Reinventing The Tattoo Forum

Best to include a copy of your reference photo for best critique on a portrait, this way we see what the portrait is supposed to look like. Like you said you need to go darker on the left side of the face but also in some other areas. As the light source is coming from right side of face we can clearly see his left is in the shadows therefore the left side of his shirt and collar should be darker nd have a strong datk shadow above collar. Go back and check your reference and you will see that more dark is needed top left inside of nose, darker at the base of upper lip. Also chin needs bit more dark and maybe make the bumpiness of his chin more noticeable. Remember when doing a portrait tattoo or even a drawing,look at what features of that person stand out to you, what things do you notice first, what is unique or different? I think you could have captured his messy hair that sticks up funny alittle better. His distinctive wobbly turkey neck could do with alittle more shading to accentuate this feature as its a bit on the smooth side. Add alittle bit of shadow under right nostril too. Watch the attention to detail in the ears or could just be photo glare. Remember eyebrow texture, hairs should looks like hairs not smooth. Could bring out that wrinkly forehead a bit more. Add dark shading or dark foliage behind right side of face, not sure what your plan is with the left side with the bricks? Hope this helps :)

Thank you and yes it would help if I put the photo reference with the tattoo lol. I agree with all that you said and basically what I was thinking, it's just nice to have someone validate it for you, not many people do portraits at the shop I'm at or in the town I'm in, so it's difficult to get feedback on tattoos like this. the bricks and stuff are still in progress, they're falling away from the psycho house and the more we add on the more it'll tie in to the piece as a whole, this whole leg is going to be a classic horror half leg sleeve.

It's certainly not my area of expertise but I can see that portrait work relies on a precise attention to detail. Looks like the reference wasn't super clear so I think you interpreted it well, look forward to seeing how you continue the piece

First off, it looks great to me! This is not my expertise but realism is something I enjoy and the thing I'm looking to improve by joining this forum. I know the tattoo photo is distorted by the body shape so I don't know if it's a super drastic difference, but I know u can go into photoshop with your reference and pull the photo either wider or taller to compensate for any differences. I know it's minor, but just thought I would throw that out there.... Also maybe some more  graphic bricks in the falling  background to create some more depth would look cool? Anyways looks great! And can't wait to see the Vincent price, I hope someday I get this subject matter for a tattoo too!

The portrait looks great! I like that there are three elements, face, house and falling bricks. There could be a bit more to show depth between the face and the house. I think that either you go with a light background with dark foreground or reverse. Som of the values in the face could be boosted. It's a solid piece and great content.