Extrapolations

Thanks Lemi,

I have been trying to remember exactly how I achieved the eyes and after riffling through old iterations I know and remember It's a trick of light and paint. If you take the normal default color and dab it onto the canvas and then smudge it, what looked flat takes on a shiny tint highlighting in places. Of course this was done in an older version of Verve but the same thing seems to hold true now. I recall taking it into Photoshop to desaturate it and then bouncing back to verve to insert iris lines and then working heavily on it in smudge mode. (Brush # 1 with shift) You can see the highlights left on the eyes. This is right before the desaturation. At least I finally semi corrected the Eye. See where the highlights are left by smudging? working on it and refining with brush one smudge triggered a happy accident which I tried to take advantage of. This is just a screen grab of the original posted in this thread elsewhere.

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lol
Glad to see you back on your gallery Tartan ! you did something very special with the eyes, it strikes at the first glance, and at the other glances too

Hahaha, there is an easier waý to shut her up tartan.
Use warp (brush#1 or 6 + SHIFT, canvas structure off) and you'll just push things around until it fits.
Maybe not the most professional way, but hold, maybe not the most artistic way - professionals just need descent results, no matter how

[Taron]

That's as professional as it gets, Knacki!

heh Thanks Gbo Thanks Knacki and Taron I have her in Verve now trying to make her right but first I did a speed smudge ;o) I decided to actually lay face lines down this time. Did a good job with that and Still lost control. Then I F 5ved it for fun. Pure verve all the way. I didn't even take them to photoshop for resizing

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Very vervie. First one is pretty good. Just right eye( our view) a bit lower and it starts to rock

lol Thanks Knacki, I had it all laid out.. eye lines correct etc. I roughed in a lot intending to go back to smooth the lower lids and then refine overall shading. I started working on the eye you are talking about trying to correct the gaze and then refine. I stepped back to look at it and it was off ahem That's when I walked away from it.

[Taron]

Pretty cool, T! The symmetry weasel reminds me of Madagascar, you know...the animation flick... forgot what creatures they were meant to be...maybe lemurs?
Very funny, though!
When you do portraits, it's probably best to first try working without fluids. It takes a certain kind of clarity and quietness to really stay on top of things with fluids that even I often can't muster up. So...first you want to realize that you know what's happening, know what you want, you know. Then you can begin to consider raising fluidity levels.
Really, the most powerful and useful fluids get in controlled situations is for perfect and painterly smudging/blending. That's where their most excellent traits come out. At that point, then, they're also no longer experimental, but virtuous tools.

Back to your old man, there are some really great choices in him, especially on the sense of the skull beneath him, but there are a number of lighting confusions and the eyes are downright terrifying, hehehehe...which could- on purpose- be considered masterful!

One interesting method I figured out over the years was to really almost mimic what I'd do in 3d. I would make myself a hairless head without any features other than an egg with a chin, so to say, hahaha. I would light it properly with only one light source. Then I would try to carve out and push the features such as nose and eyes and cheeks, already creating drop shadows, too. I would continue until all major features are there. Then I might start putting colors in, very explicit stuff such as red on the cheeks and chin, nose and beneath the eyebrow, maybe, blue on the inside and under they eyes and on the temples, maybe some brightness variations where appropriate, considering sun exposure and so on. I might even go in for the finer details then, like specific textures on skin regions...if I get carried away, hehehe. But the real fun begins when I add a second light source or even a third.
To do that I often stay just on one layer, but just the other day I had great fun with making an additive layer and really just painting pure light on this one. That was fantastic fun and super easy. You can afterwards even play with the light, even change colors by brushing over it with 0 fludiity and 0 build up, if you painted with transparency, of course.
Anyhow... that's one of my techniques for reference free subjects.

Thanks Taron,
The light was confusing to me at first. I spent a good deal of time cursing myself on the forehead. I would drop a glop of white in the middle and start spreading it around for highlight and it would pick up dark from beneath I believe and start going much darker than I intended. Part of this was the liquid setting and my minimal control over it as you mentioned. strangely enough I almost work exclusively in layers but not this time. Great explanation on technique! Trying to apply 3d sculpting technique is a good approach. I will back off the liquid and see if I cant do anything about my muddied areas and then using additive layers for highlights Parts of that image were really starting to feel good to me

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