CGMythology's Sketchbook (nudity)

That extra lighting in the background is definitely making the pose look much better and the softer shading is helping to balance the face more too.

Valence:  Thank you, glad to hear it!

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I resumed working on the image, refined it heavily and did some detail work.  We are getting there!

 
 

And the image is pretty much finalized!  I attached the current preview here.  Of course there's still some time for tweaks if necessary, so any final input would be more than welcome!

 
   

The face looks lovely now. All the extra effort there really paid off.

Valence:  Thank you, great to hear that!

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Time for a new illustration!  This is a portrait of a friend and fellow artist Diego Fraustro.   I decided to go with a steampunk theme as I feel it suits this image perfectly... and it's a theme I love exploring!  Reference is here , and I did my best to capture his likeness while giving it a steampunk theme, and I feel it works quite well, thankfully.  Any input would be appreciated before  I begin the painting process!

 
 

your ref isn't showing for me...
I think the guy looks fine, but the cat looks a little odd. (and is it smoking? )

Charlotte:  I checked the link and it seems to be working fine, perhaps the server was down previously?  Hopefully the cat flows better when I paint it in.  And yes, he is smoking - just me trying to incorporate some of my humor into my art

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I began the painting process, made sure to get the values right as early as possible as that seems to make things go easier.  I'm probably going to introduce some subtle desaturated bounced light to the shadows as they're a bit too dark at the moment.  Here is the current progress:   

Must have been a glitch - it loads fine for me now. And I think I pinpointed where/why I think the cat looks a bit odd. I also think that although the guy in your picture looks great per se, you're missing your friends likeness some, so I did one of my usual scribble-overs....

 

For the guy: you seem to have changed the bridge of his nose somewhat, and also the shape of his lips: he seems to have a thinner upper lip. Other than that, and this is probably more due to your style of drawing, really, he has a more rounded lower lip and shape of the eye than you have drawn. 

For the cat: You've excluded the wee bit of chin that should be visible which made the ... er... nose cheeks? look like they protruded more than they should (maybe because you wanted that pipe there). I think that line needs to be smoothed out a bit, and I would recommend moving the pipe to the left as it currently sits oddly in the cat's mouth. (Basically if someone has a pipe or cigarette at one end of their mouth it's usually "pointed away" from the mouth and not towards the other side of the mouth.) I also think you did the nose a bit big although most of it will probably look better when it's all paint and no linework. And finally I think the ears are a bit too sharp looking. The tips should be a little bit rounded.

Hope this is at least some use/help

Charlotte:  Your feedback is incredibly on point as always, really appreciate you taking the time to help me improve the image!  I made some of the changes you mentioned, tried to get a better likeness on Diego.  Great tips on the cat as well, made many changes to it based on your input so hopefully it works better now.  Thanks again!

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I resumed working on the image, continued blending the tones and made some changes throughout to improve the image as a whole.  The light background seems to be working quite well as it helps the figures pop so I'll stick with it for now.  Below is the current progress, any input would be appreciated as always!

 


 

I resumed working on the image.  The background wasn't working for me, too desaturated and didn't compliment the figure as well as I would have liked, so I repainted it.  I refined it heavily overall and introduced some texture and detail work.  I think it's pretty much done at this point, but I'm open to any final input!  Here is the image: