10-09-2013, 11:01 PM
Hey there! I admire the amount of work you've put into this piece so far, it demonstrates a lot of patience and dedication. What I think is problematic with this piece however is first the composition. I don't know what version of Photoshop you have (if you're using Photoshop, I assume you are) but I believe CS3 and up have a crop function that divides your canvas into thirds horizontally and vertically. You can also use slices but I always find this easier.
I don't know if you've heard of the rule of thirds, but I'd definitely look into it. In a nutshell, if you want your composition to feel balanced and natural you will want to place whatever is most important in your piece on one of the four locations where the lines overlap. There's a lot more to the rule, but I've found this basic guideline to be very useful.
![[Image: klhw.jpg]](http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/2669/klhw.jpg)
Then there's the lighting. I went a little overboard with my paintover, but what it comes down to is that you want to be very conscious about where you distribute your light and detail. In addition to what people have said about the skin tone, your light should serve to enhance the mood, the character and the composition as a whole. Don't be afraid to let things fade into the shadow, especially if they are not particularly important for the piece. Your primary focus is the gipsy's face, secondary are the cards. Try to use your lighting so that you guide the viewer past these points in a natural way, by giving the primary focus point the highest contrast, the secondary the second highest, and so on.
I hope this helps!
PO:
![[Image: 6k4s.jpg]](http://imageshack.us/a/img405/3413/6k4s.jpg)
Comparison:
![[Image: ub1o.jpg]](http://imageshack.us/a/img819/5746/ub1o.jpg)
I don't know if you've heard of the rule of thirds, but I'd definitely look into it. In a nutshell, if you want your composition to feel balanced and natural you will want to place whatever is most important in your piece on one of the four locations where the lines overlap. There's a lot more to the rule, but I've found this basic guideline to be very useful.
Then there's the lighting. I went a little overboard with my paintover, but what it comes down to is that you want to be very conscious about where you distribute your light and detail. In addition to what people have said about the skin tone, your light should serve to enhance the mood, the character and the composition as a whole. Don't be afraid to let things fade into the shadow, especially if they are not particularly important for the piece. Your primary focus is the gipsy's face, secondary are the cards. Try to use your lighting so that you guide the viewer past these points in a natural way, by giving the primary focus point the highest contrast, the secondary the second highest, and so on.
I hope this helps!
PO:
Comparison: