what next ?

[steve1111]

Hi everyone started the portrait of the younglings again after I ruined the first one. So iv been picking away adding a little black to my mixture after every layer and am wondering how far do I take the darker areas ? Every time I go darker it seems like it's jus not dark enough. So do I keep going darker or do I finish the layer add highlights and see how it looks ?
This is my fourth week of airbrushing so any advice / criticism welcome
Am i jumping the gun should I have started with something easier ?

 

[ad fez]

you are doing a grand job and there is nothing wrong with pushing yourself further than you think you can go.... sometimes you may fall short but thats how we learn brother...

at first glance you can tell that you still need to go further... so keep going as you are.... maybe get your darkest points to as dark as you want to go before tackling the rest... you can still see under your boys chin and under both of the arms of your girl you need to go considerably further. maybe just darken the eyes a touch and then bring these other areas up to the same contrast.... then tackle rest of painting.... knowing what i know now i wouldnt tackle the painting in the same way you have... rendering the whole pic at once but this is something we can talk about in the future...
do not use white for highlights instead erase and scratch if your media and substarte will allow

 

[steve1111]

Thanks fez I appreciate the help. Will keep going and see how it pans out

 

[ad fez]

tap me up for some advice if you need when you do your next one, dont get me wrong though... your attempt so far is excellent and to say you have only been painting 4 weeks is outstanding. great job bro

 

[ad fez]

i also see you are using old t bone tonys tip dry toothbrush there... good on ya!!!

 

[steve1111]

I bought the hp-cs to paint fishing lures so iv used an airbrush before but never really needed to get technical with it. I watched a lot of Mitch's vids and thought I would give painting a go. How hard can it be rite ? Boy was I wrong !! Really enjoying it though. The toothbrush idea is awesome I find it hard with my fat fingers to pick tip dry.
Advice would be great thanks again mate

 

[Cordyk]

Hello mate, ad fez has giving you some good advice my friend, I would concentrate on those darkest areas first and get them to the intensity they need to be. Then go for the mid tones and then all the light shading and subtle tones last, you are making it tricky for yourself trying to do a bit of everything at once and it's very easy to get the picture out of balance. I would agree that the part under the boys chin is 100% intensity then balance the rest from that! be carful of the crease in the girls arm and don't go any darker with that! It's looking great so far mate, concentrate on one area and get all the effects correct before moving on.

 

[steve1111]

Ok cool I was doing the opposite trying to do the lighter areas and mid tones first. Also do I hilight as I progress ?

 

[steve1111]

Did a little more today looking a little better before after . Thanks guys. But now I think iv gone too dark haha

 

[Subzero]

I think you'll be ok, it's a little dark on her left side but the right side could go a little darker, so to could her hair on her right,
I think when you put a bit of background in it won't look so dark.
Looking really good though, good detail also you can erase the lighter bits with a pencil eraser , that'll make the areas that are slightly too dark, less dark.
Use the eraser for texture instead of erasing loads off.
Just my opinion, again like I always say I could be wrong.


Iwata custom micron cmc and eclipse
Badger krome and patriot.
And a very understanding wife..

 

[airbrushtutor]

Hi Steve!

Your painting is looking good mate - to attempt something like this after 4 weeks is definitely wishful, i consider monotone portraiture like this to be one of the hardest things to master - in saying that your result is actually looking decent
I think you may find it more beneficial however, to start a little smaller. by that i mean, instead of doing 2 full faces.. why not zoom in on a area and just try to create an eye, or a quarter of the face. I try to encourage people to look at individual sections of an artwork and break them down piece by piece instead of attempting the full artwork. This forces you to look more closely at the individual parts of an image. In areas like an eye, you may have 15 or so effects which make up that part of the image, however in the full portrait you might have 500 effects you need to identify..

What you've done though is tricky, don't be hard on yourself if you're not happy with the result - when it comes to learning how to airbrush you need to constantly push yourself by taking two steps forward, then one step back.. it's the best way to advance :triumphant:

 

[steve1111]

Yeah I think I took 10 steps forward and 12 steps back on this project. I knew this wasnt going to be a Mona Lisa but wanted to see how it would turn out. So I will hang this one up when I'm finished then practice practice and tackle it again when my control gets a little better.
Honesty I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Plus I have learned a lot from just trying this. One thing I have learned is what not to do !!

Thanks heaps for all the advice everyone and you will be hearing from me again !

 

[ad fez]

Damn it hehe

 

[steve1111]

so this is where I'm at at the moment I think it coming along ok. feel free to criticize or advice welcome