A most eerie pictiure, to say the least. As for criticism, I can't really do much there, since I myself lack the competance. Also, it any critique must first be based on knowledge of what you were aiming for. We can rule out Photorealism, I believe; but surrealism? Yes there is definitely an aura of surrealism surrounding this render; but was that your intention, or did it happen by happenstance? It you could clarify your intent, then we could make a knoweldgable commentary. All in all, though, I'd say that you did a good job here. The render is slightly reminiscent of Picasso in one of hie earlier, less abstract, moods. DO keep up the good work. DPH

EDIT: corrected hand I love the reflections in her eyes. It has a kind of surreal tone, as it looks too bright to be realistic, specially in this dark setting, which makes the eyes stand out even more. The pose in her right hand seems a bit fake to me. If you look yourself in the mirror in this pose (I did!) you'll see that the index finger is naturally the most straight and the pinky is the most curved, whereas in your picture it's the other way around.

Beautiful lighting!

I love tha atmosphere in this work. You've managed to achieve something that's quite difficult - a dark figure on a dark background, that's still distinguishable and clear. I also realy love the almost translucent quality of the skin, as though it had some kind of unnatural glow about it. Well, lit, posed, and the postwork done isn't too obvious at all. jonthecelt

The lighting is very good and it's a very interesting picture. I agree about the right hand pose though.

The lighting sets the mood, it is very effective here. I just think that hair and wall are to close in color/brightness, while the rest of the body and wall is lit a bit. I would probabaly make a not-so-bright light with a different color (say yellow or green) lit the wall behind her, for contrast. Like from an emergency or low energy light. But I don't know if it would destroy the mood.

Those eyes look like steel... Good image with loads of dark mood But the way the color and gloss on the lips stand out is extreem cool,good,great ...

I like the feel and mood of the picture. It has a vampire/goth feel to it, and the eyes, those are definately the focal point. My critique would be, that it is almost "too" dark. Not the clothing but the skin. Since her abdomen is in the lower portion of the picture, and dark, it is as if half the picture (lower half) is almost unnessesary. Hopefully that makes sense to you. You could add a hint more light to the lower in poser, or, in postwork sparingly use the dodge tool to highlight the skin where the light is touching. That would give it a slight ethereal glow and make it a touch more promiment.

Well, I usually try to find something to critisize, but unless it's glaringly obvious, I usually miss it. This is a good shot. The pic is eerie, with her eyes, she looks like an underground dweller that would shun the light. I would likely tone the light down a bit on her face. Light is tricky since you can't see anything if you miscalculate, but I'd try to get the light on her face to, perhaps, only a bit brighter than that on her midsection. I think it might increase the realism. :)

The right hand pose does look uncomfortable. Try posing your own hand with the fingers curved and separated like that. The eyes are total vampire:) And the high reflection really does work for them. And I really like the way the pal face and abdomen stand out from the dark. It lends a gothic-scary air to what would be an otherwise innocuous image. She is a gorgeous piece of art.

he only thing I can see is that there needs to be some shadow where the cloth meets the skin...other than that...Im drawn to her eyes..beautiful!

critique group: just in case people aren't, click and get the full view. it's not much bigger, but it looked much clearer, imho. my first reaction to this image was, "wow." i love the skin colors you achieved. i don't think it's a matter of where you do what- i think it's a matter of doing the best you can in 3d software, then doing the best you can in whatever other software you have. one of the things i like about paintings is the variation of colors in skin, the subtle tones and colors you can find in shadows and highlights. they're an exaggeration of real life, but i do see them with my eyes (not so much with a camera). i see that in this image, and i love it. her skin looks luminous and interesting, and the muted hues definitely succeed in giving the mood you say you wanted. i thought at first the highlights on the wall behind her were stars. the two things that are difficult to see on the monitor i'm using now are the origins of the ribbon hanging down her torso. i think the first is actually rather cool- you see more as you look more. the second is just kind of confusing. since you're willing to postwork distortions, i'd say it would have been great if her shoulders had been made a bit less round, the lines of her clothes (like her collar) a bit less perfect, and a few more wrinkles introduced to them. but you successfully communicated what you wanted to, and did it beautifully. well done!

Wow, I like it. Cannot find anything adverse to comment on, or anything that is wrong for me. Love the contrast between the luminance of the skin at the top & the tones lower, really draws your eyes & focuses them on her face.

The only thing negative is some nose glow, fixable by Ambient Occlusion on the Nostrils material group, and AO checked in one or more lights. If you are not happy with the image quality that Poser exports JPGs in (even at 100% it still drops a lot of image data) you may want to try exporting to no-loss format first like TIF, and convert the image in another application like Photoshop. As a whole I like it, a nice clean portrait. Might want to push the camera a bit left or right to get off of true center.

I like this a striking use of light

I think that the fabric is just too dark. Either lightning it up a little, or adding some light (spreading the spot on her face?) I like the composition overall. If you are having disconnects between what you see in the render window and what you get when you export it into your art program, you might look at what pallete your program supports. When I upgraded Paintshop from 8 to 9, I found that the default pallette matched my monitor, not the standard which poser uses.

Nice work, her lips and eyes really "pop". I have to say it's a little too dark for me to easily discern details. I love your hair painting and I think you did really well with the mist.

Eeeek, can't take credit for the hair on this one... Its actually the Kine Hair freebie but I did postwork it a bit to get rid of the sharp lines and shadows that didn't blend with the overall picture.

:) I can only agree with others - VERY beautiful skintones! Some time ago I got a nice hint from Siliphiel from AerySoul team. V3 has quite small head in comparison to her broad shoulders. Neat trick is to scale her head up to 105-108% - she gets different, more proportional look.

I have to say, this Image is just plain awsome. You said on another image that you hadn't really done much imagery that shows emotions. This one not only shows emotions but, insites them as well. For me it brings back memories of Goth/industrial clubs, being out on the town, raising hell, and having fun. It really makes me remember seeing The Thrill Kill Kult play down in NC, Hangin at Industrial bars down in Atlanta, or even City Club in dank old Detroit. The eyes are the first thing that grabbed me and the colors in this one are so subtle and so perfect for the image. In my opinion the posing looks dead on to me, no pun intended of course. I am trying to think of which artists work this reminds me of but I am drawing a blank. Anyways Great render that you have here, very choice image.