Charlotte's Works

It's always fascinating to see pictures from years ago to compare progress.
Well- it's fascinating when it's someone else, it's just embarrassing when it's your own stuff!
Makes me glad I don't have anything from that far back. It would hurt the eyes.

I like the idea of that monkey king pic, especially with that bird staring at him.

Haven't made any progress to my Lady of the Woods. I still feel like I somehow forgot all about how to paint properly. Darn those cute chibis and pets and stuff...

Anyway, took a break from said cutesy stuff today and tried to work on an idea I have for a Sansa portrait. I usually prefer to make them look like their "own" people rather than the actors, but for this I want a likeness. And can I achieve one? Even with a reference? noooooo.... I'll just blame it on the ref having the wrong lighting shall I?

Just now I feel I've at least reached a point where it doesn't look like complete crap (the first wips do, though... close your eyes if you're the sensitive sort)


Sketch (and some correctional extra sketching on top of the first sketch... I kind of like how the face turned out here even though it's not very Sophie Turner)


Very very flat colors



Greyscale layer to work on values (and then set to overlay on flat colours)


The prevous wip file was pretty much flattened (and up-sized) and I'm painting on top. Been cheating with the ref, enlarging it now and then to get the eyes, mouth and shoulders where they should be... Still doesn't look too much like Sophie Turner. (Colorwise it needs work too, but I want to get the likeness first - I can always work on colour options later... Though I do want it cool and blue-darkish).

Ahhhh.... Nothing like posting work for others to see, to spot a whole slew extra of mistakes and things to fix!

Just changing the eyebrows - so the outer edge is higher than the centre - and making the jawline angles squarer and less round, would help the likeness.

Thanks em
I'm pretty sure I need to look at more refs of her nose too - trying to "invert" the shading is making me mess up the angle of it...

That's already recognisable, Charlotte. I knew who it was without having to read.
The shape and expression in the eyes are very reminiscent of the character. I think the main way to improve the likeness further is to darken that left side of the jaw to push it back further beneath the hood. At the moment it seems to come forward and makes her face appear fuller than it should be. Similarly I'd make the ear a little narrower too.

It's good to see you doing a not-cute-pet picture. Hope it continues to develop as well as it has so far.

Thanks Val
Here's today's progress. Not very much - I've been scatterbrained and unfocussed - but I think the likeness and general state of things is such that I'm ready to move on and add more detail. Barring all the needed fixes I'll notice after I press "Submit" of course.

The likeness is really coming along Charlotte, I'm not going to offer any advice as likeness is something I really struggle with. Suffice to say that the advice you've taken on board has really worked. I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices mistakes after they hit the SUBMIT button. Looking forward to the next pass.

Haven't done that much more... I upped the size and resolution again and have worked on smoothing out her skin and defining the eyes better... and that's pretty much it

I don't know if it's a result of the smoothing or the resolution but it does look a much cleaner image and gives the character a more solid and believable presence.
The eyes look very good and are my favourite part of the picture. If you can get that kind of delicacy to the tip of the nose too then it'll be even better.