>>3175273Very nicely done, I'm impressed with the overall skin texture you ended up with. Also like how you simplified the shadows and highlights. Overall, great work. The few things that stand out to me that could be improved:
- there's a bulge caused by a highlight along her jawline. makes it look like a jowl.
- slightly desaturated areas near her mouth
- veiny (camera) right eye
- iris are a little dark. Generally it's great for the composition to brighten them and give them the gemstone effect (darker on the same side as the light source/reflection, lighter away from the light source). This makes the eyes seem deep and have more detail to look at.
- watch your dark areas, they're lacking in detail. It can't really be helped in some spots like the giant area under her ear, but the other dark areas in her hair could have a little more detail in them.
I also love the "Pamela Anderson" makeup look (heavy lash/eye makeup, nude lip). To make it more realistic I'd bring the lashes farther out on both sides and paint in very subtle lighter lashes here and there. The lips look a lttle bit greenish around the lipline. My favorite way to change lip color is:
- select the lips
- gradient map adjustment layer
- make the far left point black, the far right point white, then add a lipstick highlight and shadow color in the middle. Drag the points around and experiment with hues until if looks right.
>>3175368Interesting question. Blemishes (ie. pimples) snag the eye and interrupt the flow of the composition. Peoples' eye naturally stop on blemishes, which we don't want. Better to leave freckles, moles, and enough skin texture so they don't look plastic. Sometimes they even want me to ADD freckles, but never blemishes. Some humans don't have pimples/blemishes. For high-end magazine ads that's the kind of human that sells product. If you're retouching a portrait, I'd still say get rid of all the blemishes, but NEVER remove moles or freckles unless asked by the client.
