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- Jan 20, 2020
So far i've been using quickpose, It's a prettt decent site,which even has refs and tutorials for drawing animals.
Art Critique + Advice
- Thread starter Koresh
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- Nov 9, 2014
I know I'm late as fuck on this BUT, I really like the piece so I'm wading in, I think the hands are too stubby, he's a rat, he needs thinner, more clawlike fingers.
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2018
Found my missing tablet pen, and decided to paint a rough doodle of Mipha from BotW I did during a meeting. Obviously fairly heavily WIP.
I put specific effort in approaching the posing from a holistic perspective. I noticed that before, I would tend to draw things starting from the actual body parts, which would often result in a slightly awkward or generally formless and uninteresting envelope. So in this instance I started out with a general outline of the shape I wanted (a lopsided triangle) and drew the body to fit into it. I also picked out an actual palette to work off of instead of trying to figure out out as I went along.
I'm also experimenting with a new way of coloring. Before, I've always had trouble going from rough line-art to a finished-looking drawing. I was never really good at cleaning up line-art. But I found that doing rough color-blocks of everything all at once gives me room to tweak proportions I'm not happy with and also makes my shadows look more natural, because they're not something being tacked on at the very end but rather being integrated at a very basic level.
Also, this is just sort of an interesting thing I noticed while drawing; but initially this drawing was full-body. After looking at some style references, I noticed a lot of them tended to be cropped out. So I cropped my sketch at the legs, and honestly it looks so, so much better. Not because I can't draw feet or anything, but it just feels much more grounded than having the body just floating on the page, I guess. I wonder what the "scientific" explanation for that is.
I put specific effort in approaching the posing from a holistic perspective. I noticed that before, I would tend to draw things starting from the actual body parts, which would often result in a slightly awkward or generally formless and uninteresting envelope. So in this instance I started out with a general outline of the shape I wanted (a lopsided triangle) and drew the body to fit into it. I also picked out an actual palette to work off of instead of trying to figure out out as I went along.
I'm also experimenting with a new way of coloring. Before, I've always had trouble going from rough line-art to a finished-looking drawing. I was never really good at cleaning up line-art. But I found that doing rough color-blocks of everything all at once gives me room to tweak proportions I'm not happy with and also makes my shadows look more natural, because they're not something being tacked on at the very end but rather being integrated at a very basic level.
Also, this is just sort of an interesting thing I noticed while drawing; but initially this drawing was full-body. After looking at some style references, I noticed a lot of them tended to be cropped out. So I cropped my sketch at the legs, and honestly it looks so, so much better. Not because I can't draw feet or anything, but it just feels much more grounded than having the body just floating on the page, I guess. I wonder what the "scientific" explanation for that is.
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- Jan 20, 2020
Pixiv has a whole "How to draw" section. It has (mostly but not always) great references for a lot of things and easy to follow instructions (sure most of it is in japanese since it's a japanese site but it's mostly easy to understand).
But if you need some references I can always share some of my "good stuff" with you. Just name what you need.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2020
Well I redid 1 pic now to redo the other, from
to
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2018
Pretty happy with how this is coming out so far. Improved on the color palette a bit - I keep forgetting that shadows don't just have to be a darker version of the base color and can be more whimsical. I didn't use a direct reference for anything, so I was reminded how much of a pain it is to try to bullshit cloth folds from scratch.
I dread the part where I have to actually blend/paint the colors together. I kinda like the blocky way it looks, but I need to learn to paint eventually. Still not sure how to best approach it in FireAlpaca though.
I dread the part where I have to actually blend/paint the colors together. I kinda like the blocky way it looks, but I need to learn to paint eventually. Still not sure how to best approach it in FireAlpaca though.
The redo version looks faaar more superior to the original. The mouth is still a bit low, the nose too wide and the colors are a tad more dull (but this one is just my nitpick). But the coloring and proportions look a lot nicer so overall it's definitely a great improvement.
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2018
Honestly, when you’re still in the sketch stage, literally just drag the facial features around, zoom out, and take a look to see if it feels “right”. Guarantee if you do this you’ll hit more natural-looking proportions.The redo version looks faaar more superior to the original. The mouth is still a bit low, the nose too wide and the colors are a tad more dull (but this one is just my nitpick). But the coloring and proportions look a lot nicer so overall it's definitely a great improvement.
It’s hard for us humans to immediately determine what’s RIGHT and where something SHOULD be, but we’re real great at noticing when something looks off.
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- Jun 17, 2018
Well, excuse the double post I guess, but I've attempted to actually do some painting! I think I've found a system that works for me, which is:
1. Big color blocks for rough shading using a hard-edged brush - no gradients at all. I find it way easier to do slight fixes to the proportions this way (as opposed to trying to do refined line art on top of my sketches), because when I do line art I'm usually zoomed in all the way and thus it's difficult to tell overall proportions, whereas using color blocks I'm usually doing high-level edits using the eraser tool while zoomed out.
2. Line art to better define the edges of the color blocks. Just helps to make everything look more defined. FireAlpaca has a neat brush that smooths and tapers the lines you draw, which helps with making the line art look a bit cleaner. I find it MUCH easier to do line art this way, because the shapes of everything are already defined.
3. Paint over the edges of the color blocks to blend everything together, adding additional shading where necessary.
I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made so far with this, it's probably the first digital art thing I've done that's actually starting to look "properly finished".
1. Big color blocks for rough shading using a hard-edged brush - no gradients at all. I find it way easier to do slight fixes to the proportions this way (as opposed to trying to do refined line art on top of my sketches), because when I do line art I'm usually zoomed in all the way and thus it's difficult to tell overall proportions, whereas using color blocks I'm usually doing high-level edits using the eraser tool while zoomed out.
2. Line art to better define the edges of the color blocks. Just helps to make everything look more defined. FireAlpaca has a neat brush that smooths and tapers the lines you draw, which helps with making the line art look a bit cleaner. I find it MUCH easier to do line art this way, because the shapes of everything are already defined.
3. Paint over the edges of the color blocks to blend everything together, adding additional shading where necessary.
I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made so far with this, it's probably the first digital art thing I've done that's actually starting to look "properly finished".
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- Joined
- Jan 20, 2020
Something I painted recently, I wanted practice translating characters (In this case Snake) into my style, and some male anatomy
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2018
The coloring/lighting looks cool.
The hoodie pocket looks very strange to me. It’s like the hand just disappears. I think there needs to be some shading/shaping to indicate the shape of the hand inside.
Also, if you didn’t specifically say it’s male, I defintiely would have thought this character was supposed to be female. The body is androgynous enough that the detail put into stereotypically female characteristics - long hair, more noticeable lips, and colored nails - bend my interpretation in favor of female.
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- Jan 20, 2020
Thank ya! I'm still working on clothing and body interactions, so I apologize for the pocket looking weird. At least in this case (compared to my other art) some of the feminine features were intentional, or just poor "translation" of the characters features, such as the long hair
As for the noticeable lips tho, that's actually feature Snake had later in the series
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2015
Your signature looks like it's a scraggly beard. Couldn't even tell that that he has kangaroo pocket, it looked like his hand just disappeared into a bag. The bottom half of his face looks too big, like it expanded. The face shadows look splotchy. The tips of the fingers are too long and the finger holding the cigarette looks weird, I can't explain how, but it's off somehow and the creases look weird, maybe too long or going in the wrong direction, hard to tell. The angle of the pocket doesn't match the angle of his body and neither does his lower half. The front deltoid looks too short and the crease where his arm meets his body is not at all what that looks like, ref would be of use here.
I'd say so some studies of shading. You got the right idea, but it looks like you need to both tighten it and practice more.
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- Jan 20, 2020
AYE, at least I'm getting somewhere with practice, thanks for the critique, I think I may have an answer for your finger confusion, when I originally drew the base outlines and colors the index finger was a bit longer and kinda lifted,
- Joined
- May 9, 2019
Working on an OC, but I just can't get her eyes to look right. They always look creepy/unnerving no matter how I color or shade them. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
I did a quick edit on your drawing I hope you don't mind. I added a bit more shading to the eye, moved it closer to each other a bit and overall made it a bit more anime I guess. I also moved the mouth and nose a bit higher but that's more of a personal choice. Btw really cute character, really like her design!
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2015
The eyes still look dead.
Reference, reference, reference. Find reference similar to what you want and look at how it works the way you want. Also the full body you posted is stiff, go practice life drawing and gesture. If you need help, Loomis and Michael Hampton are the best. Your lines show uncertainty, if you have a drawing tablet, but broad strokes are best, if you don't like it, ctrl+z and redo it, again and again until you like it. The left side is thicker and the body itself is off center. Her hair is also complicated. If you plan on drawing it over and over again, I would simplify it, because right now, it looks like you either couldn't decide on what you wanted or that you just threw in everything you liked.
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- Aug 20, 2015
Better.