It's great seeing the development of this piece of artwork As you work your way down, can you have her gripping that axe? Things just are, then they ain't.
Sorry about slow replies. I'm currently cursed with a really bad back so unable to sit down and work on stuff for long periods.
To address a couple of points raised:
One of the things I've been trying to do is reshape her bosom without losing all the detail that I've got. This is one of the reasons for the slightly mishapen breasts, though I realise this isn't an excuse. Looking at your paintover, yes I quite agree a bit more shape is necessary. Now I'm pretty much done with the head (for the moment) I'm going to work my way down.
The hand and the axe. I've been putting this off. Sadly while the hand LOOKS good, that's through no skill of mine - it's a photo cutout that I paste in over my original line drawing because the hand I drew was rubbish. Not to say that I can't draw hands - I can - but I was feeling particularly lazy.
Things to do, then, include: gripping the axe; painting the axes and their glowing effects in; painting the zipper (I keep mentioning it so I don't forget); and possibly having a go at tweaking the face so it looks a bit snarly and angry, just to see if that changes the ambience of the picture. Also need to work on the background, but that can come much later.
All in all, thanks a lot for the crits guys. It's really nice to have people look at my work and egg me on, as there's not really anyone back home here who I can talk to about art. Much appreciated.
lookin pretty good at the moment dem. though I know you already mentioned the hand holding the axe. you may want to enlarge it a bit. right now it seems a little small in relation to the rest o fthe body. also take a look at the armpit. right now that pit looks exceptionally long because your line goes from the shoulder all the way down half her side. realistically the pit shouldn't really go any further than maybe a short bit down from the shoulder.
lookin good though!
"Live life like a fantasy. Reality is only in your mind!" - Fabledgoat
Finally had a chance to do some more work on this. I was going to work on her hand/axe etc, but the bosom was still annoying me. I tried various things for about an hour, adjusting, moving, etc, and nothing was working. So i tried a paintover with slightly different play of the clothing and I think it's come out a lot better. It's a more satisfying chest in my opinion, and she doesn't look as top-heavy as she did before.
However, I'm now noticing a really weird issue. The kinda orangey colour that's appearing on her skirt and various places on the formerly white/grey dress, and also the kind of bleeding of colour near her leg and at other various places. It looks as if something weird is happening with the saturation, but I don't know what it is and I don't know how to fix it. Anyone got any ideas as it's going to spoil the image if it keeps on getting worse :(
That's a closeup of what's going on. Any ideas? =(
Did some work on the hand/axe now, and simply desaturated parts of the dress background to get rid of some of the redness. Will have to go and sort that out after, though if anyone knows what causes it, pray tell!
So, the arm and hand... the more I look at it, the more I work on it, the less I like it, the less I think it looks good/right.
I'm fairly certain the perspective is all wrong, or something is wonky, but I can't for the life of me work out what. If anyone wants to step in and correct my anatomy/do a paintover, now's the time! >_>
Don'tcha just hate it when you KNOW something's wrong but can't see what it is :(
Update with changed arm and hand. Not happy at all with the axe or its glow. Not 100% certain how I'm gonna go about fixing that yet, but I am happier with the arm and hand.
you know what?, you're going to hate me for this but i've just looked back at the beginning of this thread, to your first few updates & i think it's starting to loose a bit of character, i'm not sure why at all, maybe it's because i preferred her 'first' face, it's still beautifully done, but now it looks 'staged' if you know what i mean?
Don't worry though it's just my personal opinion, and as i said i'm not knocking your painting, just her identity seems to have gone a little.
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. It bugs me too. I've been thinking about doing 2 things:
1) cutting off the top section of the painting as it is now, and keeping it as an example of my portrait work, then going back and grabbing more reference for the face in the original way it was going and painting it again.
2) Changing the existing face to make it more wild and feral and animated.
I think in terms of character it lacks movement, which is sad as it had quite a lot to start with. I've cut out so much to simplify the process of painting her because I was finding it too difficult. First her shoulderpad. Now her bracer. Fully plan on going and putting a lot of cool, primal details in. Just want to be secure in the anatomy and stuff first. Normally I'd blitz a painting over 2-3 days. This has taken me a lot longer due to illness and real-life stuff, and I'm trying to hang on to inspiration for it ><
i know what you mean, and often towards the end of a painting i completely lack inspiration.
i definitely think you should do both things just to make your life more difficult! it's a beautiful portrait, and i could see that lady sat in a boat, looking down into the water...
I think even though the pose is static, it's saying what you want it to, it has a kind of desolate and nostalgic look, but i think her face needs to go back to the other sort of face, she looked more like a toughie, or like you say a more feral one.
It is going to be a great piece though, it has all the right elements, don't lose inspiration!
definitely looking meaner! i think you should bring her chin up too, when you snarl like that your chin pushes up & you get the deep indent below your lip, you're making that face now aren't you! lol
Gosh this feels far too much like necro-posting, but here's the latest version of my Lady in White. I've started working up the detail in the last few hours (have been really busy last couple of weeks so had no time to work on it *sadface*)
What do we think? Do we like how it's progressing? I'd like to point out that these aren't *real* butterflies. They're something I call Faeflies, a visible manifestation of a person's power of aura. Like a visual motif if you will. So they aren't as realistically rendered as they could be, though I might give them some more depth in a final pass if needed.
huge update here. lovin the butterflies. don't know how I missed it the last time but I absolutely love the black undergarments slipping through. very nice. keep an eye on how the fabric would move on the bottom of the zipper though. I realize it's unfinished in that area, but make sure the zipper blands properly at the bottom.
"Live life like a fantasy. Reality is only in your mind!" - Fabledgoat
As you work your way down, can you have her gripping that axe?
just to make your life more difficult! it's a beautiful portrait, and i could see that lady sat in a boat, looking down into the water... 
