Telephone Girl: Chin Up

In a comment in the entry below, Steven Den Beste noted that Telephone Girl had a chin that was too strong.

I wasn’t so sure about that, but after thinking (and looking) for a while last night, I realised he was absolutely right.

So I’ve amended that.  (Click for a larger version.)

I’ve also softened some shadow areas of her face, and to my eye, she looks greatly improved.   Her expression is slightly better–she no longer looks to be in the throes of despair–but still needs some work.  Overall though, I am much happier with her.

The very real problem with any artistic work is the length of time it takes to create it; after months or work, I “know” certain areas and no longer look at them clearly.  As the eye sweeps, the brain steps in and points to the catalogue, “No need to look at that, we know what it looks like.  Keep moving to the known problem areas.”

That’s one of the really nice benefits of showing a work in progress; you can get feedback that shows you where to concentrate and what to abandon.  Thank you all, and thanks again for stopping by.

Project Telephone Girl, September 2007

Well, last time we met Telephone Girl, she looked like this.

(Apologies all around for not properly cropping these pictures.) I still think the background looks a bit monochromatic, but there’s no denying the fact that…I’m gonna have to start working on her in earnest.

So, let’s block out her body and dress.

Yes, I know, I watch too much anime. Still, not a bad start. Let’s refine it a bit.

Okay, still needs some work, but so far, so not-bad. Next, let’s try the eyes. What do we want to do with the eyes? Well, I kind of like the red cornea, can we work with that?

Apparently we can–that turned out better than expected. The eyes are the hardest part of any portrait for me, but they’re unavoidable. You can’t just paint people with their eyes closed, now can you?

Here’s what we have so far (note that I’ve reworked some of her arm as well):

Now, the hair.

Looks pretty ech, huh? Well, I’m just putting in the raw shape of the hair. I originally thought of something like blue, but that would really make her look anime. Orange isn’t much better, is it? But it does have a dual function of being a focus point, drawing the eye toward the face, as well as not jarring too much with the rest of the palette. Here’s a bit of shadow for the hair:

And some highlights, too:

In the next handful of pics, some more shadows, and more highlights.

In the last pic above, you might note that her eye has moved a bit. I’m not sure if it was the hair or what, but it was really starting to bother me, so I lowered it slightly.

For some stupid reason, her chin started bothering me. So I ruined it. I then kicked myself, and tried to unruin it. This took longer than I wanted it to.

Finally, I seemed to get the chin sort of the way it was. Not quite, though, it still needs work. And I thought I’d feather her hair a bit.

I worked a bit more on this feathering, and some more on the chin. Still needs work on the face–man, she looks miserable–but we are definitely getting…well, somewhere. Finally, below, we see her as I left her last night.

I have got to do something about her expression. She looks like she has the worst job in the world, whatever that might be. Some kind of library? A library of writhing things.

Hey, that’d make a great name for a band. As always, thank you for your patronage.

 

Le Grande Fromage

It’s September already?  Wow.  How time flies, etc.  I should probably post something, about something. 

Incidentally, I know that drawing above is pretty cheesy…