Hit me hard - I'm ready for the fury.

[mstan]

Please be honest with me here, but I'd also ask that you provide some advice in regards to whatever is failing (or at least not as good as it could be) in my art. I've posted some on Deviant Art, but I don't really get any visitors there. Thank you very much for your time.

Info: These are digitally painted portraits posted with the most recent on top, the oldest on the bottom. I did them on MyPaint with my mouse (because my tablet has been broken a while, and tablets are expensive when you're in-between jobs ). These pieces used to be pretty huge, so I shrank them down. Thanks again!

[shelley wheeler]

i think these are great.... my fav is the girl in the middle..i like her expression and the color would look great on my wall..lol..i like the floating feel of the one on top, my only critique is that there is something about the shading around the adams apple area that is distracting me..a distinct 7 ? if that was where you wanted the eye to go, nevermind...lol...unbelievable! and with a mouse! wow

[Singular]

These are pretty good. I am impressed that they were done with a mouse. I can only imagine how good they would be if you used your tablet. Anyway, in terms of a critique, here we go. The man's face is decent. The hair needs more detail. The ear needs fine tuning and more detail. The entire face is good, but you need to take it to the next level. It has good contrast, but the depth of tone is missing. I would like to see more values, rather than a few. More gradient is needed, especially arount the head, chin and neck.

Overall, nice job. I hope you get your tablet.

all the best,
Joe

[mstan]

I agree with both of you about needing to smooth out parts of my art, but I do rather like having abstract parts to my pieces, like the top person's neck - though it may be too abstract. On that note. . .

Thanks, Shelley, I didn't see the 7 actually, but now I do! LOL I'll work on that.

Thanks, Joe. Hmmm, I'm having a little trouble understanding what you mean when you say that I need to take it to the next level. How do I create depth of tone? And would that cover the problem of there needing to be more values? Thanks.

[ehoeveler]

These are great for having to use a mouse! Very Nice.

[mstan]

Thank you very much, ehoeveler.

[Neal McDannel]

You wrote, "I do rather like having abstract parts to my pieces". I think it takes a specific skill set to mix accurate renderings well with abstractions. Usually these different approaches read as such to the viewer and therefore require a higher skill level to execute successfully together. I believe there should be a somewhat even degree of abstraction throughout an image for the sake of visual continuity.
I like the compositions of the bottom two images. Both portraits are tight to the picture plane and to me are visually more interesting and less usual. In the center image the expressive quality of the girls puffy eyes and the reinforcement of her emotional state with her leaning on her hand (as if frustrated) is appealing. The top image with the disembodied head just appears to be not quite finished. Its background could add to the composition but in it's current form is nondescript.

[mstan]

I think I get what you're saying about an "even degree of abstraction." I hadn't thought about that, actually, but it makes sense.
Also, I agree with you about the top one looking unfinished. I doubt I'll get back to it soon, though.