Thanks for the advice. I have/had been playing with the contrast and brightness of the face so I'll try to clear it up. The problems that I face are 1) when I up the contrast the light and dark points are too clearly defined and won't run smoothly together. 2) An increase of contrast also loses some of the blue color in the shaded regions turning it black which isn't really the effect I'm going for. And 3) if I just kick up the brightness a step, the colors are dulled. I like the deep, rich colors against the grays/whites. With enough patience and time and a few touch-ups, I think I can find the right combination to smooth it out.

Indeed, I used the smudge tool. It may be using PhotoImpression that made it easier, but while using a low intensity and larger brush, I smudged the lines to make lighter grays. And with a higher intensity and smaller brush, smudged the darker, definite grays where it should be darker. And using something in between those, smoothed them out along the strand line. That may not be much help. For me, computer coloring is a lot of guess n' check and quality time with the undo button.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/4065/lulubwpi4.jpg

Boooobies!

Er, I mean.

It's Lulu, she got voted to be this years holiday postergirl. I'm very happy with her... lineart...

and I absolutely LOVE her dress. I want one. I think everyone should be required to have a christmas dress like that (probably less cleavage though)

Also, look out for a colored version soon!

EDIT
Colored version is here! I'm very happy with this! Somehow it just turned out... right. I played around with photoshop some and made some cool brushes too. woo!
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/8...lucolorcr8.jpg

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Happy holidays indeed!

Whats that waterish thing behind her?

Love it CJ!

Especally the face. That is SO her...plus it's not often you don't see her in her gothish makeup..

Whoops. That's supposed to be the bow on the present that she's sitting on, but I got too excited with the new brush I made and made it looks less... bow-ish. heh

Anyway, I'm glad you guys like it, I'm surprised with how well it turned out.

Hah, i like the cactaur in her hands. Cactaurs pwn!

Now that i know what it is i can invert my eyes a bit to make it LOOK like a bow heh, maybe a line or two to empasize the bow? Other than that i think your intent was perfect!

Now only for some FMA... It would be awesome to have their christmas day heh.

Bows Everywhere! They want my soul!!!
 

*sob* I'm home now for the holidays (which is good) but, while I brought home my computer and sketchbook, I didn't bring home my wonderful, wonderful scanner.

Witness my behemoth of a scanner:
http://www.livingroom.org.au/photolo...xma-mp150.jpeg

Merry Christmas beautiful scanner. I guess I'll have to wait to photoshop or even scan any drawings I do over break after I go back to college, (or I guess I could take a picture of it and photoshop it that way)

And I lost my favorite eraser. (curse you finals!)

So yeah, in short, don't expect too many new drawings from me until January, unless I suck it up and just use the digital camera to photograph any christmas drawings I want to do (which I was planning on)

And DefianceLegion- It's nice to have someone actually (basically) ASKING me to do FMA fanart. It makes me feel happy on the inside.

Heh, I know you like fma from your avatar (and from what you've said in the past) and I do too heh.

Anybody think mspaint is worth it?