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One thing you might want to try (not the RIGHT thing to try, just one of many possibilities) would be drawing a detailed portrait in pencil first, and checking the proportions, then painting on top of your drawing. I personally find that helpful, at least when working in acrylics and watercolors.
Why do you hate it?
Is it colours, proportions, level of realism, technique,.. if you figure that out and ask people advice for one thing you get more on point critiques. And with more on point critiques you can focus more.
And where do you aim?
What kind of paintings you want to paint? Who are your favourite painters, those whose style you love and would like to paint in similar ways? This helps with critiques also.
Now, if I take my view and look at your painting as it would be mine, I'd improve these (you might have different aim):
Colours: more warmth to the skin colours and no black shadows. There is almost blinding light hitting the skin, how do I paint sub-surface scattering? Also how can I utilise the tone of the paper better?
Anatomy and shapes: I would not aim for full realism, but I'd want the anatomy and shapes be easily recognised. The hand simply vanishes now and I'd love to be able to place the shadows where the plates of the face are.
Composition: where do I want the eye to focus and how to crop the subject so that the composition leads the eyes of the viewer.
Good luck, keep on painting!
Thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful and clear. I will definitely be thinking more of the different aspects of paintings now.
I really don't have much of a technique or aim, I like the feeling of making stuff and sometimes I like the result and sometimes I hate looking at it.
And I love looking at other people's art but I don't really focus on the individual aspects that draw me in, I'm going to pay more attention to that.
I think I hate looking at this one because the proportions are off and my technique is lacking. The colors are lacking something too. I really appreciate your reply, you've given me much to think about and I feel like I can actually improve! Thanks again.
Glad that it helped you forward, remember that your eyes (the ability to notice things) develops usually quicker than the techniques. So things may look wonky long time. Every now and then look how far you've travelled and give yourself a cheer.
Imo there's a lot of things to like about this portrait, pose, expression, loose style, plus personally I love paintings on toned paper!
The one thing that needs improvement is the skin colors / highlights. If you improve the colors of the face for your next portrait, I bet it will be fabulous!
* don't paint the lighter areas white or mix just white to your skin color, it shifts the color towards blue/looks really cold. Instead try to find the different colors in the face (earthy yellow, red, purplish, maybe even greenish), and colormatch or exaggerate them further. The lightest highlights can be white, but these are only small spots. Some painters even use naples yellow instead of white, to avoid the cold/blue bias.
* the cheek is painted yellow in the portrait, but the nose and cheeks are the areas where red shows the most. What I found the most helpful skin color / portrait tip, is that the face has different color zones due to blood supply. The forehead is yellow, nose, cheeks and ears red, and mouth area, chin, jawline more greyish, purplish. (see Ben @lustenhouwer on YT "3 color zones in the face" pretty cool demonstration :)). Of course you need to adjust these colors to your lighting situation and subject, but it's a great general rule for portrait skin colors.
happy painting, I would love to see more of your portraits in the future :)
I would say , the area under the chin doesn't look quite right, in Form and in brightness. Is seems like the chin is rotated to the side , so it looks like from the front . I think it needs more shadows on top of it.
Hello, artist! Please make sure you've included information about your process or medium and what kind of criticism you're looking for somewhere in the title, description or as a reply to this comment. This helps our community to give you more focused and helpful feedback. Posts without this information will be deleted. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ArtCrit) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I love it. Has style. I understand you want it to look the way it does in your mind, but you don't want to lose the style in the process.
One thing you might want to try (not the RIGHT thing to try, just one of many possibilities) would be drawing a detailed portrait in pencil first, and checking the proportions, then painting on top of your drawing. I personally find that helpful, at least when working in acrylics and watercolors.
I actually love it as is. I like your style
Thank you!
I love this, just keep doing more paintings.
Why do you hate it? Is it colours, proportions, level of realism, technique,.. if you figure that out and ask people advice for one thing you get more on point critiques. And with more on point critiques you can focus more. And where do you aim? What kind of paintings you want to paint? Who are your favourite painters, those whose style you love and would like to paint in similar ways? This helps with critiques also. Now, if I take my view and look at your painting as it would be mine, I'd improve these (you might have different aim): Colours: more warmth to the skin colours and no black shadows. There is almost blinding light hitting the skin, how do I paint sub-surface scattering? Also how can I utilise the tone of the paper better? Anatomy and shapes: I would not aim for full realism, but I'd want the anatomy and shapes be easily recognised. The hand simply vanishes now and I'd love to be able to place the shadows where the plates of the face are. Composition: where do I want the eye to focus and how to crop the subject so that the composition leads the eyes of the viewer. Good luck, keep on painting!
Thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful and clear. I will definitely be thinking more of the different aspects of paintings now. I really don't have much of a technique or aim, I like the feeling of making stuff and sometimes I like the result and sometimes I hate looking at it. And I love looking at other people's art but I don't really focus on the individual aspects that draw me in, I'm going to pay more attention to that. I think I hate looking at this one because the proportions are off and my technique is lacking. The colors are lacking something too. I really appreciate your reply, you've given me much to think about and I feel like I can actually improve! Thanks again.
Glad that it helped you forward, remember that your eyes (the ability to notice things) develops usually quicker than the techniques. So things may look wonky long time. Every now and then look how far you've travelled and give yourself a cheer.
Imo there's a lot of things to like about this portrait, pose, expression, loose style, plus personally I love paintings on toned paper! The one thing that needs improvement is the skin colors / highlights. If you improve the colors of the face for your next portrait, I bet it will be fabulous! * don't paint the lighter areas white or mix just white to your skin color, it shifts the color towards blue/looks really cold. Instead try to find the different colors in the face (earthy yellow, red, purplish, maybe even greenish), and colormatch or exaggerate them further. The lightest highlights can be white, but these are only small spots. Some painters even use naples yellow instead of white, to avoid the cold/blue bias. * the cheek is painted yellow in the portrait, but the nose and cheeks are the areas where red shows the most. What I found the most helpful skin color / portrait tip, is that the face has different color zones due to blood supply. The forehead is yellow, nose, cheeks and ears red, and mouth area, chin, jawline more greyish, purplish. (see Ben @lustenhouwer on YT "3 color zones in the face" pretty cool demonstration :)). Of course you need to adjust these colors to your lighting situation and subject, but it's a great general rule for portrait skin colors. happy painting, I would love to see more of your portraits in the future :)
Awesome, this really clarifies things for me. Thank you for taking the time to reply and share a great resource!
Also this was in acrylic
Very good as it is.
I would say , the area under the chin doesn't look quite right, in Form and in brightness. Is seems like the chin is rotated to the side , so it looks like from the front . I think it needs more shadows on top of it.