PSF: Portrait Duel Sketchbook vs. Joeydes

[Sketchbook]

Joeydes:


Sketchbook:

[Joeydes]

Dude, you totally rocked me....only thing, I think you lost the tilt to my head....lol...I think we both did better on your face than mine. Awesome portraits! Thanks for this challenge! I soooo don't mind losing to those pieces.

[Popninja]

Was the contest to do original portraits, using the photos as reference? Joeydes, no disrespect intended, but if you did those portraits 100% freehand without painting over the photos, then you are a phenomenal artist. But, to my eye, it looks like I could line those photos up with the painted portraits in PS and they would align perfectly.

Am I wrong? If I am, I bow to you, Joeydes. Great work.

I love Sketchbooks' takes on these, too.

[dfbovey]

Even though the structure is better in Joey's, they have an artificial feel to them. Colors make them have a plastic or artificial android type feel to them. Sketch has a nice traditional feel with some wonkiness going on, but when I think portrait, I think about what I would want to hang on an office wall and that put my vote squarely with sketch. You just need to refine the cheeks in that first one. Right now things are a bit lopsided. But the likeness is definitely still there despite that.

[Wassy]

When doing portraits, you actually kind of aren't going for 100% likeness. The best portraits minorly exaggerate distinctive features. This usually gives a truer likeness than simply trying to replicate exactly what you see. That's why I like Sketchbook's effort more. It gets closer to the heart of portraiture.

Remember, you're not doing photography. Art can transcend (and even in photography, excellent portraiture is quite tricky).

[BPS Morganza]

When doing portraits, you actually kind of aren't going for 100% likeness. The best portraits minorly exaggerate distinctive features. This usually gives a truer likeness than simply trying to replicate exactly what you see. That's why I like Sketchbook's effort more. It gets closer to the heart of portraiture.

Remember, you're not doing photography. Art can transcend (and even in photography, excellent portraiture is quite tricky).

Excellent advice!

[Joeydes]

Was the contest to do original portraits, using the photos as reference? Joeydes, no disrespect intended, but if you did those portraits 100% freehand without painting over the photos, then you are a phenomenal artist. But, to my eye, it looks like I could line those photos up with the painted portraits in PS and they would align perfectly.

Am I wrong? If I am, I bow to you, Joeydes. Great work.

I love Sketchbooks' takes on these, too.

I actually checked what you said...the shapes of the faces line up almost exact, but I spaced my eyes a lil wide and Sketch's nose is off. I painted it all freehand which is why my colors are way off like df said (that artificial plastic feel). I'm decent with shapes...it's the colors I need the most work on. No disrespect taken. It's not the first time I've heard it.

[Joeydes]

When doing portraits, you actually kind of aren't going for 100% likeness. The best portraits minorly exaggerate distinctive features. This usually gives a truer likeness than simply trying to replicate exactly what you see. That's why I like Sketchbook's effort more. It gets closer to the heart of portraiture.

Remember, you're not doing photography. Art can transcend (and even in photography, excellent portraiture is quite tricky).

Good advcice Wassy. Can I ask how you choose your palette? I sample colors from the source pics and they never seem right to me....like df said, I keep getting that artificial feel.

[Joeydes]

Any advice on how to improve the color work? S'why I'm here...........

[Wassy]

I have a hard time in general with digital colors, because they always look like digital colors. I found some luck with Corel Painter because it has a mixer palette thing that helped me get closer to what I want.

In paint, my underpainting palette (which is always in acrylic) is white, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, and napthanol red. I do white and burnt sienna for lights and middles, with a mixture of the sienna, blue, and red for violet in the shadows. I use this pretty much no matter what the final colors are because I'll adjust the use of the violet depending on if I'm going for a warm or cool finish.

I try to keep my finish palette to maybe 3 or 4 colors and an accent. I glaze in many layers in oils.

I'm not keen on sampling right off of photos because color is it's own thing. Don't slave to the photo, make the color become part of the story you're telling. And don't forget that colors will change depending on what colors they're next to. Grabbing samples off a digital pic is getting a sample of a color that's been through many levels of data interpretation and doesn't have much to do with anything anymore.