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Showin' some art...
Radar6590
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Yeap, totally new to this forum, though I've been a fan of Penny Arcade for what feels like forever. Figured I'd be most interested in this particular section, especially since I'm expecting good critique. That's something really lacking in most forums. Anyway, here we go:
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i think you need the most work on hands and feet.
the third one really needs some hand/feet love.
actually the third one strikes me as older than the rest
are these in order of when they were made?
i like your line work, very clean.
aside from that i think these looks great. The line work is VERY solid. The colors seem a little soft...are you using the smudge and the burn/dodge tools? or the airbrush tool? Those tend to make it look like this, and are usually avoided.
The coloring isn't bad, i just don't think it's on par with your line work.
Nice job. Keep at it.
I am actually aware of this, simply due to improvement over time on my part. Oddly, no one else has ever pointed it out, so thank you for confirming my suspicions. I actually have not fixed it for a sense of progression. I drew the lines for it about six months ago.
They are in order of when they were made. For example, as I said above, the first picture was drawn six months ago, and colored a month after that. Then I re-did the colors in October because they looked very washed out in the original (see link. SO, I suppose you could say that most of these pictures are about from October to now, where the most recent was finished three days ago.
As for hands, they do sometimes cause me great pains. The one you pointed out (Drawn in December, actually.) I do believe needs a smaller left hand and some of the fingers fixed, and those boots turned out... oddly, though I guess I'm not quite sure what would fix them. If you have any tips I would be appreciative!
I actually agree that my coloring is not on par with my linework! A lot of other people, that I know personally, disagree, but my understanding of light, and color, and exactly what colors to use is very basic, I think.
As for what I do, I basically guess. I play with saturation levels and colors and just apply them as I feel is necessary, though later on I often look back and think: "bleh". I don't use the dodge and burn tools, though I, for example in the last picture, sometimes adjust saturation levels in a way that might emulate them. I often up the saturation before I post something. And I do, in fact, use the airbrush. I have tried painting, also, with the watercolor loaded wet flat tip, but I never really like it. Again, any tips on what brush I might try would be awesome.
For BGs, I admit I do have this problem, though it is something I am working on. I'll throw up a few rough things for the sake of it:
These pencils were actually done in August of 2006. I was making a study of another artist's style, but freehanded everything with pencil. It took my like eight hours back then, heh.
Pencils of a cityscape kind of thing:
I'm also actually currently working on this, because I have noticed this issue as well.
Finally, I do do some basic BGs like these two (I actually forgot to add the first to the original drawings. Whoops):
Note, this last one is actually older than any of the other pictures on here, and yes, her left hand's first finger is large, I know. >_> It all goes with the fact hat I need to pay more attention to how I draw hands, I guess.
You're right about the leg, now that I look at it. It shouldn't be quite so high.
But, about the last picture. I guess I might not understand what you're saying. What do you mean the body doesn't look like it could twist that way? It's hardly twisting at all. Note that his torso and pelvis are facing away from the audience, and he's mainly moving his neck to look at you. Maybe if you were a little clearer...?:|
Just to try and make things clearer... I drew this. I think that you think I drew it like #1 in this representation (forgive the figures, drawn in like three minutes). In that case you would be correct, my image would be wrong because no one's torso can twist that much without bringing the legs with it. But what I drew was #2, which has his entire back side facing towards you but his body it turning also towards you, like he's going to pivot or slash out with his arm. In that case, I'm fairly sure it's easily possible to stand like that. I can, anyway.
It seems that you're accustomed to just drawing body features in a very limited range of angles and positions, which is a very superficial sense of anatomy. To draw characters with proper foreshortening and dynamic anatomy you need a more three dimensional understanding of the muscles and features involved.
The airbrush coloring has got to go too. It looks really cheap and amateurish almost always on colored linework.
Welcome to the AC!
The problem with the last one is that it's so flat that there's almost an optical illusion going on. If you blur your eyes and just look at the silhouette you can practically imagine the figure as if it were completely facing the other direction, if that makes sense.
First off thank you for the welcome.
While I guess I don't entirely agree with your critique that I have no anatomical skills in some more complex positions, I will admit that I just started doing them. Prior to a few months ago my specialty was basically limited to standing positions, so I've just begun to get a feel for how things should look elsewhere. I know this is going to be a big thing for when I go into college next year, so hopefully I can get the hang of it.
Thank you for pointing it out, though. Most people in other places, again, don't. Once I hear stuff like this from someone else besides myself, I generally focus on it even more, and notice nuances that I wouldn't before.
Again, with the airbrush, I guess a lack of understanding the tools of coloring in photoshop may be at fault. If you can point out some better brushes to use, I will gladly try them.
I hope you will admit that most people don't view things while blurring their eyes, but I can see where you're coming from.
Silhouette is extremely important in character drawing. I didn't say "blur your eyes and it looks kinda funny" for shits and grins. I said that because the nearly the only thing telling the viewer how this guy's body is oriented is the supporting details like the clothing and his hands (which blurring your eyes takes away). The biggest problem is his legs, which look like they are aligned on nearly the same plane and so it isn't obvious which one is in front of the other. A well executed character drawing should leave absolutely no room for ambiguity in this regard and the action of a figure should be clear even from a distance, with blurry vision.
As far as brushes, I always recommend a simple hard round brush set to pressure sensitivity for opacity to people starting out with digital painting. The bigger problem than the type of brush you use is your lighting. Good light and shadow modeling will help flesh out the shape of your subjects and give it more depth. There needs to be a LOT more contrast between your lights and darks for this to work though, as what you're currently doing is only a few steps above local shading.