.:.Ash's Art Thread.:. (critique always welcome)

[AshenhartKrie]

gave cel shading a go for the first time, and while I'm pretty happy with this I thought some people might have some tips for me? Especially regarding hair because I can see how terrible the shading on the hair is.
THanks c:

(the character is FitzChivalry Farseer, from the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb)

[Renmiou]

I'd say that the problem with the hair is that you have very thick lines, thicker than the lines you used on the face, and that you didn't think of the hair as a mass that is divided in smaller clumps.

Ideally, you should see your character's hair as simplified shapes (in your case, a "sphere" with an elongated shape attached to it - the skull and ponytail respectively) and apply shadows considering those shapes first, then only apply a few selected thinner shadows as you get nearer to your light source. You did this more successfully with the face, though the shadows at the sides of the brow bones are too pronounced if the light comes from above, as it seems to from the rest of the face.

(It's also worth noting that this is more soft cel-shading, which is often used in American comics and visual novels.)

I'd be tempted and go full painterly (like some of the things Auro Cyanide did for NaNo) or full cel-shaded (like the stuff LeSean Thomas does) so that it would be easier to unify the style of colouring between hair and skin.

If you want a useful channel on how to work on portraits on a more painterly style, I'd strongly recommend Istebrak's Youtube channel - I've done the 14 day challenge for portraits twice and I saw a huge improvements even in my more anime stuff afterwards. It really teaches you how to think more consciously about lighting when you draw anything.

[AshenhartKrie]

Ah, yeah I do generally use a full painterly style, but I like the shiny look of the soft cel shading and wanted to give it a shot. Thank you for the tips with the hair, I'll definitely give that some thought for my next one

[AshenhartKrie]

started another piece but wanted to get the light source a little better than just "eh" so I worked out where the placement should be.
Thoughts/feedback appreciated!

[Lord Dragon]

In regards to your first image, I feel like the cell shading lacks dimension, you only have one shade tone, you should further deepen the values by adding a dark colour thus giving your character more form.

[AshenhartKrie]

Returning again to drop in my most recent artwork which im stupidly proud of. i love my time travelling twink