Well, the first thing I noticed is that the hair looks very light compared to the rest of the pic. It's a black background and there's lots of shadows, but her hair appears to have a lot of highlights in it, coming from I-can't-tell-where. Also the ends of her hair look blocky and could be a little more flowy.
I like the pose and her eyes look to be focused correctly. Her right arm (our left) has some hair partially blocking it and that makes it look choppy. I'd either make the hair coming across the arm longer, so you can tell it's hair, or smooth out the arm over the hair.
Maybe we should see a part of her left foot/shoe as she is currently posed? Not sure.
Her arms look great, her legs and foot look great. Love the shoe!!
Hope this helps.
Rehead aka not intirely happy
Yes yes, I know I know...After being gone for a whole 3 days I should've gone and cc'ed stuff that was posted in the meantime. Instead I went back to this thing.
Every time I discover something new and exciting that can be done in photoshop without too much work, another piece will make me see that it's either not that exciting or somewhat more work requiring than I thought at first. This was such a piece.
Perhaps it's not so bad, perhaps my eyes are just tired of looking on the same pixels, doing the same thing over and over again. My problem is that with this amount of time spent on something, it should be better. Well, that's what I get for trying to handdraw the hair. I sorta did still, but ended up cheating my way to acceptabillity with spatter brushes and dodge/burn.
Skirt and bodice are handdrawn, kept the texture on the bodice, which is just that....a texture. Nothing amazing. It's all very frustrating because it's a replacement for something that looked very nice, but wasn't intirely copyright legal (which is ofcourse why I can't show it to you).
Ok, so this is the part you can safely skip to if you don't want to hear my blabbering. There is something very off on this piece, and I can't tell you what it is. It's not done at all, but hopefully it will be when I can find the glaring mistakes and problems with this piece.
CC 4 I guess....though any suggestions, tips, etc, etc are very welcome. Yes, you may even tell me it sucks and I should just start over.
Ohh....the piece itself?
(click on pic for bigger image).
source image.
PS. Yes, I know you'll see this Meegan, and you're not supposed to peak, ok? Well, you have if you're reading this I guess, but you get my point....hopefully.
UPDATE:
Removed my shadowlayer thingy and redid highlights/shades with more traditional means. Redid the hair, this time manipped from the original isntead of being created from scratch.
Redid overall lighting.
Cursed and smashed my head into the monitor.
(click on pic for bigger image).
Better now, or am I moving in an intirely wrong direction? I know need to run over the intire thing with a smudge brush to remove the suddenly very apparent hard edges here and there, and add more lighting probably, but besides that?
UPDATE:
Redid lighting yet again, fixed the stuff all you great cc'ers pointed out (hopefully), pondered on how the heck I'm going to turn this into a sig.
(click on pic for bigger image).
Hijinks
19 years ago
Guest
19 years ago
DW, like most of your images, this is really dark and hard to see details. I'm not sure if you're trying to go for a certain mood, but I would do that with darker shading rather than making the entire image really dim.
From what I can see, the highlights on her hair don't seem to match her hair color. I would go for more of a golden yellow since she's a strawberry blonde. Right now the highlights look white which they should be anywhere near that except for your ultra-highlights which should remain small and sparse and still have a bit of color to them.
Also, be careful of where you place your highlights. You would have more where your light source is directed - i.e. if the light is shining on her left side, the hair behind her back on her right side would not be as lit up.
From what I can see, the highlights on her hair don't seem to match her hair color. I would go for more of a golden yellow since she's a strawberry blonde. Right now the highlights look white which they should be anywhere near that except for your ultra-highlights which should remain small and sparse and still have a bit of color to them.
Also, be careful of where you place your highlights. You would have more where your light source is directed - i.e. if the light is shining on her left side, the hair behind her back on her right side would not be as lit up.
Dark_Wolf
19 years ago
Thanks for the cc, gave me something to work with 
I decided to give up my insane way of doing shadows. It's a cheap trick and wether it looks good intirely depends on peoples monitors and their settings.
Hope this has improved the thing a bit....still nowhere near happy, but if you can't get what you love, I guess you'll have to love what you get.
I decided to give up my insane way of doing shadows. It's a cheap trick and wether it looks good intirely depends on peoples monitors and their settings.
Hope this has improved the thing a bit....still nowhere near happy, but if you can't get what you love, I guess you'll have to love what you get.
ROzbeans
19 years ago
Whoa, what a big big change! I see a stray pixel by the end of the shirt and the top of the skirt. Her hair looks fab! Big improvement. I'd smooth the hair that touches her cheek or if it's on a separate layer, try moving it behind her face layer and smooth it. Same behind her left (our right) ear. Extend that bottom layer up behind her ear, it looks detached. Beautiful job on the hair highlights. I'd maybe take a small brush and on high smudge, do wisps at the end? Also, her roots are highlights, shouldnt they be darker/reversed? Just little things like that, but overall WOW, big big improvement!!!
Guest
19 years ago
Looking *much* better ^_^ I'd say soften up the ends of the hair more, but you're definitely on your way.
Mai
19 years ago
The hair and such looks good but you just need to smooth it out some with a low strength smudge tool. I'd add the wisps with a small smudge tool on a very high strength. Also smooth out the edges of her elbows and arms with the low strength smudge.
Hijinks
19 years ago
Very very nice improvements! I <3 the hair!!
The clothes don't look like they "go" with her quite yet. I think the clothes need some more highlights so that they match the highlights in the rest of the piece.
Just realized this is a photo manip. Well done, I thought it was freehand at first!
The clothes don't look like they "go" with her quite yet. I think the clothes need some more highlights so that they match the highlights in the rest of the piece.
Just realized this is a photo manip. Well done, I thought it was freehand at first!
Dark_Wolf
19 years ago
Thanks again Think it's sorta done now? Anything glaringly wrong? Anything that needs more work?
Think it's sorta done now? Anything glaringly wrong? Anything that needs more work?
Rae
19 years ago
She is really looking good Dark_Wolf. The necklace is a nice touch and the hair for the most part is looking good too. Most of what I see are clean up issues. I can see eraser marks around the upper body and arms, especially on the larger version. so it looks like you might have a few areas that didn't get completely erased. If you change the background, it might be a problem. There are a couple of stray spots by the chain, near the pendant. with the hair that is tucked behind her ear, because part of it overlaps her neck, it looks like it is cut short instead of flowing behind her. I would suggest shaving a little off so that it doesn't overlap the neck or making that piece longer so that is matches the length of the rest of her hair. I really like where you are headed with this. My favorite parts are the necklace and the seams on the bodice. They are that extra bit that make it special.