how do i improve on this?

[coolpup]

Hi! I kind of recently jumped right into digital after practicing a lot of traditional. The first thing I wanted to do after playing around using photoshop was to paint a body in a grayscale. I used a image from google and then took a big brush and meshed it all out by looking at it to get the likeness and all that. I noticed much later that the placement was a bit off and that the body turned out more masculine than expected which I will try to think of next time!!

I tried to push to get the likeness from my reference as much as I could but I still feel like there's A LOT to improve on..

My question is..

How do I go by to improve on this matter? and how are my values doing? :V


Link to painting:

http://imgur.com/vHM01Lj

Thanks!

[Amit Dutta]

+Hey cool, you have done a pretty good job with values, but you have missed on accurate proportions and edge work.
The trick to reproducing anything is through values+, proportions and edges and is best done by squinting your eyes. If you look at the image you posted, squint your eyes and then look from the original to yours the major differences in proportion, value, edgework become apparent.

I have highlighted differences in angles using red, the areas where the edges are still apparent even after squinting at the orginal I highlighted in blue. These should have been retained in your study and you can see you didn't nail those edges in yours which leads to the somewhat blurry appearance. Your proportions and angles are off.
The green lines are just a quick indicator of location. It's easy to check your accuracy by measuring. You should always squint at your subject in order to simplify it to its essentials.

You have done quite well for a first go, just apply more rigour to your approach and it will serve you well.


Hope that helps

[coolpup]

Thank you for the great critique! I really appreciate it!!

[Amit Dutta]

No probs man!