08-23-2013, 03:15 AM
It's good that you showed the reference! I can see that the limbs in your sketch are a bit flattened, as Stareater pointed out, not enouth "3D" This might sound a bit counter intuitive (after all, aren't we doing 2D here?) but have a long look at the model and see how shadows transition in certain points to medium tone and then light areas.
Something I do to get the lighting better is imagine "planes" as I squint at the reference. Basically imagine a "low" poly version of that render, or a very simple simple one. Once you have a stark contrast between the two (using 3-4 values at most!), and the squint gives you roughly the same look on both the reference and your piece, you can start rendering it further. Not earlier!
Hope it helps ;)
Something I do to get the lighting better is imagine "planes" as I squint at the reference. Basically imagine a "low" poly version of that render, or a very simple simple one. Once you have a stark contrast between the two (using 3-4 values at most!), and the squint gives you roughly the same look on both the reference and your piece, you can start rendering it further. Not earlier!
Hope it helps ;)