First Robot Scrap pic

Lissachoa

Alright, this is my first attempt in drawing robots or whatever that gotten the crap beaten out of them and left dead, so far it's my best ( kinda ) however the only ones who have seen my work are the ones who love me so I would like an outside opinion before I move forward.

~Lissachoa

erisian pope

I have a hard time making out what is going on in the picture. Is she holding a gigantic spikey hammer? Is there some odd spikey post in the scene with a wooden bar coming out of it that she's holding for balance? At first I had a hard time making out the girl. She blends into the rest f the scene a lot.

I like the style in general and the color pallette a lot. Is there any way to separate the subject from the surrounding clutter without destroying the cohesion of the scene?

I ask because I ain't no paining/drawing artist so I dont know what all is possible.

Lissachoa

well, like I said, This is my first.
Yes, she is holding a spike infested mallet, angles are one of the things I really need to work on.
as for the blening, that's one weakness I'm still struggeling with.
maybe if I mute out the outer lines around the scrap or the character, at least making one stand out more then the other.
..... I think that might work.

NotASenator

Is this the completed work? If so, I have a big suggestion in the form of the framing:

The entire left half of the image is completely dead space. You'll need to put something in there, background detail, crashed ship, pile of robots, Yellow Brick Road, whatever, because the image just looks unfinished like that.

civicpride

It's a good start. I totally agree that the left is pretty much dead space. Also, I'm a little confused as to some of the robot scraps around her. Personally, and since I'm a total n00b you don't really have to listen to this, I would make every scrap at least a little identifiable as something (wiring, a bit of a body, etc.). On the flip side, I love seeing her stepping up onto that green hand there.

Belruel

i would advise you to work on the anatomy of the girl, even though it is stylized, it is inconsistant, such as in the length of her thighs.

the robots are a good start, though they look mostly just like sharp tangled metal. but if you were going for that kind of look, you did well.

Asamof the Horrible

neat concept, needs better composition

BenGPT

I applaud your color palette. They're not blinding, like in a lot of others' first tries.

Mykonos

this is just personal opinion, but I'm feeling the girl, or even the flower even, could use a little "something," contrast perhaps, to make em stand out and give a little more focus. While it's really good, It still took my cracked out, adhd self, a few seconds to see exactly what I was looking. That aside, nice job.

Lewis Rice

I see from your signature that the character has no nose...

Give her a nose.

galen

Oh man
that hammer is ridiculous. Straight outta "Spawn" circa 1993.

Also the whole thing is kind of muddy. I little more vibrancy and contrast would help it a lot.

Mykonos

that hammer is ridiculous. Straight outta "Spawn" circa 1993.

Wow I didn't even realize that was a hammer till you pointed that out. I thought that was part of the garbage heap. Now I'll definitely emphasize placing more contrast.

Lissachoa

That's the style of how I draw the character, putting a nose on her kinda ruined it so I kept it off.

anyways, this topic is not about the signature, it's about the picture there.

as for the "Spawn" thingy, what's "Spawn circa 1993"?

Forbe!

No amount of 'style' can cover up an artists' poor concept of anatomy.

What do you want us to say about your piece if you won't allow us to critique what we see of all your work.
Your signature is in the same 'style' as the piece you posted, so of course we are going to gather material from this.

galen

Lissachoa wrote: »

as for the "Spawn" thingy, what's "Spawn circa 1993"?

Wow.

There's no way you're that young.

...

At any rate, Spawn was a comic which was popular in the 90's. At it's peak it had toys, several comic series, an animated show and a (terrible) movie. The hammer looks like something Todd McFarlane would have drawn as a weapon.

Lissachoa

well, I got several kinds of styles I do, this is my "Cartoon" way of drawing. we all know cartoons are not meant to make any sense, I will admit though I've been drawing cartoons for so long that my realistic drawings are rusty. I will gladly show you one if you like.

I'm surprised no one had complained about the 4 fingers just yet, I get that a lot to a point where it's funny right now.

The One Dark Knight

She has huge man hands and huge meaty arms and only 4 fingers. She is like some sort of strange sausage person. There is also very little sense of depth in that picture which makes it hard to look at. The posing is awkward and I don't have any idea what she just destroyed.

Forbe!

Lissachoa wrote: »

we all know cartoons are not meant to make any sense

I'm sorry, but no.

Lissachoa

Ah! the four fingers, I spook too soon XD

anyways, she didn't destroy anything, all of that is not really meant to be one thing, it's several things all banged up, torn apart and such.

and "Spawn" I'm 24 years old and I know about "Spawn" but I never knew he was dated that far back, I only heard about him back in 2000 and read about 3 of his comics and saw the toys, no offence but the plot was kinda rusty.

The One Dark Knight

In general, we at the AC don't really go for 'style over substance' kind of drawings. Maybe post some more stuff and we can help you out.

Also, draw noses.

EDIT: Another thing I see that's really wrong is your stuff is just cluttered. There is no lineweight or anything or any sort of composition.

Lissachoa

as I said, I have many ways of drawing, the way you mainly see here is what I normally do, the other ways have noses and five fingers, the faces are just fine along with the bodies but what I really need help in is the cloths with the folds in the fabric and such, I've recently have been studying on it but I can't afford much, I can only go with what I see.

let me find other drawings for you too see...

Grifter

http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Wrinkles-Drapery-Solutions-Practical/dp/0823015874/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198789236&sr=8-3

Lissachoa

Thank you for the link, I hope I can afford it.

anyways, posting up all those pictures will slow down the browser so I'm gonna just send you people the links to the pictures...

http://lissachoa.deviantart.com/art/Vinarate-the-Gods-44644281

http://lissachoa.deviantart.com/art/Black-Mage-Cid-44644173

http://lissachoa.deviantart.com/art/KH-TFTH-47948696

http://lissachoa.deviantart.com/art/Another-tale-of-the-Heart-52412648

http://lissachoa.deviantart.com/art/Delusions-59760386

http://lissachoa.deviantart.com/art/Dear-Father-Vincent-71480426

http://lissachoa.deviantart.com/art/Forward-in-the-cold-65184487 (( from the style from this game, they don't have noses.))

http://lissachoa.deviantart.com/art/Sick-Room-71478629


Bleh, there ya go, now like I said before, I just recently decided to try a few new things to improve my talents since it feels as though what I can do now just isin't enough anymore, If I'm gonna get anywhere I have to improve my talents

*sits back and watches*

Belruel

work on proportions, stop the claw fingers and learn to draw hands. the dear vincent one would be noticeably better if he didn't have those claw fingers.

looking at the pic in the OP, it would be very good for you to look up some online tutorials on how to paint metal. the metal, bone, and skin appear to be painted the same way

Projeck

oh hey photoshop filters

yeah

don't use those

Lissachoa

noted ^_^'

I wish I had something better to show but I never have the time to make a master piece, I only got as much time as my Daughters naps during the day which is like 2 hours or so and then there's the house work, the bills, dinner and getting in the red zone with money, I can only do what I got.

Belruel

then you start a piece, and work on it a bit at a time when you can. not everything has to be done in one sitting

Goatmon

Interesting picture; I like the detail but, as it's been said already, it could definitely use a more interesting background.

I love the hammer.

StealthNachos

Belruel wrote: »

then you start a piece, and work on it a bit at a time when you can. not everything has to be done in one sitting

For truths. I'm not going to say working on something for a long time will gurantee a better picture, but you're working digital here. There's no possible way you can make it worse because if you screw something up you just undo a couple of times or load from a little bit ago and you're back to point A. And, though I can't garuntee that it will get better, working on something longer and letting ideas simmer over time can really go a long way towards turning something mediocre into something good and something good into something great. If you only have 2 hours to work on it in the day, use 3 or 4 of those sessions and really give it all you got, ya know? What I would really suggest using that time for is learning more about the stuff that people have suggested here because it really does help, especially in heavily stylized images like these.

I honestly didn't know that was a hammer. It looked like a stump with some scraps of metal coming out of it. The image is flat and there's no line variation to suggest form, which has nothing to do with your knowledge of anatomy or the physics of lighting because even knowing little about lighting, experience would give you the knowledge you need here. It's obvious you've either been doing this for a short time, or worse, doing this for a long time but doing the exact same kind of stuff all the time. You have to open your mind and expand outside of the box that you keep yourself in. Look at it like this: Who's your favorite artist? I'm betting it's not yourself. So, who is he, and why is he your favorite? Is it his style, the colors he uses, does he seem to know something you don't? Maybe he's not a paticularly well known artist, maybe it's just someone you saw on Deviant Art or something. What did he do that you liked? Don't just say, "I don't know," ask yourself why you liked it and then take what he did and try it out a little. You might find something you can add to your style. Creating great art, the kind that really moves you or makes you laugh or tells a story, really comes from experience. The more you do it and the more you see and the more you learn will all go towards making you a better artist.

Now, if you aren't serious about this and was just looking to post it for looky loos then you may just want to go back to Deviant Art, because I've found that most of the people here are very serious about what they do and some others have even made a living off of it. Everyone is trying to help you here, we're telling you what we learned through experience, so take it as it is: advice. You really don't seem to be here for that, you've stated you want to get better, so just do what everyone's saying. Crack open an anatomy book when you have the chance, or better yet take a life drawing class. I'm not sure if there's one offered around wherever you live, but if you look around a little I'm sure you'll find something to help you. Besides that you can work on the science of light and theory of colors, but really the best thing you can do is paint or draw what you see. Draw a bowl of fruit, a city at night, maybe animals that you have or that live around your house, anything at all will do. And I mean, books are a great resource but if you can't afford those you have the great big internet. Biggest resource imaginable. Keep working at it and keep posting.

Mykonos

You have some talent, there's no denying that, but like Christrian Troy once said, "The moment you stop striving for perfection, you may as well be dead." Terrible reference aside, even if your gonna stick with just a cartoon style, you still shouldn't shorthand yourself by a lack of study of the various essentials like anatomy, color, etc. At a minimum, it will at least build some credibility that a disproportioned character is done so not out of error but of artistic intent, which is what think may be creating some of critical reponses atm.

Still, just to reiterate, you have amazing potential, just keep at it and take all the time you need to develop your masterpiece.

The One Dark Knight

What it all boils down to is this I think:

You can't break the rules unless you know the rules. I mean, it can't hurt to TRY a little realistic drawing now and again. I certainly do and I am surprised each time at how terrible I am at it, comparatively. It's only going to make you get better. Right now your style is kind of chunky and very generic sort of 'deviantart-art'-esque with very obvious anime influences.

Lissachoa

You people are still replying to this? I'm suprised o_o

anyways, I have been taking notes of the advice you people have been giving me and I'm highly greatful, I don't gets comments like this on DA.

Now, There are little to no art classes around here except a guitar class however My husband has been buying art books lately so I can study from those once I can find them, even after improving the ananomy and coloring I still have to do better with backgrounds but that's another thing I'll worry about later

Mykonos

Shoot I dont take classes either, rather I'm doing the same thing your doin kinda by just reading artbooks and looking at stock photos. Check this magazine out. It's got amazing stuff in it for concept art and whatnot and comes with workshops on it's cd like tuts, palletes, and brushes. It has helped me tremendously, though it assumes you have at least the basics down.

http://www.imaginefx.com/