First week
Shameless plug to check out my 😎 Don’t make eye area look like 3D glasses Work on head construction Put more thought into nose design Balance use of curves and lines More line variation (especially line width) Be careful with feature design Unify the lights (remove darkness/midtones and unnecessary detail from the light) Keep a clear separation between lights and darks Harder brush strokes in the hair More confident/clear planes
More confident/clear planes Don’t just push paint around the canvas 😂 More subtlety between different types of edges Push the shadow and lighten/remove midtones Do a couple more for consistency
Make the features clearer
Focus on female sketches (eye design, eyebrows, eyelashes) Make irises bigger (not egg-shaped) Lines are too thick and fuzzy (sculpt with eraser more) Taper and sculpt lines more
Make eyebrows thicker near the nose Refine the nostrils more (not just completely dark) Don’t make outside corners of eye too sharp (can add some space) More subtle edge variation (bring more clarity through hard edges)
Don’t add midtones until after lights Clearer separation of light and shadow Don’t make midtones too dark For female shading, make soft edges softer Brighter, more vibrant colors Work on rendering (make it sharper, looks too blurry right now) Do a few more alien color references Bring same sharpness to the female shading First week color portraits Rendering needs work (more roundness in the cheek, don’t forget deeper shadows, build up the eyes more to make them clearer) Work on female head shape Rendering needs work in general Make irises larger and shift them upward Bring clarity of black and white into color portraits Choose better local colors (don’t go too light) Capture the vibe of the colors Skin should start out less saturated, add more saturation in shadows Choose more vibrant colors Rendering needs to be more confident (hard edges should be harder; soft edges should be softer; combine and separate planes better) Soften more + more subtlety Add midtones + gradients without making it muddy Soften and then harden it again Focus more on colors (adding more vibrant colors for midtones before blending shadow, use brighter color for reflected light) Bring more clarity to color choices and rendering Add some warmth into the cold shadows (final step) Unify values on the side planes Don’t make the eyes too light More hue variation (don’t just make the lights yellow and the shadows orange/brown) Colors looking a bit muddy—after building up different colors, unite them with one color using airbrush More color harmony (consistent hues) Build up hair more before adding the blue Work on rendering the hair more Work on design subtleties Focus on sketches and edge variety Watch the new exercise 5 videos and follow the shading process On the bright side, design looks good More confident brush strokes in the hair (bigger brush strokes with lasso tool) Refine the edges more (sharpen and soften) One more week just to show consistency
Work edges throughout the earlier stages (not just the rendering phase)
Miscellaneous things:
Show structure in the cheekbone area Make the skin softer (work on brushwork and smudge more)
First week with new still life references
Don’t go too bright or too saturated Avoid crisp edges for the still-life outline Separate the side plane for women (instead of the cheekbone plane) Move onto alien color still lifes
Missing purple in the apple (currently too warm) First week back in color portraits
Looks good. Try another natural light portrait Need a better balance of saturated and desaturated colors. Right now the shadows are too saturated. Need to build up saturation. Clean up brush strokes (don’t make them as obvious) Work on another lighter skin tone Capture more subtle colors in rendering phase
Move onto women portraits!
Lots of subtle rendering tips Better color transitions (show the connection more) Better color transitions (go warmer, more saturated in shadows first before adding cooler colors) Choose a better reference Don’t draw the eyelashes if they’re not in the reference 😆