Art, for your viewing pleasure

Electronic Samurai

Hey everybody! Wow, I've been a fan of the comic for ages, and just realized that there was a forum. Anyways, here's some of my recent arts. Comments and criticism highly encouraged.

Red-tailed hawk - my mom asked me to draw her something for Christmas, so I did:



Kefka, from FF6 - done as part of an art competition (I won!)



A self-portrait:

spellchrome

Hey Electronic Samurai,

Your Red-tailed hawk has some nice movement to it. Looks like you drew it on bristle board or other textured paper, which is a good way to practice drawing. In transferring it from analogue to digital, I think some of the detail is missing that is present on the original. Some software lets you deepen blacks so they show better once scanned, which might help show off future pieces even better.

Kefka - Never played FF6, but I'm assuming that the dude looks like the VG character. Good expression. What did you use for a reference?

Self-portrait - I like the fluidness. While the sketchiness helps you develop the initial form, cleaning up the lines and committing to an outline might make it even better. Like the difference between a penciler and an inker in a lot of comic companies.

Keep drawing.

crawdaddio

The lines on the halk drawing have a nice fluidity to them, although it looks a bit like your elements drifted a bit from head to feet, so that the farther leg and wing couldn't possibly attach right to the body with their positions. The scan also leaves me wishing I could see the background a bit more clearly, as well; if you've still got the drawing on you, would it be possible to re-scan without adjusting the levels? I get the feeling you (or the scanner) might be pushing the levels artificially, which isn't bad per se, but which can keep you from working out how to get the tonal range right on paper.

The self-portrait looks mostly right at first glance, but there was something off about it that I couldn't pin until I sighted your height; the "standard" proportion for males is usually around eight heads, while your drawing puts you in at six and a half. From the look of it, you've shortened the height of your torso (from your chest to your navel), and then again greatly shortened the length of your legs. Additionally, the bend in your right arm ought to produce more wrinkles than you seem to have rendered, and the foreshortening doesn't seem to have been pulled off quite right (it isn't helped by the hatching you've put in there, which should follow the cross-contours of the forearm a bit more). Other than that (and the same levels issue as the first drawing), it's not too shabby. I'd like to see more from you.

Electronic Samurai

spellchrome: You're right, I did adjust the contrast on the hawk drawing slightly, to help bring out the blacks. As for the reference on Kefka, I used a photo of Chris Eccleson, which I can't seem to find at the moment.

crawdaddio: Yeah, I've noticed the discrepancy on the hawk myself, but unfortunately I was rather far into the drawing by that point. Ah well, that'll teach me to check my dimensions before shading, I guess. The self portrait is from a few years ago - I hadn't honestly noticed the height issue, but now I can't stop staring at it!

Thanks for the comments!