Alright, it turns out that I haven't been too clear about what I've said, nor was I being in-depth enough, so I'm going to have to apologize for that. Again, I'm not the best guy for this fancy realism business (even though I tend to gravitate toward it just a teeny tiny bit) so it's hazy for me as well, but I'll try to explain to the best of my ability.
Now, I'm not saying you're lacking in art ability, and I'm certainly not telling you to go and practice with circles and cylinders. I'm just given the impression that you may not have a good enough foundation, or knowledge in theory, to do what you're doing. Again, this is all speculation on my part, since I have no knowledge of your creative process. Now, if you told me that you've actually heard of and tried the Andrew Loomis model for facial proportions, then I have nothing to say about your knowledge of how the overall structure of the face works.
You haven't told me whether you know about this, so I'll drop a video about the Loomis model here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EPNYWeEf1UThe rest of this will relate ENTIRELY on your face drawings. It's clear that I can't possibly judge a thing based on your older artworks, so I only have material on how you draw faces.
Now, I haven't explained my little disagreements with how you draw facial features, so I should get around to doing that too. This time I'm only looking at the Futo, Eiki and Nue drawing, so they are fairly recent. I'm still going to speak in rather general terms, but I'll try to reference the drawings occasionally so you'll get what I'm talking about.
I feel that the way you draw noses is what I call the 'broccoli' syndrome. Unflattering name, but that's the case. This comes with different reasons, mainly the fleshy bit around each nostril (forgive me for not knowing the proper term) seemingly facing downward and obscuring the nostrils more than they should. You also seem to draw the nose such that it is three, separate rounded forms (very noticeable in the nue drawing). Think of it as...stacking one ball on top of two others. That's how your nose looks like, and it's very apparent when you draw the tip of the nose, which looks almost like a little ball shape.
And that's not right! Now, right or wrong is rather subjective in this manner, because everyone DOES look different. But when you look at a bunch of pictures of people (and I have done this myself at the time of writing), it's more accurate to portray the entire nose as a sort of a wedge shape sloping outward at the nostrils, or a trapezium prism that gets slightly larger at the end. The big problem is that you tend to draw as if the tip of the nose is really separate from the fleshy bit of the nostrils. You outline it thickly, or you just shade the space in between with a very dark tone (as with Nue) , but the transition is supposed to be gentle, not steep. You can even see this on Inklou's drawings; I'm sure we're in perfect agreement that dem noses are realistically accurate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb1WrQp2EAIAnother view from proko, demonstrating how to draw the nose. He's a better teacher than I am, after all.
Now, the lips. The lips don't ever look like they're part of the face; they don't reflect the fact that they're on the front plane of the face. Examples from Eiki; the lips are actually lopsided, slanting downward as they go (image)right. They don't reflect the angle of the face at all. Remember, lips are part of the face, and they should rightfully wrap around it. The effect of this is that your lips always look like someone's plastered a piece paper vaguely resembling lips on the character's face. It looks 2-d, and just very awkward in general. I also think the way you shaded the lips contribute to this 2-d feel. I can't elaborate, because I myself can't pinpoint the real problem at hand, so here's a bunch more tutorials from proko.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq3aHSuKRyghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0vWyKyYv4oThe rest of this is going to be a little less concrete and more speculation on my part, so feel free to challenge anything.
So for one, I'm going to stab the dark and say that you're basing your face drawings on males. I've seen the ones you've drawn for your 'persona project', and outdated as they are, they look just a mite better than these females you're drawing here. So I can only draw the conclusion that you're trying to force in a male's face into a female's one.
Remember that we're dealing with young looking females. Softer features due to more fat, and...oh, I don't know. You'll have to google for images. You draw eyebrows set too low, you draw and actually shade the area below the cheekbone (which gives the impression of sunken cheeks. We don't see those in young females do we?), stuff like this is a big problem because things will change from different facial types. Putting an old man's features on a supposedly young woman is going to give some very queer feels.
Once again, I recommend you reference from life, or if you don't want to, try Inklou's, because his work is perhaps the most realistic I know while maintaining a very appealing feel. He does draw different people, so take a look at how each face differs from the other and what effect it has on the 'feels' you get from it. This is all very vague, certainly, and of course, I'm only making semi-blind suggestions. If you feel that there is something else you can do, then by all means do so.
Now. Your shading. I'm going to focus on the Nue drawing because that's all I have available. This is incredibly important, I feel, because you're going to be showing off your knowledge of the face as a three dimensional structure as well as lighting. But unfortunately I'm not good at this either. So bleh.
The biggest problem I see here is that I have absolutely, ZERO clue where the light source is. You've shaded much of the neck, so I have to assume the chin is casting shadow, and the light source must be above....and then we start getting problems. Like how you've shaded the area under the cheekbone (again, not a very good idea because sunken cheeks on a young female...), so clearly the light source must be around the (image)left...but nothing else reflects that! Both sides of the face are highlighted with equal intensity, the hair has uniform brightness, and so the light source is utterly and completely confusing.
The best way to think about it is to just draw in the light source and its relevant rays hitting the surface. Anything perpendicular to the rays must receive the most light and thus be in highlight, while other parts that face away would obviously be in shadow. There can't be just one singular light source either; there has got to be ambient/reflective lighting, so you need to add those once you're down with the initial light source.
Now, Sycra here has done an interesting set of videos relating to light and shadow, which I've only watched partway, but has given me a good deal of insight. Check out his videos, and see if it helps some, because even if he isn't as interesting as proko he is still (of course) a better teacher than I ever will be.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Sycra/videosAnother point to note is that you put very heavy contrasts on places where there shouldn't be much shadow. This was what I meant when I (very vaguely) said that you placed the wrong emphasis on the wrong areas. I'll give examples.
The nose. The area surrounding it is in COMPLETE DARKNESS. I mean, just look at it. You've used a almost black colour to paint the area just around the nose. That means almost no light gets in there. By doing this, you're suggesting that in the immediately vicinity of the nose, there is an abysmal pit where little light can reach. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?
Let's look for some more.
The...thingy. The depression just below the nose and leading to the lips. I don't know what it's called. Here, stop for a moment and touch your own. You'll find out that (gasp), it's not that deep! So why have you shaded it in such a dark colour? This depression is rather narrow, and actually smoothens a little at the end. Here it looks like a trench because you've made it look wider and deeper than it actually should be.
And then there's more. The dimples are shaded real dark, the highlights just above the lips are incredibly light. These sharp changes in lighting can be incredibly jarring. Where the dimples are, it looks like someone's gouged the part off with a thin knife. Bottom of the lips too. In contrast to that, the rest of the face has a rather smooth gradient lighting, like from the side of the cheeks and down to the chin.
The bottom line is that you seem to show a lack of knowledge of the contours of the face. Remember that you shouldn't make liberal use of such incredibly sharp changes in lighting; a smooth gradation away from the light source should lead to the same in shading, not a sharp dark colour blocked over the area.
What I greatly recommend is that, following the Loomis model, you design the face such that it's of simple planes and curves. Not airplanes. The surface kind of plane. You'll give yourself a better insight as to which parts should be under light and under shadow if you try to make the face as a blocky structure. It's not going to be terribly accurate, but it'll give you a start as to where to go.
Okay. That's all for now. I think I spent more than an hour typing this, godammit. Once again, take my suggestions at face value. They might not necessarily be the best suggestions, or I might even be wrong, because this is all conjecture that I find sensible to me. If there is anything you disagree with, then state your argument and I'll try to run it with you once more.
Also, I found this
http://nrizo.deviantart.com/art/Reimu-Hakurei-403116035It looks relatively good and seems to fit what you're trying to achieve, so maybe you might want to use it for reference.
why are you distributing advice when you havent improved a single bit in like, 2 years?
the hypocrisy is so strong, my favourite part though, is " failed to portray the folds accurately at all;" because it relates to your inability to draw drapery so very well
Okay, now I'll start dealing with you by asking a simple question.
"How does my (supposed) lack of improvement invalidate any of my words?"
If you think it's bad critique, then by all means prove to me that I'm wrong and, more importantly, give your objectively better advice to the artist in question. But you haven't, and in fact your entire post has little point because it's not even relevant to the topic. You're not helping the artist by posting that, you're just bashing me. Your post is the equivalent of walking into someone's house, kicking over a table, shouting a few words of ad hominem before walking out. That's not very nice, is it?
