Yes, I think you are coming along just fine!!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
The eyes' shading is good and the eyelids now need more in shaping to fit, right? When you clone an object that immediately brings the copy to the front, so then if you click on it the object handles appear around it---if you click on any of those handles and hold the mouse button down and drag on the shape you can stretch or going the other way shrink the shape. If you double click on the selection the handles become rotation arrows and now you can, while holding down the mouse button, rotate the shape to any angle needed, also there is a semi-circular arrow button on the top menu bar which if clicked brings up the rotation arrows on the selection. These will help in shaping and if its not quite right you can use more feathering on the shape to shrink it and maybe clone this a few times stacking these, move the new ones slightly in other directions (it's handy to just nudge the selected shape using the keyboard's arrow buttons) to cover more area and it will look like extended soft blending---sometimes you can use a useful shape such as the eyelid shape on other parts of the face too by just adjusting its size, etc., and using other colors. When a shape still isn't right the best thing to do is make a new one to cover the area over the top which you want shaded---in subtle transparencies these blend together really well. If the color is too dark you can also lighten it up by adding a layer of the basic face color with transparency selected to the opacity you need----I have used such top layers to further blend areas that became darker than I wanted from other layers. It's like painting with acrylics---they dry fast without an extender so what you tend to do is keep building up layers of color one on top of the other---in general with the lightest areas on the top which would be highlighted and that you want to come forward in shaping. Darker ares of course look to be receeding away---just these two shading methods give the object/face form and you know this from when you sketch and work with other media. Sooooo, it's the same thing with the shaped patches used on your portrait---you draw/design the patch, give it color in a lighter or darker tone---imagine it as if you were painting a face in just black and white shades like a black and white photo...you concentrate on those shadows and highlights to build a 3D look.
(That would be an interesting thing to try too---do an image in monochrome and it helps you concentrate on just the shading without interference of other colors).
I will do a small example to add to this post soon and also show some more on the nose---stay tuned!!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
P.S. In answer about how long it takes to do a portrait after you have the hang of it, it really depends on the size and how much detail you want to use---less detail and more concentration on just using blocks of shading softened and few lines and it can be 3 to 4 hours. Highly detailed portraits like the one I did of Brandon Lee took more and I probably spent twice that in time, but I was not in any hurry and really took my time as I had to leave the project a lot to do other things too....which has an added benefit that if you take a break and come back later you can often see right away what you want to change. Breaks are very helpful to rest the eyes and mind from the intense focus. The more portraits you do though the faster the process becomes---you learn what works best for you, and there you discover these by doing.
Ok---I'm off to do a little image for you about this shading and the nose...see ya [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
---As The Crow Flies!---
Maya
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover."
-Mark Twain
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