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Anyone who would be kind enough to provide criticisms.

DRaelrichDRaelrich AspirantRegistered User regular
edited September 2012 in Artist's Corner
Good evening, everyone for whom it is evening. Good whatever else to whomever else.
New to the forums, sort of. Posted here almost a decade ago, but don't remember any of my information.

I've been an aspiring professional artist for going on seven years now, but I've been almost exclusively graphite-and-ink for most of that; I've been working on improving my ability in digital art much more recently, only getting into it over the past year or so. The style I like to draw is one that generally keeps anatomically accurate proportions, but isn't heavily focused on realism.

Ideally I aim to work either freelance or salaried in the Art Entertainment industry; I'm not one hundred percent sure which direction I'd like to go, but I would like to make money telling stories with images, moving or still.

With that in mind, I'm going to post some of my stuff in this thread, and I'd like for anyone stopping in to take a look and tell me what they think. My aim is mostly to improve in digital coloring, lighting and shading, but if anyone has other tips those would be appreciated as well.

Without any more ado.

Centered weight, gentle hand.
DRaelrich on

Posts

  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    tumblr_ma4omafRll1qmgyp2o1_500.png

    This one took me a while to get to this point. I'd like to take it further, but I'm not sure how.

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    tumblr_m1850p6ihC1qmgyp2o1_500.png

    I used to keep the pencil for my drawings when I colored them, but that felt less... refined, I don't know. It didn't give me the look I wanted.
    Even so, I felt pretty good about this one.

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    tumblr_lz27vzXtLu1qmgyp2o1_500.png

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • NakedZerglingNakedZergling A more apocalyptic post apocalypse Portland OregonRegistered User regular
    Third robot guy is pretty cool. I know the temptation to dive into digital is overwhelming, but don't let it distract you from the foundations of light, shade, value, composition, anatomy, perspective, etc. Your images are also a tad on the smaller size, making it a bit difficult to see some of the detail. I would love to see just some of your sketches and stuff. It looks like you're off to a good start, just keep grinding away. Work on it every day, and keep coming back here to post.

  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    I appreciate the response. I am... new to foruming, so I didn't really know if I could upload images instead of just using image links. You can see larger versions of each here:

    Robot Fight
    Stone Swamp
    Third Robot Guy

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    edited September 2012
    As far as less finished drawings go... here's a few:

    tumblr_m9prd1UtSQ1qmgyp2o1_500.png

    tumblr_m6xsfbVibK1qmgyp2o1_500.png

    tumblr_m61ty5Obfl1qmgyp2o1_500.png

    This one I consider mostly finished, at least in the graphite-and-ink stage.

    DRaelrich on
    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • FANTOMASFANTOMAS Flan ArgentavisRegistered User regular
    all I can say is, in the latest ones, if you are going out full manga, you might want to make them a bit cleaner, softer and more uniform shading, dont get the lines to be so bold AND sketchy, in my humble opinion they can work as sketchy, or they can work as bold clear lines.

    Regarding the digital ones, I think you need to desaturate the colours a bit, and try some more contrast, right now it all looks very bright, yet flat at the same time (product of everything being equally too bright, Im talking about the round robot with the guy in the green pants, particularly saturated background, and particularly weak contrast shadows)

    Welcome back to PA:AC !

    PS: I always forget to mention the good parts, I like the one tagged 8/1/2012 , I like the second drawing too, specially the colours used.

    Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    Also this one.

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    Also this one.

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    Accidentally double-posted on those last two.

    Thanks for the comment, Fantomas. I know that it can look like I'm going for manga-styled drawings, but I'm actually trying to stay away from them; Japanese comics were one of my initial inspirations to get started drawing, but I want to get away from the anatomical tropes that come with that style.

    As for the digital, I will definitely try pulling back on the color saturation and strengthening the shadows.

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • MustangMustang Arbiter of Unpopular Opinions Registered User regular
    I wouldn't get too tied down in the details at the moment, they'll only serve to slow down your progress.
    Obviously working from life and references is a great idea at the moment, but also take some time to copy some of your favourite artists. It'll allow you to deconstruct their work and give you some idea of how they put things together, why they used a particular line weight there, why composing it a certain way gives the piece more life..etc.

  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    I do a bit of drawing from life, but rarely any imitating artists; I might have to give that a try, thanks.

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    edited September 2012
    I also did this:

    tumblr_maku387R6J1qmgyp2o1_1280.png
    tumblr_maku387R6J1qmgyp2o2_1280.png
    tumblr_maku387R6J1qmgyp2o3_1280.png

    Not my best work, but fun.

    DRaelrich on
    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    I suppose I should put up some WIPs as well.

    rezenga.png

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    chapel.png

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
  • worldalphaworldalpha Registered User regular
    Some of the polished ones look really great. Good job!

    Working on my recently-launched social strategy MMO WorldAlpha http://www.worldalpha.com
  • DRaelrichDRaelrich Aspirant Registered User regular
    Thanks!

    Also, A recently done one: this is a random sample page to show a potential client that I can do pencilwork for superhero comics.

    Centered weight, gentle hand.
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