir-hair on it. It looks good, but I'm having trouble seeing the similarities between it and Reynir. =) Perhaps if you worked a bit further on the eyebrows?

Here's something I've been working on

Spoiler: show

It's meant to be a sort of companion/sequel to this picture, and depicts a few childhood scenes of a blind character of mine. I currently try to just...paint over it, as many times as it takes until I get it to look right but so far I haven't succeeded. One thing that I'm having especial trouble with is the lighting - I'm trying to go for this sort of warm, but really harsh direct summer light. The kind that comes through windows, lighting everything up, yet casting strong shadows.

The back of his head hadn't really received any attention, partly for the hair-reason and partly for being a boring place where not much happens pushed aside for later. But it's definitely something that needs to be fixed before it's done, so thank you! (Meanwhile I'm banging my head against the wall because all attempts at making hair have been horrible and then scrapped - the last one made this weird thousands of little triangles of geometry turning up like a mountainrange that just became worse when I tried to push it down. Even without that, the hair is just really too hard to make. I've gone back to working on a photoshop Reynir just to calm down a bit)

Those pictures are really sweet and emotional! The lighting could be a lot lighter on the highlight, I think. I looked through my folder of summer pictures and the highlight turn out almost white. Or yellow/red for low evening sun. The source of light in your picture is not clear to me. Does it come from the window/door with curtain behind the child? Or from the ladys right? I hope that helps some!

[Fauna]

Thank you, good to know! (I love reference lines so will definitely add this to the collection.)
That neck is definitely attached too far back, yep.
My arms feel like they're made of lead right now so I think I may have to stop for today. Progress under the spoiler, and thank you for the help

Spoiler: show

Better! But remember that the 'line' rule only applies to that specific pose, it is not universal. If the head moves, obviously the relationship between the eye socket and the neck is going to change as well.

Don't forget to check against a skull reference when doing realistic work like this. Notably, I recommend you to check the distance between the bottom of eye socket and the zygomatic arch, how the ear canal relates to the zygomatic arch, and the relationship between the canine teeth points and the corners of the chin when viewed from the front.

If you think of the teeth area as a 'cylinder' kind of shape, the canine teeth mark the furthest outward point, corners so to speak. The same is true even when you wrap skin and lips around the structure, so you need to get this distance right. At the moment, your chin is way too broad compared to the canine teeth, which generally doesn't happen in a healthy, normally developed skull.

[Cliodna]

The back of his head hadn't really received any attention, partly for the hair-reason and partly for being a boring place where not much happens pushed aside for later. But it's definitely something that needs to be fixed before it's done, so thank you! (Meanwhile I'm banging my head against the wall because all attempts at making hair have been horrible and then scrapped - the last one made this weird thousands of little triangles of geometry turning up like a mountainrange that just became worse when I tried to push it down. Even without that, the hair is just really too hard to make. I've gone back to working on a photoshop Reynir just to calm down a bit)

Those pictures are really sweet and emotional! The lighting could be a lot lighter on the highlight, I think. I looked through my folder of summer pictures and the highlight turn out almost white. Or yellow/red for low evening sun. The source of light in your picture is not clear to me. Does it come from the window/door with curtain behind the child? Or from the ladys right? I hope that helps some!

I was hoping to go for two sources of light - there's the window with the curtain behind the girl, and another, somewhat brighter, light-source to the right of the lady, off the canvas (an open door? An open window on the sunny side of the house?). Harsher lights might be something to try, yes. And the shadows might be made lighter as well, I guess, for the contrast feels rather overblown and artificial to me right now. If anything then it just reminds me of cold winter light at the moment, which might be explainable by the weather we've been having for the last four months. I've just...never really done light like this before and I really don't want to stop until I get the effect I desire.

[Fauna]

I was hoping to go for two sources of light - there's the window with the curtain behind the girl, and another, somewhat brighter, light-source to the right of the lady, off the canvas (an open door? An open window on the sunny side of the house?). Harsher lights might be something to try, yes. And the shadows might be made lighter as well, I guess, for the contrast feels rather overblown and artificial to me right now. If anything then it just reminds me of cold winter light at the moment, which might be explainable by the weather we've been having for the last four months. I've just...never really done light like this before and I really don't want to stop until I get the effect I desire.

It is a really sweet picture But remember that the sun is only directly shining from one direction on the sky. The light will not be equally strong from both the door and the window, especially as the window have curtains.

There is no real source of cold colors in this scene. Even direct sunlight will not cause blue highlights in black hair, for example. I would suggest you do something like this, to bring the color scheme together a bit more:

Spoiler: show

What i did was to simply layer a warmer color over your piece and erase shadows into it. Rule of thumb for natural daylight is warm light, cold shadows. Cold light like in your picture would work well to illustrate a winter or nighttime scene.

Over all, try working with a more limited palett. Your colors are all over the color wheel right now - you have strong blues, strong cold yellows and strong warm orange hues. Pick a dominant color (blue, orange, yellow, ect.) and work from that, making the others a bit less saturated, or perhaps a bit closer to it on the color wheel. For example, if you want to make the piece a bit warmer, you can easily bring the dark blues of the womans dress into the range of unsaturated purple, or even red, and it would still read as blue.

[Unlos]

Better! But remember that the 'line' rule only applies to that specific pose, it is not universal. If the head moves, obviously the relationship between the eye socket and the neck is going to change as well.

Don't forget to check against a skull reference when doing realistic work like this. Notably, I recommend you to check the distance between the bottom of eye socket and the zygomatic arch, how the ear canal relates to the zygomatic arch, and the relationship between the canine teeth points and the corners of the chin when viewed from the front.

If you think of the teeth area as a 'cylinder' kind of shape, the canine teeth mark the furthest outward point, corners so to speak. The same is true even when you wrap skin and lips around the structure, so you need to get this distance right. At the moment, your chin is way too broad compared to the canine teeth, which generally doesn't happen in a healthy, normally developed skull.

Thank you so much for taking time for this feedback, it is really helpful!

[Unlos]

Warning: Art rant:
I added hair, but had sculpted it in a different file because of symmetry, and it turned out remarkably hard to modify.  I have placed the hair wayy to low on his head, for starters. (His scalp is showing through at the top, now that I look at it) And scultpting the hair tended to crash the program constantly because it got just a little too much detail in it, I think. And then I tried to paint a very unfinished version just too see what painting in sculptris was like, and it is the uncanniest valleyland. There are, to be fair, a lot of things about this that I like but there are plenty of stuff that is killing me!
*Shoves head in pillow, rageplaces project on shelf for now. Goes back to photoshop to calm myself down*
But here are some more progress shots, for you lovely people who's been helping me, and a colored version that has been deleted for being so very very wrong (the wrongness came through a lot more on the big version). 

Spoiler: What has had me occupied for a while • show