This really doesn't belong in the galleries, it's just a practice I am doing.... I rendered her nude with just the mask so that I can work on hair and clothing painting. I have two images here. Please I am looking for suggestions on the painting to improve it. I would like to have hair that is a bit more distinct in it's curls but so far I haven't achieved it, I may be oversmudging or something. The image above is the first one I did a few days ago, I always seem to end up with a wrap style dress thing...

This one I wanted to try something more "decorative" and I tried (miserably) to paint shoes on her as well. See I also tried to paint a different style of dress. So, suggestions please? I am going to keep my little model image there and keep trying, but any suggestions on why I am not able to get more flowing curls or thick wisps? Maybe I'm just afraid to curl it..... ~sigh~

Wow I think you did a wonderful, wonderful job, she is beautiful. Sharen:-)

I can't think of a way off the top of my head to get a curlier look to the hair... I'd have to try it and see if I come up with anything... though I'm still learning how to paint hair myself... one thing about the dress on the top though, it looks like it's wrapping around under her thigh, but unless she's laying down, it wouldn't really do that.. you wouldn't see the curve of the bottom of her leg. The rest of it looks pretty good... I'd personally probably add a few more highlights to the hair, especially at the top and along the edges, but it looks pretty good. I like the vest on the second one, but it seems like the skirt should be falling more forward... unless there is a breeze that would blow it back from her leg, it would naturally fall a little more towards her leg... and the beads look like yellow dots instead of beads... but then it could just be because they're so small. If there were a hotspot and a little bit of shadow to them, they'd look more spherical... Eeesh... I hope that didn't sound as bad as it does in my head... you really did do a great job! :)

Hair is really tough to paint properly, just because there's so many colors involved in making just one color of hair. Think about it: we can recognize a dye job easily because its all one flat color with maybe a highlight or two. But real hair is far more complex, with a fuller range of highlights and shadows all built around one shade. All I can suggest is look at peoples hair, study it (as much as you can without getting arrested =) ), see how it works under different kinds of light. Youll see how complicated a job youve set out for yourself, but not an impossible one.

You could perhaps bring the curls out more with some more distinct highlights and lowlights in the hair that might give it a bit more depth. That is really lovely work!

Hi LadySilverMage; I don't know why you would believe these are not worthy as gallery images, they are quite nice. However I can understand your frustration. Your looking for that perfect or near perfect feeling when it's done and your not getting it...right? And as the artist, you would know, no matter how much we may tell you it's good stuff already ;-) Have you tried mix and matching? I like elements of the first one and I also like elements in the second, and vice versa, maybe if you kind of tried variances. It is actually amazing how different the model looks just by what you have done here, isn't it...I mean the change in character itself, same face, but they look different all around. The hair in the first one is definetly more flaring, I like it, but you may want to try and go hog wild and just see what you can do with some curling and waving as well, maybe more highlights, and maybe even let some strands "loose" more cause hair does that sometimes and it can help get that bouncy or windy effect which can also look good. The hair in the second is too "tight" for what your saying you want, or maybe the word is "flat" I am looking for, but I do like the jewellery. I really like the outfit in the second one, but you may wish to change the color scheme to see what effect that has overall. I like the jewellery effect added onto the clothes as well. And it works great on the legs. Personally, I don't think your giving yourself enough credit, your doing quite good with this although I can sympathise with your block, it can happen so easily when we are looking for that certain end result and just can't quite grasp it the way we think it should be ;-) But it sure is coming along quite wonderful and at the end of all this your gonna have quite a nice collection of pics ;-) And since you will probably have a very nice assortment of Lady SilverMage fashion clips, may I suggest a collage perhaps? I think it be real cool if your put all these pics together and had all the variances in one great big collage, can you imagine the possibilities? And with varying backgrounds as your doing too? Great!! Just a thought....look forward to seeing more.... Cheers.

There are some great hair tutorials here at Rendo. As for clothing study some of the masters at it here. Like picky's stuff. She is one of the masters at it. I think you're very much on the right track. I'm still striving for my "Picky" simliar type image.

Thanks all of you! I have read and followed every tutorial from here I can find (including Dacorts and Debbie's). A few cloth tutorials as well. It's not that I hate the hair, so much as I want some tendrils, I will keep trying, I think that I am actually just afraid to pull them out of place. The skirt on the second one is supposed to flare, I was trying to add movement to it since her leg is out, as if she had just posed that way. I do see the problem with te wrap in the first one and her leg.... I will keep at it, it is my pet project right now. I think I will try painting colours in, instead of burning and dodging, that will give me more variety... Yes Radart, it is very frustrating, I seem to be stuck at this level of hair and I don't want to be heh I'll just keeping pushing along though. As for the gallery, well they are practices, there really isn't a story behind them and they aren't "pin-ups" just doodles so why crowd the galleries besides I was more likely to get constructive help here in the forums :-) A collage, now there's an idea...

Ok, I have added more colours throughout the hair, I think I'm getting ther :-)

I will keep plugging along :-) Thank you all for being encouraging!

image refer to * below when it comes down to detailed hair on closeups, smudge, dodge and burn are usually not as good as painting strand by strand. but at the size you have above, it should be okay. but however you did the above, it's looking fine, you just need to refine it more: - it looks more natural in standing poses if the hair is not in front of the shoulders on both sides. put one of the sides behind her, and hair swept from the face looks nice. ;) - the shape of the top could use some part definition. - need more highlights and dark areas, the way i do it is: with one or two pixel brush, set to (approximately) about 50% hardness, 10% opacity, dodge and burn some strands, not too many, just dodge some strands where the highlights will fall, and burn some strands where the shadows will fall. then increase the brush (approximately) size to 20 and hardness to 20% and opacity to 5% and go over the strand highlights with more dodge, and burn the shadow strands. - if you like, you could use the brush size fading to get wisps that get thinner towards the ends. uploaded pic to illustrate that * - not the best one i have but it's the only one available at the mo.

Thanks April! I will try those suggestions as well. I will try not to put the hair over both shoulders, but it's the way both mine & my daughters' hair hangs most of the time when we are in movement somewhat. Especially mine which is too long and too thick (I really need to get to the salon as soon as my guests are gone) and always in the way. I will also try the dodge and burn for highlights and shadows (I assume you do that ~after~ you have mad e the basic hair) Maybe I should try working it in PS instead of PSP, I always use PSP but it is probably time to get used to PS....

btw, have you seen will kramer's hair tute? it's the easiest, most effective, quickest one i know and it's perfect for everything except for extreme closeups. i usually do what he says in his tute, then add the random single pix strands, and also those thinning wisps at the end IF i need more detail. it's at http://www.earthcurves.com/tutorials/hair_tute_intro.htm hmm... i see it's been upgraded... the technique is way different. before it looked like he put on a solid colour for the base shape, then blobbed on a highlight colour on top, then dragged/combed that colour through to make strands. now he does strands from the start with custom brushes. i do that for more detailed, more refined pics. for quicker pics i would still do it his old way. wonder if he can dig up the old one for comparison...

April, thanks for the plug :) The old version might have been quicker, but it didn't look as good. I still work with a base shape and then add strands later, along with highlights, etc. There's so many ways to do it... everyone just needs to experiment and find what works for them.