Here is about an hour of work touching up both pieces based on the comments.
\nI worked on edges and lips for the female face.
\nThe less than finished state of the male painting was the result of my procrastination over the weekend. I tightened up his eyes and nose and worked on his neck a little more. I also notied his shoulders were wrong in the process. It gives him now a more poised look.
\nI may noodle them a little more during the weekend depending how direct painting goes.
\n[female 02-male 02]\nFemale portrait in direct color.
\nStill in the ugly stage after about 1h30 but I get the feeling I have foundations to make it work. Then again, it could go south very easily, especially around her eyes and nose.
\nMore details and structural adjustments tomorrow.
\n[female 2- first attempt]\nFunny how sometimes the painting seems to simply flow out of the brush and sometimes it feels like pulling teeth. Tonight was a battle but I feel that I brought her back on the right track.
\nI had to take a few steps back, move her shape around a bit, erase some of the details I had started and redo the background.
\nAt least the colors are there…. I will leave her as is for now and return to it over the weekend. Maybe by then the details that are wrong with her face structure will be more visible.
\n[female 02-second attempt]\nI was going to take a break from working so late every night, but I couldn’t let her in the state she was in.
\nSo.. a couple more hours into it, she is inching away toward something presentable.
\nAt this point, I will only have to finish her hair over the weekend.
\n[female 2-11]\nThanks…. I am glad she is starting to come out of the ugly stage. This one gave me a hard time.
\nI guess she looks familiar because I ended up making similar choices than you Mathias (or more accurately, I recognized that you made better choices than I did and followed them ).
\nI darkened the background on her ‘light’ side and kept the background light on her ‘dark’ side to improve contrast.
\nI had to play with brightness and contrast to make colors a little more vivid – injecting blue from the background into the skin removed contrast on many features.
\nHer face did need more red to look less like a zombie. I am still way behind on the eyes though. I will try Marie’s suggestion when I finish it up.
\nFirst shot at the male portrait in direct color.
\nThis one went as smoothly as the female portrait was hard. Maybe it was the benefit of having a hard time with the first portrait. Or maybe I was in better mood and less tired this time around.
\nI used large brushes as much as possible to keep it loose, strong colors when I thought about them and some brightness \/ contrast adjustments to fight the dull layer from too much blending of the colors.
\nAbout two hours of work still in Painter.
\nFor fun and comparison, I threw in the same portrait I did for last year’s workshop. This was my very first attempt at direct color painting.
\n[male 02-01]\nMore work on the male portrait after a couple of days of break (must be something in the air, I was sick as well for the past couple of days).
\nI tried to inject more red into his dark side.
\nHis upper arm is still giving me trouble. That must be because I rely too much on the reference and not enough on knowledge of anatomy (which I lack at the moment ).
\n[male 2-07]\ninal copies for now.
\nI may revisit them later tonight or tomorrow morning if I feel better. Tomorrow is a day off work, I will have more time to practice during the day.
\nEdit: Minor updates. Mostly adding more color and contrast to the make portrait and adjusting the eye and eyebrow on the female portrait.
\n[male 09]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is about an hour of work touching up both pieces based on the comments. I worked on edges and lips for the female face. The less than finished state of the male painting was the result of my procrastination over the weekend. I tightened up his eyes and nose and worked on his neck a little more. I also… <\/p>\n