Zanter
^^^ A minor thing, but her torso, arm, head and sleeve run along the exact same edge. Looks a little blocky. Change the angle of the arm a bit?
Also, background is to pale and blurry. I know it's simple, but I'd darken the detail a tad. It's hard to make anything out at this point.
Edit:
^^ Linework and color look excelent. Though the soft-shading, while not crucial, isn't very good. Looks like you just used dodge/burn. On the wings it's most noticable.
That's a tattoo design right? I like my designs simpler but it works quite well.
I know NOTHING about tattoo-ing, so how would the shading work on the final product? Seems like some hard cel-shades would be easier to do right.
http://insanelyzanter.deviantart.com/gallery/?catpath=scraps#/d34r5ab
Quick n' dirty character design.
Also, I got a thread of important-edness.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=12921148470A86290700&page=1#8
edited 19th Dec '10 10:19:29 PM by Zanter
Behold, art. http://insanelyzanter.deviantart.com/
^I used a 0% hardness brush on a shading layer set to multiply for shadows, and screen for highlights.
My usual style uses the hard-edge shading you described, I switched to soft-shading purely for the fact that it was going to be a tattoo, and I did it quickly and haphazardly because I just wanted to give it some depth.
"True story, I came when I read Scrye's story, and so did everyone within five miles." —OOZE
PI
I swear it's like I'm stalking you ^^
Anyways, girl's clothing, or indeed, any clothing that I know of doesn't baloon out like that at the bottom. A shirt like that should cling to her hips and barely (if at all. Tight shirts ride up on a lot of girls and show an inch or two of skin) come below her jeans. If you do want a loose tomboyish shirt, I suggest a regular T-shirt with sleeeves (or you can have them frayed/ cut off, or rolled up) and you'll need to not define her boobs very much. The point is, you cant have it tight on her boobs/ribcage and loose on her hips. The jeans look very good, though—I'm glad to see something other than...that weird, poofy pant-style you usually draw. And the arms off her back don't actually connect to her back—did you do that on purpose?
Zanter
^^ Ah, I see. Well, I would certantly polish that up a bit. But otherwise, looks quite cool.
^ So it seems, at least you're a semi-stalker who gives hella helpful critique.
The idea was that it's a rather long, heavier shirt, She has it tucked loosely in, so it balloons a bit. I'll try to make that more apparent later. It being tight around the top was supposed to be because of her crossed arms pulling on it a bit. But yeah, looks rather bad on second glance.
I do stick to my inverse M Chammer pants a lot don't I? Bit of Author Appeal going on there. Same thing with my outragious pants/sleeve cuffs. Just cool in my eyes.
Glad I can still draw normal pants allright though.
The arms are fault of my designing as i draw. When I drew her torso they were not connected, but then I decided they should be. Future pics will make it more clear. They are intended to come from the shoulder blades.
edited 20th Dec '10 10:44:13 PM by Zanter
Behold, art. http://insanelyzanter.deviantart.com/
Well, this subforum has been quiet...or is everyone off watching the invasion of shota-cats in IJBM?
It's a giant compilation of some of what I've done...all within this past year. The oldest stuff is on top, newest towards the bottom. A few are painted, but most are pencil doodles that I (tried to) color digitally with a mouse. 28 and 29 aren't done. Mostly fanart, except some are just random.
I'm most proud of 24 right now, since I managed to avoid using the smudge tool too much (like I did with 2.)
In some of the earlier ones I was trying to get that cel-shaded style, but I think I've kind of given up on that for now, at least until I can get smooth lineart without pencil smudges everywhere.
I guess right now what I want to improve on is using different perspectives and more interesting poses. Also, foreshortening. Currently I almost always use 3/4 or front or side view, and usually standing. I guess I just need to practice more...
Tumblr here.
You have a very distinct style that I love. It's animesque, but in a clean and crisp way. I love crisp art with straight and distinct lines. You've got that in spades. In fact, I'll be honest—you're better than I am (not that I think I'm the best or anything...but when I give critique, I like to give credit where it's due).
Other than that, I think the only problem you might have is that your eyes are a bit weird. Whether this is because your heads are a little too flat and wide, or because your eyes are too off-kilter, I'm not certain. In any case, it's not a big deal, but it is noticeable on a few pieces.
I'm going to post some art I did recently for my webcomic. The character I'm showing is the comic's protagonist, Tanjha.
edited 25th Dec '10 11:42:42 PM by KingZeal
^ It's seems that you're trying to go for a very atypical body type for a female protagonist, and that's very good. There are some things that are off, though.
For example, it seems that you're giving her muscular arms, which you can tell by her biceps. But those lines are a little confusing, and don't necessarily suggest tone. They seem a bit random. Try looking at muscular structure and see if you can have the defintion follow that.
◊
Her legs... her lower legs seem oddly short. I think this is true for most women, but combined with her very thick upper legs it seems disportinate. Her knees also seem low. Remember to take typical proportions into account.
◊ (NSFW for full frontal nudity, but not porn)
I like that you're drawing her head at an angle, which most artists are afraid to do. It looks pretty good. Good feet, too..really, you just have to work on your proportions mostly.
This isn't quite finished, but I like how it looks at this stage.
◊
edited 26th Dec '10 1:23:17 PM by Latia
PI
@kingzeal- a strapless top has to be tight and high on the boobs, or it'll slide right off. You can show some cleavage, but not that much, and certainly not any wrinkles/folds to suggest excess fabric. Ditto on the biceps and thighs looking wrong. Also the lips and chin...they're weirding me out. The expression. It's all very odd. Why would she have her mouth hanging open like that?
Overall, I like it, so let me get that out of that way.
However, it seems all too flat. Every character is on the same plane, with no foreshortening or depth. I know they're all at a window, but even then, they seem two-dimensional. One character's hands seem to painted onto her body, and the others' shoulders appear to have no curvature at all. Very jarring.
Also, I think you should have lightened up the coloring a bit. The dark makes me have to pause and squint to make out some of the detail.
Ahr river
@Zeal: I agree with Dae. It's well drawn, but very badly drawn at the same time. I would focus on more simple art, and work your way up. It's too cluttered and exaggerated. Please understand I am not insulting it, just that you have too many lines going on, and very little actual content from it. Also, you should go look up some porn or stuff like that, and copy how the breasts are done. They are not that circular.
@Latia: You need more contrast.
Read the title to know what I would like crit on specifically
edited 10th Feb '11 2:42:42 PM by MrAHR
Read my stories!
Zanter
@AHR
Firstly, a character with hair that long and a feature that overwhelming really isn't the best for that kind of practice.
- Upper-left The face seems to wide, and the cheek is to angular. The face should be a little flatter at that angle. The eyes are also kind of far apart.
- Upper-right I'm not a fan of chins tapering to a point like that, but it looks pretty good.
- Middle-Middle The jawline is kind of deformed. Agin with the chin, making the face designed to make that kind of throws the rest of the jawline off.
- Middle-Right Nose is a bit low, ear is a bit to far back and big.
- Bottom-left Cheek is way over defined. scar is a bit odd here, it looks like a sheet of something handing down the face rather then on it.
Just got my computer fixed, so here's the first thing I drew.
http://insanelyzanter.deviantart.com/#/d39ydfc
Also, sketches.
http://insanelyzanter.deviantart.com/#/d3a0k1j
edited 20th Feb '11 5:13:48 PM by Zanter
Behold, art. http://insanelyzanter.deviantart.com/
Just got my computer fixed, so here's the first thing I drew.
http://insanelyzanter.deviantart.com/#/d39ydfcThe drawing as a whole is very messy. The colour splashes on those mountain do not look good at all, if you didn't want to spend time on them then you should have left them plain grey in colour, then at least they wouldn't be so extremely distracting. The pattern on the ground does not work at all, again, instead of taking cheap short-cuts, leaving it plain grey would have been better.
The way you coloured the character is much better, but I wouldn't advise using grey for shadows, it makes him look zombie-ish. Also, say no to the airbrush, especially when colouring hair. Yes, I know, it's much faster than using the pen tool (or lasso, if you have a tablet, or if you're very good at using your mouse), but it looks just as fast and cheap as it is to use. And the way you coloured the "special effects" on his hand looks really bland (Is it supposed to be shiny or did you intend it to look smoke-y?). That guy in general is coloured so blandly, that he just fades into the background, and it's the badly-coloured mountains that instantly jump out at you.
The lineart is messy but okay. Line variation is good. But the way that cloak is floating looks totally unconvincing, especially since it's going in a completely different direction than the hair.
The character design looks very cliche, but YMMV.
edited 21st Feb '11 2:30:29 AM by fanty
(That Guy You Met Once)
These are all concept sketches for my webcomic. Feel free to critique anything you see here.
^ One comment I have, having to do with the first of those two drawings and some of the ones you've posted in this thread before, is that the people you draw tend to look like they have no waists. It's as if their hips start right where their ribcage ends.
Ahr river
Zanter:
First picture: You forgot to add wrists. You need to tighten the area before going into a hand. His upperbody also looks off. Prolly due to how narrow it gets where it meets the legs, which kinda clash with the muscled arms. You also need more definition in the jeans, it looks like the er, dunno what it's called, but the crotch area of the jeans looks like they go down to his kness.
Second: Your posing is actually pretty good, but I think your faces kinda suffer for it (so basically, you're the opposite of me. Sorta. I kinda suck at both). I also noticed you're art is pretty stylized jack skellington style. That's not a bad or good thing, but you might end up breaking bases that way.
Wheezy: You probably already know this, but your hands are way too small...
Her...hands. Not the artist-hand. The hand that's being overlapped is kinda noodly. You might want to try and draw tighter lines. and maybe make more lines? That's what I would do but I don't know if it would work for you. Also, the shading on the face is good, but it seems a bit too drastic. You might wanna make it blend more. Then again, I am not an expert on that type of shading, so that's a subjective thing.
Also, her lack of a nose is offsetting.
Ok. Final comment. Sorry I'm not saying how to improve as much as I should, I'm kinda bad at this. Her mouth. It doesn't really work with the face. It's like someone just took a flap of skin and carved a moon shape in it. If that makes sense. The face needs to meld more with it. Of course, I can't do that yet, so I can't really help how to do it. This lackadaisy tutorial addresses it though.
—
My thing Comments on how the shoulders are supposed to look are greatly appreciated.
edited 23rd Feb '11 2:10:47 PM by MrAHR
Read my stories!
(That Guy You Met Once)
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I'm guessing you're talking about the first 2 on the second post. The characters are all wearing baggy clothes, so I'm guessing it would be kind of hard to tell, but I'll try elongating the torsos some.
That tutorial's been on my hard drive for a few weeks now. In this case, the lack of nose and moon-mouth are fully intentional.
However, you're right about the hands being too small. In fact, her whole body is too small, I think.
And yeah, the shading is too drastic. I was going for something like the faces you see until 0:20 here, but now I see that I'll have to black out the entire background and let almost half of her face fade into the shadows to get that effect. I'll probably try a different style of shading next time.
edited 23rd Feb '11 7:46:58 PM by Wheezy
Novel progress: The Adroan (110k words), Yume no Hime (81k), The Pigeon Witch (40k)
Zanter
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Oh please, don't mind being ruthless, That's what helps me out the most.
I expected as much with the background, I have tried out this style of coloring backgrounds, like, twice. I really need to get my mind around digital painting.
I picked the grey colors because I work with that scheme a lot, and with my inexperience with that I decided to stick to my bases. ...And then I drop my character in, with the same scheme. Yeah, kind of a mad move on my part there....
I normally use a low opacity hardbrush for shades. (I have a tablet, so I do it by hand.) The shading on the hair looked a bit to bold, so I tried to experiment with using the airbrush eraser to "tidy" it up. I guess I'll play with my other options.
The effects are supposed to look a bit odd. As I'm not sure how compressed momentum should look. :p But I agree, I should try to do better.
I always love slightly dirty lineart done correctly, so some of it intentional.
I agree that the design needs work. But as much as he looks like it, he's not a stereotypical badass. The character is quite dim, outspoken, a hopeless romantic, and crushingly weak in comparison to other characters. Hopefully origional enough, but i expect YMMV
I got a slightly 1920s inspired outfit in the works that I hope should bring this across better.
^^
Wrists? D'oh! I hate those things!
The muscular arms/skinny body is intentional, but I'm still trying to perfect it.
He stole the pants off MC hammer. True story. They look a bit less stupid when his legs are a bit more open.
Thanks, I've been pushing for better poses lately.
Oh yes, the stylization is very much intended. "Evil base-breaking laugh".
AHR-
The arms are quite short, which throws it off a lot. But I'd saw the shoulders are abit over-defined. They look like they'reattached squarely to the side, instead of growing from the body. I'd play with the wrinkles a bit, as this is normally the issue for me. Girl on the left's are abit to far back. But then again, size throws it off.
Their eyes are to wide for that angle, and the foreheads seems to come out to far. But the flat noses might just give me this impression.
Hands are way to small and underdrawn.
edited 24th Feb '11 12:24:20 AM by Zanter
Behold, art. http://insanelyzanter.deviantart.com/
Mr. AHR: Let's just say that there's a reason why artists start by sketching out something like this.
Ahr river
I just started drawing foreheads, so I'm kinda just making an effort to have them, since before there would just be all hair all the time. I'm basically floundering around in the dark. I think for now at least, I'd rather have exaggerated foreheads than a complete lack of one. I can perfect an exaggerated forehead.
And my hands are always in a constant state of smallness.![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
In fact, these are hands I am reasonably pleased with, comparatively speaking. So ahm getting there. Well, the girl on the right, anyway. The girl on the left I just drew a hand for the sake of completion.
I was trying to make the profile simplistic, but not have a Dominic Deegan side face, so the noses might have been a bit under exaggerated.
Although, I can't see the eye thing you're talking about (just due to desensitization), could you provide a comparison?
@fanty: poses. My mortal enemy.
Naw, kidding, I know. I can use them, and I have, I'm just a lazy ass when I don't sit down to intentionally do it, and I always think 'just gonna draw a head' and then think 'hm, maybe I'll add some quick shoulder lines' and then before I know it I've drawn a fully boxy body.
edited 24th Feb '11 2:54:51 AM by MrAHR
Read my stories!
Ahr river
Double Post.
Today I took the posing advice.
In general or specific criticism would be great.
Read my stories!
^ Not in any particular order, just stuff I thought of while looking at your sketches:
- Don't worry about drawing clothes/hair on pose sketches, since you're supposed to be focusing on the pose. Not always, but often clothes will obscure legs/arms/etc., and I find it easier to draw the actual body before adding stuff on top of it. Of course, this is kind of a personal preference.
- In a lot of your sketches, the heads are too large for the body. The backstance one is the best in terms of the "6 or 7 heads tall" rule.
- In the running pose, the arm farther away from us isn't connected to his shoulder unless his humerus bone makes a 60 degree turn midway.
- Unless they're really skinny (which might be the case), they need a little bit more butt. (mostly regarding the running and slouching sketches, also androgynous person 1)
- Androgynous weight shifted to one side person 1: I think his/her back foot is rotated to face us a little bit too much. Also, the fold at his/her crotch is a little too high.
- Backstance guy again: his right thumb shouldn't be at a 90 degree. This isn't too hard to fix, though; just take a photo of your right hand in that pose and reference that.
- The running stance: Most people will bend their arms while running and lean a little forward.
That's all I've got.
Tumblr here.
Ahr river
Heh, the clothes thing is me drawing them in after I'm done with the figure. It's a habit of mine to just keep adding more lines.
Yeah, my heads have always been on the big side. I've gotten better with that though.
edited 24th Feb '11 3:16:09 PM by MrAHR
Read my stories!
I'm liking the posing of the eagle, there, Scrye. Very cool subject matter.
My only note might be the fire; I don't know whether you intended it to be heavily stylised or not, but it looks more like fabric than an actual fire, especially in the way it 'wraps' around the sword. It's the way that it clumps together as one central flame that looks odd, too.