Need Advice On Face Portraits

[Ekamu]

So I'm now learning how to draw more realistic for a "mature" visual novel. (no more paper cut outs lol)

I need some advice, I tried shading the second face with dodge and burn and no heavy tones and the first face I used cartoon shading.
I'm not sure which shading style is better suited.

Also what do you think about the facial differences? I'm trying to keep things diverse for different races, not everyone has a narrow nose and big eyes like in manga or super chiseled facial features and high cheek bones like in comics.

Does it look more comic book like or manga like?
I don't mind both.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

You are off to a great start, but there are a couple of things that will really help you.

First, you don't have to draw a line for every feature on the face. Generally, if you are doing a colored piece, you'd only want to keep lines that are absolutely necessary to define forms. For instance, you don't have to run the line of the nose all the way up to the eye. The shadows you have there will do that job just fine.

Second, don't use Dodge and Burn. They are for photo editing, and result in really bad colors. Keep in mind, that the midtones, shadows, and highlights on skin (or anything) are different colors, not just different shades of the same color. This is especially important on very pale or very dark skin. Just to use an example, when discussing pale skin - it often has shades of blue in it, because blood vessels are more visible on the surface, and lots of pale pink-red in "hot" areas, like the nose, chin, cheeks, etc. Where these interact, you might get a little purple. Also, things like ambient light will affect the color in all faces. (I've got a discussion of cheap way to sort of cheat ambient colored shadows in my "Sketch Process" link below - last posting.)

Truthfully, you can use just about ANY colors to shade a face, and as long as you understand the planes of the face, it will look pretty nice and dynamic. Some artists have even successfully used RAINBOW colors to paint portraits. Just experiment and lay down some swatches on your canvas until you find 3-4 colors that are working well together.

EDIT: Also, Ctrl-Paint.com is an invaluable resource for all things digital art wise.

[Ekamu]

I'll be sure to use "hot" and "cold" colors from now on. I had no idea shade could also affect color at the same time.
Thanks LateWhiteRabbit.

So cartoon shading NOT dodge and burn... Any tips with layer settings like Multiply, Additive e.t.c for "hot cold colors"?

I'm so used to drawing manga, I completely forgot about the line in the nose . Infact most anime/amaga does not
do this, they use shading like you mentioned.

Some bad drawing habits creep up until someone else points them out. I think without that I would have realistic faces.

Edit: Rubbed out the nose line

One other thing, (or three other things)...

How do you shade with full black and white? like in comics/manga

Does "hot and cold" apply for clothes too? or just skin? or is it a universal rule with colors in general?

What about multiple light sources, like two light sources from both left and right but nowhere else???
It looked weird on the face I made...

I'll try something with hot and cold colors. I have half term break for a weak! Yeah!

[LateWhiteRabbit]

So cartoon shading NOT dodge and burn... Any tips with layer settings like Multiply, Additive e.t.c for "hot cold colors"?

Which Layer Blend setting you use will change depending on the colors and the effect you are going for. It is best just to play with them and the Opacity of each layer to see what looks best to you. There's no magic blend setting that is best all the time, though Multiply and Overlay are the usual workhorses for me.

How do you shade with full black and white? like in comics/manga

Black and white doesn't work so well for shading if you are looking to do lots of gradients. It works best when using what is called "heavy blacks", where you fill areas that are in shadow with solid black, and pull lines out to "feather" rounded or curved edges.

Line weight is very helpful if you are looking for a lighter approach (i.e. maybe you want to color it in later). The basic rules are outer contour lines are thicker, inner lines are thinner. Lines closer to light sources are thinner, lines in shadow are thicker.

Manga shades black and white by applying screen tone sheets, which are basically sheets of tightly grouped black dots of different sizes they rub off onto the paper, which tricks the eye into the appearance of gray.

Does "hot and cold" apply for clothes too? or just skin? or is it a universal rule with colors in general?

Color rules apply to everything that uses color. Just observe how different materials reflect light.

What about multiple light sources, like two light sources from both left and right but nowhere else???
It looked weird on the face I made...

Simple. You're the director of the image, right? You control the camera and the light positions and their intensity. Never put your character in a position where the lights will make them look weird. Or you know ... just cheat. If it looks plausible, and MORE importantly, if it looks GOOD ... that's all that really matters.

FYI, when models or scenes are lit, just two lights are never used. There is a key light (always the strongest), the fill light (weaker and done to lighten shadows or shade them), and a rim light (very bright, but hidden behind the subject, so you just see the outline of the light, "popping" their form off the background.) In my Sketch Process link, you can see this in my Berry Yum Yum girl picture. The key light is yellow from the upper left, the fill light is blue from the lower right, and the rim light is the sun playing double-duty, making a hot yellow backing light. It is also a good example of cheating. The lighting isn't technically correct or accurate, but I thought it looked good.

[Ekamu]

Nice avatar, I learned a lot from your sketches...
LateWhiteRabbit's Creation of an Avatar

You flipped the sketch the fifth time and cleaned up the line art.

Also you apply flats first to everything and then shade later.

And lastly some of the lines in the hair is done with shade not solid black.

I'll also take note of line thickness and fake a key light source.

Thanks for the advice.

[Renmiou]

Have you considered visiting the Istebrak G+ community?

There's a challenge there called the 14 day Challenge - you can do it either with a frontal or 3/4 view portrait and most of us who've done it have found they really got a lot better at drawing more realistic faces, the specifications are:

The 14-Day challenge is typically a portraiture painting challenge that lasts two weeks. You are required to paint a face from scratch for 14 days in a row. However, you cannot graduate to the next day unless you have attained a critique. The Google+ community is amazing for this! After your critique, you repaint the face again, applying all the new insight you've received from either myself or your peers. You should participate because it is a great study that promotes a healthy learning habit and perfects your understanding of a face, which is a vital skill set all artists should have. The basic template set up and guidelines are as follows:

The whole image must be painted in grey-scale. This is a great way to keep focus on form, structure and facial anatomy and not distract the learning with color balance or saturation. A 14-day challenge can be painted with color, but it is recommended you complete the challenge in grey-scale first.
No hair, body, accessories, makeup (war paint, excessive eye-liner, lipstick etc.). Keep the focus only on the raw subject.
You can watch numerous 14-day challenge critiques on my YouTube playlist at my channel if you need help figuring out where to start.

Personally, I got from Day 1 (frontal) to day 13 (I rushed day 14) and then I did the 3/4 one to get to day 14 there as well. I found it really helpful to post in that community because people tend to give you a lot of useful feedback and sometimes the owner does so in one of her Critique Hour streams on Youtube. I've certainly improved much faster in the period I've done those than when I previously tried improving my realism-ish portraits.

You're off to a good start! I just think that trying to abandon lines would most likely help you a lot, too.

[Ekamu]

I'll give it a shot.

I've been messing around with layers before and I noticed that without heavy lines the art in general tends to look a lot more realistic. I can always add lines around the edge of the image to keep it in perspective from the background, but you're right. I should abandon lines altogether and just learn to shade properly and pay more attention to lighting.