Hey everyone! If you read my post history, you'll notice that I went away for a VERY long time! But of course that wasn't because I was giving up, I just wanted to practice more before I came back asking for critique. So here I am again! This time around I made a bit of a study on black and white values and anatomy. Thoughts?

https://imgur.com/0g7xByO

Not sure what the photo reference looked like but I have a feeling you might of gone too dark and or too light in some areas. The contrast is off to me. Just because it is the darkest thing in the reference doesn't mean it has to be black and it is the same with white, the lightest part doesn't mean white. Anther problem is the value shapes are vague and rough. For the anatomy, it is hard to tell because I have not seen the reference and because of the rough values and shading. However I think there is some issues but can't be too specific. I would take a second look at the neck and shoulder area, arms, and hip area.

Don't what your ref looked like if you had any but from what I know of values and anatomy I think I can give some criticism.

So your anatomy is lacking some solid, important bony landmarks and thus some much need structure. For example the asis (the hip bone) is missing. If you had that then figuring out the rest of the forms of the pelvis region would be much easier. If you had the clavicles the neck and shoulder area would be easier figure out. The rib cage is half way there but even the half that is there feels mushy, not solid at all. My advise would be to focus learning the skeleton and training your eye to find the bony land marks.

As for values you have the common muddy aspect to them that comes from a lack of confidence and not planning out your forms. Also I think you should separate her from the background by grouping her values to be light than the background. "White" skin in general is very light and soft anyways so it should have shadows that are that dark to begin with. Unless you were going for a chiaroscuro light but that would require some very deliberate planning.

I did a quick paint over to try and give you a visual to what I'm trying to explain. I hope it helps. Good luck and feel free to ask any questions you have.

While I do get what you say about the anatomy and such. In the reference it looked way different. Her bones were not as visible in the picture, for example, the left side of the rib cage. Same goes with the hip bone. It isn't that prominent in the reference. Her skin is quite smooth, which is something that I was trying to achieve.

But I guess you're right still. I have studied anatomy a lot and I do get the whole bone landmarks thing, but I guess I need to just practice more? I feel that my main problem is not exactly anatomy, but mainly shading.

You talk about my values being muddy and that I don't plan out my shapes. Have you got any tips as to how to improve that? What exactly do you mean by "muddy" and "planning out"? lastly, any tips as to how to separate her from the background? I run into that problem quite often.

Thank you for your reply. At the end of the day, do you think I'm heading in the right direction?

Btw, here's the reference. https://imgur.com/hG3NGGV

While I do get what you say about the anatomy and such. In the reference it looked way different. Her bones were not as visible in the picture, for example, the left side of the rib cage. Same goes with the hip bone. It isn't that prominent in the reference. Her skin is quite smooth, which is something that I was trying to achieve.

But I guess you're right still. I have studied anatomy a lot and I do get the whole bone landmarks thing, but I guess I need to just practice more? I feel that my main problem is not exactly anatomy, but mainly shading.

You talk about my values being muddy and that I don't plan out my shapes. Have you got any tips as to how to improve that? What exactly do you mean by "muddy" and "planning out"? lastly, any tips as to how to separate her from the background? I run into that problem quite often.

Thank you for your reply. At the end of the day, do you think I'm heading in the right direction?

Btw, here's the reference. https://imgur.com/hG3NGGV

Ah yes, that is a tricky reference. I can still see the landmarks but they are barely visible and it probably helps I know what to look for.

So by muddy I'm referring to the quality of the gradients. Say you're going from a light to a dark as a gradient the transition has blemishes in it that cause it to go back in forth in areas. So you have something like 1->3->2->5->4->7 when what you want is 1->2->3->4->5->6->7. it can also be caused when you have one object on top of another with a in between value that's caused by a brush stroke that was only meant for one object but hit both giving you a gradient where you don't want one. Lastly can also be a poor gradient where you want a smooth transition and instead you have a harsher transition.

Planning out is when you have an object you want to paint and you consider where you want a transition from one value to the other. Basically it's know where you plain changes are and what the shape of your light side and dark sides are.

For separating something from the background it is just a matter of having the background either being lighter or darker than the foreground. Now you can do stuff like mixing up what is in the background. If the background is mostly dark and the foreground mostly light except for one area then you can cheat a little and put a bright object in the background behind that one area. The other thing you can do is if that area isn't important you can actually just let that shape get lost. You see this a lot when people want to cover someones eyes in shadow so they don't have to draw them they're basically just letting the eyes get lost in the shadows. Admittedly this can be a bit tricky to pull of some times.

In this instance I would do what you actually have in you reference. There is a white counter just behind framing part of her. That will do the job.

Lastly to answer you other two questions: "I have studied anatomy a lot and I do get the whole bone landmarks thing, but I guess I need to just practice more?" and "At the end of the day, do you think I'm heading in the right direction?"

Yes. You doing this is exactly what will help you improve.

I did another paint over as I didn't want to leave you with something that would be misleading. Although doing the last one was an interesting exercise. I had use another ref photo to help me figure things out but the model was a bit different in physic so that'll do it.