Sketch

Ok, I've addressed a lot of the asymmetry issues and several other things.

Much better.

I still prefer the sketch though!

She had a Mona Lisa smile going on in it, almost literally. More peripheral than straight-on -- if you looked at her eyes, seemed like her mouth was smiling, but if you looked at her mouth, it wasn't, really.

Nose is still goofy, tilted too far to the left.

Eyeball/ iris ratio is weird.

Neck is much better though, overall looking good -- not sure how realistic you're going for.

Also you seem to barely sketch in the top gumline -- that would be a very low gumline, too much lip over it.

>agreeing with sozobe< The angle of the teeth might be slightly off, as well.

I do like the light reflections in the eyes, though.

Stuh, I hope you don't think we're being unnecessarily critical ... it's just that it is very good, and worth these corrections.

Can I ask how you're doing this? The medium?

soz, I know what you mean about the Mona Lisa smile thing. This actually isn't going on in my reference, it's something I inadvertantly added, but it brings life. I'm going to try to bring that out again. I'm not finished until her eyes have a sparkle and her face a glow. It's a lot easier to bring out the right emotion in a sketch than a portrait painting because there are fewer elements you have to get right...anything you omit the brain will make up for, and I'm taking off that crutch. If I get it right, she'll still look beautiful, but it will also be a technical feat for myself.

If you say the nose still looks odd...then it does. But I don't see it. Maybe I'll come back to that after the eyes and mouth. It may just be other elements of the face making the nose look weird. edit: nevermind I see it is apparently offset now.

Tico, not at all. If you stare at something long enough you can't see the defects in it anymore. That's why I have to show it to get crits that I missed. At least here I get positive feedback too. This is like the only place I can get positive feedback...serious artists just ignore me This is made purely with Adobe Photoshop.

Update! Completely redid the eyes. Changed the mouth to give a hint of smile. Added more detail to the hair and completely redid a few sections of the hair. And....a lot of other minor stuff.

This is actually a better crop of that last one, it's just that it doesn't show all my work!

Much better!

Still prefer the sketch. :-P

I know, I'm ornery, sorry. This is probably a great exercise and you've shown a lot of technical expertise, I'm impressed. I like the looseness and expressiveness of the sketch, though.

Well, I'm not throwing it away or anything

Actually I think I like it better if I don't blur the hair so you can see more of the detail in it:

excellent!

That's really beautifully done, Stuh! I'm jealous of your command of Photoshop-- I'm going to bribe you to help me in my graphic design class this fall

cypehercat, may I call you cypher?

You may call me whatever you like, you big hunk of capybara farmer, you!

Unless you're, like, buttering me up to ask for a loan or something.

Thanks, cypher!