Hey friends I'm doing my first oil paint and need your harshest crit
not bad but everything seems blurry, either its the camera or you should sharpen it up a bit
the strokes looks like a beginner obviously you have to paint more
also add details to the hands
I don't like your haircut!
Online surveys aren't a real job!
A bowtie and sandals? Paging Dr. Dork!
Aside from that, it's nice that the subject comes out of the background a little, and you've captured a great deal of life in the face... but the values demonstrated aren't very comprehensive outside of the face, which makes the hands, the sweater and the pants all kinda look like you gave up in the middle of rendering them. Also the hand by her mouth has some proportional issues due to a line you dragged down farther than you should have between her index and middle fingers.
>>2403814
Paint from life you donut. Try setting up a single powerful light source (a point light not diffuse) on your subject with a reflector to fill shadows if necessary. This will help you work on using value to define 3d forms which seems to be an issue for you right now. Also spend more time in the earlier stages of the painting making sure that your blocked in values are accurate - this careful time spent early in the painting process pays much higher dividends than rendering and layering paint on a fundamentally flawed piece later on. Besides camera distortion another problem with working from photos is a tendency to flatten features, particularly the face like in this image. Another benefit of working from life is it will train your drawing skills much better, and drawing is actually the most important skill in painting.
Anyway with some relatively small changes in approach I think you could see some dratic improvements at this stage. Paint from life! Oh and watch your edge control, you have a lot of vague edges. Remember that form shadows are soft, cast shadows are hard, and contours are hard.
>>2403861
To add one more slightly abstract thought, when you work from a photo, the camera has solved all your problems for you, and its solutions are often less than ideal. When you work from life you are learning to solve your own problems, like how to compose a finite frame from your huge field of vision, or how to represent a live model that makes endless small movements. Anyway keep at it!
Use more paint. One of the most obvious telltale signs of a beginner is how little paint they use. fill the brush up with paint. squeeze a lot of it on to you palette.
Thank you all so much ! Will keep you updated on that piece, meanwhile any crit on this charcoal portrait ?
>>2404171
This is working a lot better than the OP image mainly due to better lighting and edge control. Try flipping the image horizontally, it looks like you might have some slight sagging going on in places (notably the ear on the right seems too low). Something feels a little weird about the eye on the right compared to the one on the left, as though you were squinting for the left eye but not the right - if you soften the contrast just slightly that would probably do it. The neck feels a little flat compared to the strong dimensionality of the face, try showing a hint of the sternocleidomastoid with shadow as well as adding a subtle form shadow on the left side to help turn the form away. Also a little bit of fill light on the right side of the neck like you have on the face would help. The nasolabial line on the right seems over defined but I would have to see the reference to be sure.
Overall nice drawing. What did you use for the lights in the face, white charcoal?
*note: all right/left directions are screen-oriented
>>2404183
Definitely see the flatness and inaccuracies now! Thanks man! And yes white charcoal, PS It is OP
>>2403814
pretty rough but that'll get better with practice. as others have said, the brushstrokes are choppy and you should use more paint. what ratio of paint to medium are you using? as someone else said it's all very fuzzy, you'll want a mix of hard edges, soft edges, and lost edges, right now they're all soft. the hand/arm in the lap is ok, though the thumb could probably use more attention. the other hand/arm look pretty fucked at this point in the painting. nose/neck/ear still need a lot of love
>>2403814
- You are blending too much. I understand oil paint stays wet and you can push it into itself, but don't. Let a brush stroke exist, show your brush strokes. Try to only blend and soften on edges that need it. For example, softening the edge of the shoulder that is receding into the background while having the edge of the hand a little harder, it will give it better depth.
- It's a lot of midtone, push some rich darks in there, especially in that sweater and the hair. Maybe the hair is actually soft/light brown, but you're painting, not taking a photograph. Push some rich shadows in there.
- That corner where the wall meets the floor just seems to stop, you should see it on the bottom right of the painting if that line continued.
- You're headed in the right direction, but things in certain places still seem to ignore planes and aim for symbols, such as the lips. The lips really don't have the shapely, sculpted 3-dimensionality that they should.
- A couple of the tiniest little white highlights could add a lot, like pure titanium white from the tube, a couple highlights on each eye and maybe a couple on the nose. (this is final touch type stuff)
- Stop using so much turpenoid. Turpenoid on its own is NOT a medium. You are turning your oil paint into chalk. That's fine for an underpainting, laying shit in, but not when you get down to the actual painting itself. Yes, paint is expensive, but use it. If you want a chalky look buy pastels. I suggest using 1/2 Gamsol + 1/2 Gamblin Solvent Free Gel. As the painting builds up, decrease the amount of Solvent until you're mixing with pure medium. It's "fat over lean" which prevents your painting from cracking as it dries.
>>2404171
I think you said this was you in your response? But you look like Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), which is pretty neat.
>>2404827
Haha no that is jamie we had to draw an icon for one of my foundation classes, I wish I looked like him
You've probably got shitty lighting on your reference but this is a good exercise.
Get a piece of tracing paper and go over your reference, then block out the shadows in solid black.
Areas in shadow will never be lighter than the darkest areas that are lit.
The blur works in your favor in oil painting since its very easy to sharpen edges in a dry painting but hard to soften. If you plan to come back to it later fan your edges with a dry brush so they're a little fuzzy.
Don't mix on your canvas for now, get the color right before you put it up.
And thin paint will sit more easily on thick paint without mixing.
You guys are saving my ass right now, an update
Fixing up the background next, any advice you guys have on that pls help
>>2403814
looks like arya stark. it's not classical, it's not canon.
>>2406599
Sorry I didn't post this sooner, but my reference and actual face
>>2406678
you'll notice that your face in the painting is much wider and wall-eyed than your actual face. the eye on our left (your right eye) in particular is too far from the center of the face. in general, the face is just occupying too much of the head, which is emphasized because the hair in the painting lacks the volume it has in the photo.
the sleeve of the lifted arm is also not as loose, which is important because the sleeve would probably slump if it were as loose as it is in the painting. the painting also seems to lack the edge of your torso between the arms, which does a lot to describe the figure.
in the future, if the project guidelines allow, I'd work from life for a self-portrait, and if you must use a photo... take a better photo. getting a good reference in the beginning will save you a lot of pain later on.
>>2406678
i was just kidding anon. it's alright
>>2406718
not OP, but you're right- it looks like arya because the features are stretched and look a bit wonkier than OP looks irl.
>>2406678
You've lost some height at the top of your head in the painting
What are you trying to achieve anyway, what kind of style? Do you want photorealistic or stylized or what?
Feels a bit aimless right now
>>2406678
Shesh, this is the reason why your painting is falling flat in the literal sense.
The lighting and quality of that reference image is terrible, most of it has been gobbled up by shitty image compression and piss-poor mobile camera lens.
I was going to say that you need more contrast, but yeah, the biggest fault is the very bland lighting in the image. But you don't need to copy the reference exactly, so use your imagination and push those values more. The head should be smaller and more narrow too. And notice the slight lights and darks on the hand, your hand in the painting looks very flat.
>>2406678
At this point if there's no money riding on its completion or whatever you should just start on a new painting. This one is plagued by issues which are too fundamental to waste your time trying to fix now. You've learned what you can from it so it's time to move on
>>2406960
I agree with this guy, look at this painting as part f the learning process and learn from your mistakes next time. Im assuming this is for a class, so just finish as much as u need to get a good grade.But never get too attached to your paintings, just keep making stuff
>>2406678
lol that face is the embodiment of;
>"should i let him paint me, i mean i like the attention and all, but i think this is the point of no return for leading him on,,,,,,oh well."
>>2406960
What do you use to make these gifs anyway? So useful.
At this point unless you're very good at representative work, it feels so dull to me. I'd like to see this made more artistic.
>>2404171
>dem buttons
>>2403814
IT'S BLURRY YOU LIMPING SHIT
It's due Monday I'm now just scrambling to make the background the best it can be. Im trying to push an eery anxious feel any advice would be great
>>2403814
girl has downsyndrome -10 points. lacks any detail. another -10 points. Seems like she's floating. -10 points. it's blurry. -10 points. -40/10
>>2408204
Hahaha op here this actually made me laugh thank u
>>2408216
thx u 2
>>2407122
I just used Photoshop's video timeline and set keyframes for layer opacity. In general I wouldn't use PS for animation (instead After Effects) but for simple stuff like this it's a quick and easy solution.
>>2408198
you gotta push your values man. stop being a bitch
>>2408198
all of the major problems listed ITT remain...
>>2406678
Look how much better the photo is because of that rich black. Paint that whole fucking thing black, big black mass. You can get a rich black by mixing ultramarine blue with raw umber. Maybe even a little bit of a red on the violet/blue side, like quinacradone red. USE MORE PAINT. Thick, load the fucking brush up! Yes, it's expensive, fucking use it.
Also, keep your brush clean, shit looks dirty and everything is getting muddy.
