The lighting is causing a glare which lightens up some of the left side, but still it's good enough for an update. Aside from a few fixes as usual I'm really happy. I think about 1 or 2 days more and I'll be finished with drawing and moving on. I just need to fill in the background and work on those small fixes. This is also going to be the last update before I post the finished drawing.
I'm happy with the hands, well except for my pinkie. It looks a little awkward but I figure it will come together when I start shading things in. I think I may have flattened out the values in the chest a bit much. I think it needs more darks. I can almost hear Mr. G yelling "Get darker!" It will get there though I think I might lighten up some of the top part of the dress.I'm really happy with the work I did today, and I'm excited about working on it more. I'd be working more on it tonight but I have to get up early in the morning. Also I think maybe I should work on my thumb a bit more. The shape looks a bit off at least on the top. I'm also trying to spread out a bit more and work on the background as well. I laid in a bit of the pattern on the pillow. I think as long as I get the shading on my dress spot on I won't need the pattern. I should start sketching in some of that right side background tomorrow though.
Again the quality of the photo is sub par, but I've gotten some progress done. I laid in the second figure's hair. I may have to darken the shading a bit in her face and adjust the top of the hair line, other wise I think everything with her looks great. There's not enough done on the dress for me to feel one way or another about. I started laying in a bit more of the background, and I'm pretty happy with it so far. My biggest concern right now looking at the photo is hair on the second figure looks a bit detached. I'm starting to feel a bit better about the first figure's hand. I made the right on the first figure a bit larger because when I laid in the background it felt a bit awkward. Anyway I'm overall pretty happy with it, aside from the need of a few adjustments. I still feel that I'm ahead of schedule and I'm feeling really good about that.
I've changed a little bit from my original plan. I took it down to one plain strap. I may lighten it but I think it will work when the whole dress is dark. Also I'm leaving out the pattern, I think it would just make everything too busy. I will try to add in some of the texture of the dress, but there are a lot of interesting folds that I think would be lost in the pattern. I think the second face is looking great. I think that line on the mouth might be a bit to dark but other than that I'm really happy with all the delicate detail. This photo doesn't show much of that, but my lighting is horrible and uneven. Also my hands were shaking a bit when I took the photo. Though the way this photo is cropped is close to the final composition. I struggled a bit with the second face, but aside from darkening some shading I think it doesn't need much work. I think I finally got the proportions and placement about right. I just need to fill in both bodies and the rest of the background.
It's not a lot of progress, again, but I like it. I'm feeling pretty good about the hair, though I'm a little uneasy about the shoulder. I think it's mostly the angle of the strap. In the end it probably won't matter. The shoulder could probably come in a little more, on the angle. The strap may look even more odd but the shoulder would look right. I'm not sure. I might come back to that later. There's a spot on the shadow of the chest I need to lighten, and I need to even out the shadow more, other than that I'm happy with the chest. I can work more into the arms tomorrow and the background on the left, I can also sketch in more of the second figure. The background on the right will probably be the last thing I do. I at least want to finish both figures before I start working on that intricate part of the sculpture.
First of all the border is not that crooked, I just took the photo at a weird angle and I didn't have the patience to fix it at the moment. I've spent a good bit of time agonizing over the two borders I have right now. Also I'm really hating that left side of the hair right now. I think it's just too high and maybe more of that sculpture should show. I moved the shoulder so I have to fix the hair around it. I like how the background is looking. I'm just full of frustration for the hair right now and that's why I'm dragging my feet. I'll spend some time later trying to fix that hair, either tonight or tomorrow.
I've gotten some work done tonight, I made some decent progress in the background. I think the width of the shoulders needs some double checking. Though I'm pretty sure they haven't moved since my last measurement. They still look too wide though, I'm not sure. I'm afraid now I'll have to bring it in a little because that would mean bringing the hair in as well. I really should recheck that. Other than that I'm happy with the work in the hair and background I have done. I'd be working more but I really need to break for food. I'll at least check those proportions before I go to bed. I'll update again soon, I'm starting to worry about my deadline so I shouldn't be going days at a time without working on this anymore.
I've been thinking about the background quite a bit. I really don't like the simplified background with the just the flat value shading in place of the architecture. I'm including the architecture. So far aside from the huge pain of perspective and straight lines, I think it's for the best. I like how it's looking now, it gives more interest to the background. Right now I'm frustrated with the left shoulder, since I've finally figured out the right. I'm also frustrated with how the hair ends there. I think I'll work it out, though if it wasn't for the small hand at the bottom I probably would have cropped off part of the left side of the figure. I still have some problems with the width of the face and still may come back to change that later.
I've gotten a small amount of work done. I mostly tried to fix some issues that I still have with the mouth and face in general. I'm getting a bit caught up right now in the hair and the background. I keep agonizing over some details that I should probably just leave lone. The hair on the left side of the face needs improvement because of the corrections I did on that side of the face. The background (flat value) is looking not so consistent. I've gotten some more sketching in, especially on the hair. I also did a little more work in the neck. I'm pretty happy overall with what I have done, despite the issues that I have with some of it. I do admit that I need to buckle down and get more work done in one sitting though. I've been distracted with other things. I'm still not too worried about my deadline and I feel like I'm right on track.
I've gotten a little more work done. I still need to finish the hair but I did a little of work in the neck and background. I also tried to reexamine the proportions again. I still have a bunch of things to fix. I know what they are though and that's what's important. It's getting late right now though so I'll have to pick this up tomorrow. I'm still feeling good about the deadline, again though we'll see if that changes as it gets closer. The photo I took of it isn't the best but I really wanted to update this.
I got some more work done. I've decided to do the background. I'm eliminating the linear architecture in the far background, but the leaves and that metal sculpture piece is going to be there. I'm starting to sketch in more of the drawing, though I plan to keep with the idea of working from the top down so I don't smear anything. I still think I'm doing pretty good time wise. I got more done today than I was expecting to.
I've done some more work on the hair, and gotten a bit of sketching done. I'm really happy with the hair. Though now I'm starting to question my decision on the background. I'm really determined to start adding more into my backgrounds, but I'm not sure if this will be too busy with the background in it. I also want want to work from the top down on this so I don't smear it later when I come back in to do the background. I need to put some more thought into that. Also I'm really shooting to get this done for a competition deadline, May 1. I think so far I'm on schedule. I don't know though it's hard to tell this early on.
I'm stressing out a good bit about this. I don't have my progress done because I'm stressing over every detail and I'm struggling with the hair. I tried to fix the lips again, I think the shadow on the right side needs a little tweaking now, but other than that I'm leaving it alone. I'm not sure if it's better or worse now, than it was before. So in fear of just ruining it I'm going to pretty much leave it alone, and concentrate on the hair. Which still needs a lot of work, it just doesn't look right right now.
I spent less than an hour working on this, so of course it's not epic progress, but it's something. I still think the lips are a bit off, and I think rather than tweaking they just need to be fully erased. Though I love how I drew them and if I had real life Photoshop cut and paste abilities I'd just do that and move them up a little and rotate them a little. I'm having some difficulty with the hair, which is about usual for me, because I find hair so difficult. I'm trying to lay the values in subtly on the face without getting too dark to quick. Though I'm having trouble getting dark enough in the hair. Once I perfect the face and work some more on the hair I'll move on to the body. Then maybe I'll just loosely sketch in the rest of the composition. I'm really fascinated with some of the shapes and objects in the background but I'm not sure exactly how much of the background I'll include. I don't want it to look to busy. I might dark the background a bit overall just to make it recede. Though a flash wasn't used to take the photo, I was lit from the front by a huge window so the darks aren't too strong to begin with. I think the soft lighting works, despite my preference for dramatic lighting.
