hi all.. while I'm working on other things, I'm investigating in the lightsources and the colors to be used. First of all the result on human flesh (I've planned a chromed robot for metallic something).
I've seen a tut quite interesting, but experiencing is the best thing, and I must improve in the ramps to use.
Infact I'm also trying to understand the "right amount" of colors to be choosen for a ramp, instead of sticking to 5 each, as I did in the very first works

here I have put two light sources on her face: a bluish and a yellow/white on the other side.

What do you think? Did I choose the colors correctly? Did some errors in the color placement? Anything else to be noted?

I tried to rearrange the Picasso's eyes ( :P ) and giving her a Diabolic's Eva suite, it seemd to me the most appropriate.
I tried also to remove the dithering on the face but I'm not really convinced of the result :(
19 colors so far (add the bg and white)

opposite of dither = cell shading(sort of).

a few things i'd like to point:

• dithering in the clothes looks fine, but it looks like the transcision between

• the darkest and the lightest skin tones were some kind of scar. really, you don't need to dither everything, because not all trasncicion colors have to be as smooth as posible(hence the idea of contrast).

• for such a strong lightsource you're apliying in the face, the hair should be affected by it aswell.

• the shading of the face is a bit inacurate. its not really following the features of it, thus not helping to give an idea of volume.

finally, your palette could be improved a bit. your darkest browns and red are almost the same, same for your dark green that goes practically unnoticed unless you zoom to spot it on the eye(try replacing it with black). and the contrast in your blue palette could be improved also, as the first and third colors are virtually the same. better take one out or make them more useful(since the purple one is used as an outline).

Ok I did a bit of an edit.

I think one of your main problems was light source confusion...you have this really strong light coming from the right...however the left side of her face is still extremely bright. Most of the illumination in the scene seems like it should be from the right.

ah sorry, I did read that you had 2 light sources originally...but kinda slipped my mind...

The thing is that the white light source only seemed to illuminate a really small part of her face, and a tiny bit of hair. Therefore if you are going for two strong lightsources make sure they are both causing a strong sense of lighting.

I suggest getting an object and two lights and actually observing how the light sources interact with the object.

latest version:

was thinking in adding a pistol in a holster on her waist but I don't know if it is too much stereotyped, btw I hope I get the correct shading for the face, it's really difficult... at least without a physical ref.


Edited by Peach - 18 May 2008 at 6:38pm

I'm using this
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/962112
just for the left light.
As you also noted, I'm not really satisfied with the hairs, I should work hard on the volume and illumination, I'll try to add more colors to make a better transistion..

you were totally right, so I kept your edit more or less pixel.
Then I tried to give a shade to the hair, and added that pistol :-\

I think you're getting much closer now, and as met said maybe you've gone a bit overboard with the shine. I think you should keep a similar style but just tone down the brightness.

Also the pistol looks good, however its completely unnecessary. I would just stick to refining the picture as much as possible instead of adding extra parts to it. Maybe keep the belt though, that seems to work well, before it looked like she was just a floating torso

The light seems okay to me, but just a question: is the light purple or it's my monitor that needs a color balancing?

Well i don't know much about islamic architecture but it does not give me the feeling that's really islamic... (sapevo che l'arco a tutto sesto era peculiarità romanica!)
Anyway the background seems to have a different illumination than the character, looks like a pasted image on a background.

100% agree...read what I wrote before about not trying to add more to the image. Stick with getting the girl as good as possible.

The background is actually really nice, but doesn't suit the image at all. I would actually submit both character and background as separate pieces. 

Also, remember how this image was just supposed to be a lighting test on human flesh??

totally agree.
Since in these days I've very few spare time to dedicate onto this I've tried to diminish the light on the hair as you suggested: