A little bit of painting and a lot of not caring what you think.

This is one of those things where just putting yourself out there is 90% of the work

wait is it paint or is it photoshop?

Photoshop.

If you want the real business model, it's pretty simple. A) I have an advertising budget of $0. B) I communicate with all my potential customers personally, and build relationships with them. C) I quote high and then give 'discounts'. D) I have no overhead, because it's all digital. (Which unfortunately keeps a lot of older customers away. Also, there are the occasional people who ask me 'Is that done by hand, or by a computer?'. Some of these people never understand that ON a computer is different from BY a computer.) E) I stop before I think it's done and let the customer see it, so that I can fix any obvious flaws before I invest a lot of time in it. The customer is the one who knows the subject, not me, so often times there is some specific feature that they will concentrate on that I didn't. People also tend to like it much sooner than where I would stop if I was just painting it.

Incidentally, she replied, and has decided to go with the eyes closed.

C) sounds a little sketchy to me.

Well thats good. the eyes didnt look right to me in the first place.

Clue, freelancer : Every single business ever in the history of the earth does that.

I think it's because they're way too far apart and appear to be resting on the surface of the head instead of set back in eye sockets like they should be

But it could be the baby was stillborn AND deformed, in which case opening the eyes wouldn't necessarily be a big improvement

Did this lady concentrate on any specific feature on her own? The mouth stands out as quite angular. Is that per the reference picture?

.

wait a second. is that checkerboard pattern there because the shirt and hat are semi transparent?

*shudder*

Yes:colbert:

Uh. No. The checkerboard pattern of transparency in photoshop isn't part of the image file.

Well, whatever it is, it's extending past the clothes.

I think they meant that you applied the checkerboard pattern through partial transparencies.

It would be improved if there was shadowing that shows true features to the surface of the face. I don't care if it's a stillborn; it was suppose to look like a "normal baby" I'm guessing. Babies have distinctive qualities of the face that make them look puffy and soft, not complete flatness.

Secondly, the eyes of a baby should be further back into the head. Look at a normal baby face. A normal infant's eye sockets are very defined with some serious depth, not eyeballs literally protruding out of the head like that. I mean seriously, view a photo of a baby.

Third, with that much light, you would think the pupil wouldn't look so dilated. This may seem like nit-picking, yet you have to admit there is something really "alien" about those eyes. Eyes singlehandedly add much character to the portraits, and surely someone must admit there is something very off with those eyes.

Fourth, why is the philtrum so pronounced. I'm not saying there shouldn't be a philtrum seen, but, compared to the rest of the face, it's incredibly defined. Why. It would seem appropriate if there were fat baby cheeks to accompany it, but alone, it is strikingly distracting.

Was this more than $300?

I know, I'm not an idiot. Im asking if you got the pattens done through partial transparencies. Because if so, you have to clean up the top.

Holy f***ing hell!

Oh, of course. I've barely even started on the hat.


Re-apply criticisms to the current revision. Also, for Emon : This is why you get ignored and Echoman gets paid attention to.

She hasn't paid me anything yet.

the eyes still lack an incredible amount of depth. Dont be afraid to make your shadows darker, it will really help make everything seem more real.

Yeah, considering how deep the shadows are from the collar and the hat, you can afford to shadow the eyes a lot more. Darkening the upper lip might help as well, lemme see...

I did a little paintover to show what I mean--since you have a strong light source from what looks like the upper left, it enables you to sculpt the face pretty heavily with shadow, like this:

I also found that eyelashes (assuming it has them) helped to humanize the face as well, and make it look less weird.

Building on Thrawn, I took a couple minutes in PS with the liquify tool and just moved crap around some.

The mouth really bothers me so that's where I focused on. I also fixed the right side of the hat since it wasn't following the head as it should.

Newborns don't often have thick mascara-heavy eyelashes.

No, but tweaking some details would help make it look more lifelike

butthurt:saddowns:

they're definitely prominent enough to make a difference, though. without eyelashes it comes off as...fetal, I guess.

That's not a newborn.

...

yeah all the newborn pictures i got made me want to throw up

****ing babies

I'm not going to risk being banned by posting the reference picture I got.

I don't know why you're under the impression that I think insults are real criticism.


They also don't wear lipstick.

In any case, in painting, getting the big parts in the right spots helps recognition way more than detail. In retrospect i think the issue was more that there wasn't a very dark line where the eyes were, making them look sealed shut with skin. Inaccurate though it was, the eyelash provided a needed darkening of that area--just deepening the shadow there would have pretty much the same effect.

the eyes look like little pre-pubescent vaginas

god dammit zully

the picture turns me on now

That post was even creepier than the commission.