Are you sure you did that yourself? You didn't take a photo and alter it?
Not quite. Like I said, I had tons of references and always moved at the edge of stealing stuff. Take her ear, for example. That's actually a mixture of three different photographs. I've become pretty good at creating the lineart, so that part was under my own jurisdiction (almost anime-style hair! Woo!), but I was a bit lost when it came to colouring, so I used the references for that.
I just parted my workspace, with the real photograph to the right and the drawing to the left and did the good ol' "look how it looks on the right - select colour - dot on the left - lower oppacity - dot some more - smudge - correct colour values" method. Wasn't always that easy because there were hardly any references that featured the exact same position of the part which I was drawing at the moment. The ear was rather simple. The part under her chin... surprisingly not. And don't even get me started on her nose.
I really hope that nobody comes a-yellin' "Cite your Sources!", coz then I'd have to upload almost two complete photo-albums.
Wow. That's really awesome, Gobbler. And the only criticism I can think of is just a personal preference; I don't care for how the hair is blurred along the edges. But it doesn't really take much away from it for me or anything. Beautiful, Gobbler.
Thanks, and yeah, I couldn't resist doing that again, sorry.
Wasn't my intention at all, did it kinda by accident and then thought something like "Ohhhhhhhhhh shiny! :3"... again...
Originally, her hair was a few steps darker, but I kinda like it more like this, what with the all-white background and the general brightness.
This will probably get a lot more negative critique. I'm not nearly as satisfied with it as I was with the previous one, but I can't put my finger on what's wrong.
Hmm... it appears as if her body proportions aren't right, I suspect that effect is created by the shading somehow. Initially, my first thought was that the shadows were largely missing.
Oh, oh, and I think you drew too much of her head... uh... or not enough hair... or maybe it's just that her hairline's looking a bit distorted...
I'd say her left thumb and her right middle and index finger need to be touched up a little, too.
And yeah, I feel your pain about being unable to put your finger on what's wrong. It's always that little stuff that makes all the difference. LIKE THOSE HELLISH SHADOWS THAT NOSES CAST!
... umm... eh... sorry about that... ^^;
Out of reflex, I'd darken the parts around her eyes and lips a bit to give them more depth... and... hmm... *looks a bit closer*... from my experience, closed lips stretch
at least from one nostril to the other, usually more than that though, but since she's smoking, it might very well be that you instructed her to make that smug-smoker-face-thingy, then it's alright, I guess.
So much for that. So, Natsumi-san wa nihonjin desu ka? Would explain that initial "+3 Cuteness" thought that ran through my head. >_<