Update time!

First off, I wanna say... Oh.My.God. Marucha. That tip about rotating your canvas was soooooo helpful! Drawing lines feel sooooo much better now. Everyone reading this should check out that post immediately!!! Thanks! :D

So, I re-did the shirt lines, this time using clean swipes instead of tiny strokes. I tried to use thinner/thicker lines whenever possible, using the pressure sensitivity settings. I replaced the black with something less extreme, and added some shading. One sublte change is that I replaced the white color of the shirt also with something less extreme, it probably needs highlights now since it isn't white anymore.

My thoughts at the moment is that the shirt looks a bit too 'clean', or maybe 'vectorish' compared to the head. I'm going to have to do something about that. See highlight on neck vs. shadow on shoulder. I didn't have much time to work on it today. Uni classes bagan a of couple weeks ago, and I'm starting to feel it now.

haha, thx. I'm glad it worked out for you :)

This drawing reminds me so much of Gokusen. I haven't watched Bleach, but Gokusen is like here's a ton of bad-ass high school kids standing around waiting to kick someone's butt... usually sitting in a sunlit park in somewhere in the middle of Tokyo saying "COME GET SOME".

>< @ image// Very nice! Did the brush settings help at all? The shirt edge-work looks pretty good. I would not change much. Though it's maybe not as consistent with the face/neck as you pointed out. Theoretically, you could add some type of a gradient'ish blend in certain spots just where the shadow sweeps across more gradually... mmm like 'airbrush' some... kinda hard to explain without yet another paint over lol. It's a style thing. Not much to change though, the hard edge look is working for it

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I'm not sure I fully understand your lighting. The shadows in the shirt feels out of place compared to the face/hair. It looks like the light is coming from the very top and perhaps in background behind somewhere somewhere (like the sun or something) and that puts most of the head is in shadow(?), whereas you have this overwhelming light in the shirt comparitively. The shadow locations themselves maybe should change to be consistent.

I would say play with the color temperature a bit in the shirt and plan there a bit. Either in highlight or shadow, but I think even the shadow cool use a cooler tone. You have a glow-y warmish hue in the shadow in the face and then you have this cool white for the specular highlights in the hair/nose. Your background color is a cool tone though so it works well with the general warmth of the shirt. A higher contrast in the color temperature/value (either or) could help the tough guy you're going for in lue of metrosexual. If you followed through with the stark contrast in the shirt like you did in the face, that would help that. I know you changed the base in the shirt and I agree, maybe a sliver of highlight in some places in the shoulder and collar area like you did with the nose and the hair will help better define the light and 3-dimensionality...all just a thought

The rest is styling ;)

If you're never sure, that's why I always look up references or keep a collection of images on my harddrive.

*** lol you nailed him XP Though he's a good guy.

*** No need, I get what you mean. Yeah, the brush settings helped create the tapered lines. Though they're not perfect, I think they're acceptable. First time really using pen pressure with work like this.

*** hmm I don't really know much (at all) about good lighting. I'll see what I can do.

*** Yeah, I see it now. Yeah, the red inner shirt still need shadows and highlghts so hopefully it'll look better after that's done. The image actually looks better without the red shirt and pants, since neither one is highlighted yet, but I thought it'd be weird to post it like that (just a floating head and shirt :p)

The drawing combines a bunch of reference images. One for the facial expression, on for the head and neck tilt, and one for the body/pose. It's a bit tricky x_x That's why the lighting is a bit weird XP - - - I can't believe you picked up on that! :-O

Keep up the good work miz! It's really fun seeing your drawing evolve as you progress!

Where did you get that? No, all mediums are welcome :)

Oh I do oils also. :) Do post

Is it a Photoshop Plugin?

Hey, what happened to Gandalf??

Do it :D

I've been away for the past two weekends so I haven't touched my drawing much recently. I've checked some youtube videos on how to paint fur so I might redo some patches using these techniques.

But, I have to admit I'm itching to start a new project... I thought about a semi-realistic Ayla (from Chrono Trigger). I'd use a real model as basis for the body and add the fur outfit over it. This could end up looking really cool or atrocious but I think I'll give it a try.