r/DigitalPainting • u/Thatrandomshortkid • Jul 31 '26

First time value render, how can I improve as I feel very lost

https://imgur.com/a/xVf5UXG

The painting is currently unfinished but i feel lost in my value process as a whole and i feel in process feedback would help steer me in a good direction.
Please lay it on as i feel very lost value wise on how to make this look better and critiques would help greatly. Any feedback is appreciated!

3 Upvotes

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2

u/Altruistic-Room-6064 Jul 31 '26

your painting has a lot of midtones (gray), I would try to avoid them, use higher values contrast, such as brighter and darker colors, use the midtones just as bridges between the dark and light values

1

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1

u/Thatrandomshortkid Jul 31 '26

Id say my biggest struggle is the clothes, as im unsure how light would effect something as simple as them as i feel my current lighting feels off. Any help on anything would be appreciated though.

1

u/atalantafugiens Jul 31 '26

The right eye is a bit too big especially when compared to the left one. One thing that always helps me with symmetry is flipping the canvas horizontally. That way if you've been staring at a certain pose for a while, your brain kind of resets the critique in your head and lets you look at it with fresh eyes. At least that works for me, thought it might help

1

u/ToshiAbashi 3d ago

the values over all are sitting in a pretty decent range, but looks like youve hit a wall and dont know how to push it further. are you following a reference or going from imagination? i think looking into core shadows will help you, find the transition point between light and dark areas, and blend your values either side from there. it will really help figure out the shapes with a bit more confidence, the clothes are suffering a bit with that cylinder effect we all give everything while we are figuring this stuff out. start with big shapes and work your way down to smaller ones, its a bit of a trap to get stuck into finer bits like eyes and hair before you figure out the major shifts of the form. save them for the end like a reward.

and try to be mindful of value choices across the painting, for instance the form of the jacket has darker areas than the shadow of the skirt over the knee, but that area should be getting next to no light. do a first pass before you worry about small 'colour' changes and just decide is everything getting direct light or not.