Art Critique + Advice

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I'm currently making a comic, and I've used blue pencil to draw the characters' heads from all angles. I scanned them, and printed them off a bunch of times. Then for each panel, I ink over the needed copy, and draw in a new expression - my question is, does that count as cheating?

edit: some of the stuff in here makes me wanna lock up my pens and pencils forever, haha. I'm fine with a CalArty/Adventure Time type style, but that's it!

Nah, that's not cheating. That's what a lot of pros do too. There's no such thing as cheating in art as long as you're not outright stealing shit.

Don't feel bad about your art! There are things that only you can do and that you can do better than anyone else! I personally would love to see your stuff, comics are always my favorite!
 
I'm currently making a comic, and I've used blue pencil to draw the characters' heads from all angles. I scanned them, and printed them off a bunch of times. Then for each panel, I ink over the needed copy, and draw in a new expression - my question is, does that count as cheating?

edit: some of the stuff in here makes me wanna lock up my pens and pencils forever, haha. I'm fine with a CalArty/Adventure Time type style, but that's it!
Tracing your own art is never cheating! I often use a light table to recreate sketches onto better paper and I have a method of transfering drawings to canvas for painting and they're both basically tracing. If you're starting with your own art it's fair game. I trace comic page layouts quite a bit. I had a teacher (that I really didn't like, ha ha) suggest printing out five or so different page layouts and just re-use them. The downside with that is you end up locked in to only a set number of layouts to use, but depending on the comic it could work out for you.
 
Tracing your own art is never cheating! I often use a light table to recreate sketches onto better paper and I have a method of transfering drawings to canvas for painting and they're both basically tracing. If you're starting with your own art it's fair game. I trace comic page layouts quite a bit. I had a teacher (that I really didn't like, ha ha) suggest printing out five or so different page layouts and just re-use them. The downside with that is you end up locked in to only a set number of layouts to use, but depending on the comic it could work out for you.
That's good to know!:)
I have a homemade light box haha - I use the flashlight mode on my old cells, and put them in a plastic documemt holder thing.
I kind of like that idea for the page layouts tbh!
 
I for one couldn't find the OG thread Exigent Circumcisions might be talking about (link, anyone?) , so anyway here's something I've been working on the past 48 hours.
I'm not posting it in the art for Null thread since it isn't finished (WiP)
View attachment 896219

If you have suggestions on who to add or what to change please lmk 👍
Just wondering if the eyes are too far apart?
 
Just wondering if the eyes are too far apart?


If it were any mere human, I would agree. Alas...

joshua-conner-moon-300x300.png


Null is just a janky looking dude.
 
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If it were any mere human, I would agree. Alas...

View attachment 907242

Null is just a janky looking dude.
I think he must practice that slightly bored vacant look. Would you consider photoshopping it to show him with an eyes such as he might have when he received another court case. I think this is the photo to use:
1566831173510.png
 
View attachment 907288
I've been working on this one for a while. A lot of it bothers me. Its oil on canvas and still a work in progress

That looks super great so far! May I ask what its dimensions are? I really like how you express lighting and volume with the subtle shading and you really mixed an awesome base skin tone!

The first thing that stands out to me is that her breast closest to the camera is too far on her side. I grabbed a few ref photos to show what I mean.

stock-photo-lovely-toned-female-fitness-model-in-bikini-against-white-background-64716769.jpg

hyveftll99yy2e0qbzyj4br4bm59wx7204tbi7hjt56yiyjt06.jpg

I think the main thing making it look so far over is that the breasts you've illustrated are too cylindrical. If you look at the breasts pictured, they widen at the top to connect to the upper chest. It's less a U shape and more a V, I mean, not as pointed of course. Something also looks off about the abs, but I think that's because they're unfinished and once you do more rendering, they'll look less flat. Also the head looks a bit big, but not to the extent that it'd be wrong. Some women do have heads that big in proportion to their body, I was just trained via Loomis proportions so it sticks out a lot to me. I wouldn't say it's worth wasting time going back and repainting it.

Something more nitpicky is that if the paint isn't dry yet, going in with red and blue tones will make her flesh more fleshy. Red areas are like the elbows and cheeks and neck, anywhere where blood flow is close to the surface. Blue tones would be places with hints of shadows. It's just a little detail that can go really far.

A little trick for when you're working and something looks off but you're not sure is holding up the piece to a mirror, or even taking a picture and mirroring it. It refreshes your eyes and makes the problem areas stand out a lot more.

Overall, awesome job! I think this looks super sick and I hope you'll post when you're finished!
 
OC + forced perspective + ms paint =


Wow, that's really great! I love the cooler color scheme and wow, your style continues to stun with how appealing and emotive it is! A lot of people diss mspaint, but I'm personally really fond of the lowres pixelated look that only it can produce. The anatomy is really solid too and there's a lot of attitude in his pose!

One thing that I will say is that you didn't quite force that perspective enough. When doing forced perspective, you need to exaggerate even more than what you brain says. It's to compensate for the fact that we're trying to portray 3d properties in a 2d space. Next time, don't be afraid to foreshorten the fuck out of everything.

low perspecive.jpg


From a low angle, you'll see that the further up the body goes, the more squished it looks. Your brain will say, ah, but the legs are equal to the upper body in length, but due to visual distortion, the legs will appear long and the head, usually 1/6th of a body, will be reduced to a much smaller size. A good way to get in practice of this is breaking the body down into basic shapes, like this.

block person.png


Sorry for the quick mspaint scribble, I couldn't find a good google image to show what I meant.

It's easier to picture a rectangle or block in space than a thigh, so if instead of drawing a body, you draw a series of blocks to represent each limb and forshorten those blocks, thinking of them as blocks and not limbs, then it's an easier start.

Here's another quick shitty mspaint doodle I did to try and show what i mean a bit better.

another block peron.png


I hope this helped!!
 
Are there any decent resources for coloring, specifically clothing? Skin/faces would be helpful too, but I'm close enough to getting "there" with it to not mind if a resource didn't include it ... I'm looking at comics in a similar style to what I'm aiming for, but somehow I just can't "deconstruct" how the clothes are colored aha...
 
That looks super great so far! May I ask what its dimensions are? I really like how you express lighting and volume with the subtle shading and you really mixed an awesome base skin tone!

The first thing that stands out to me is that her breast closest to the camera is too far on her side. I grabbed a few ref photos to show what I mean.


I think the main thing making it look so far over is that the breasts you've illustrated are too cylindrical. If you look at the breasts pictured, they widen at the top to connect to the upper chest. It's less a U shape and more a V, I mean, not as pointed of course. Something also looks off about the abs, but I think that's because they're unfinished and once you do more rendering, they'll look less flat. Also the head looks a bit big, but not to the extent that it'd be wrong. Some women do have heads that big in proportion to their body, I was just trained via Loomis proportions so it sticks out a lot to me. I wouldn't say it's worth wasting time going back and repainting it.

Something more nitpicky is that if the paint isn't dry yet, going in with red and blue tones will make her flesh more fleshy. Red areas are like the elbows and cheeks and neck, anywhere where blood flow is close to the surface. Blue tones would be places with hints of shadows. It's just a little detail that can go really far.

A little trick for when you're working and something looks off but you're not sure is holding up the piece to a mirror, or even taking a picture and mirroring it. It refreshes your eyes and makes the problem areas stand out a lot more.

Overall, awesome job! I think this looks super sick and I hope you'll post when you're finished!
I'll post when its finished it might take a few years though. Im thinking i might paint it again on another canvas maybe a bigger one. Its 20×24 by the way.
 
Are there any decent resources for coloring, specifically clothing? Skin/faces would be helpful too, but I'm close enough to getting "there" with it to not mind if a resource didn't include it ... I'm looking at comics in a similar style to what I'm aiming for, but somehow I just can't "deconstruct" how the clothes are colored aha...
I usually look at old painting when it comes to clothing. Another thing i find interesting is finding a video and pausing it and just focusing on clothes. You can alway use different search engines for more reference photos
 
Wow, that's really great! I love the cooler color scheme and wow, your style continues to stun with how appealing and emotive it is! A lot of people diss mspaint, but I'm personally really fond of the lowres pixelated look that only it can produce. The anatomy is really solid too and there's a lot of attitude in his pose!

One thing that I will say is that you didn't quite force that perspective enough. When doing forced perspective, you need to exaggerate even more than what you brain says. It's to compensate for the fact that we're trying to portray 3d properties in a 2d space. Next time, don't be afraid to foreshorten the fuck out of everything.

View attachment 908294

From a low angle, you'll see that the further up the body goes, the more squished it looks. Your brain will say, ah, but the legs are equal to the upper body in length, but due to visual distortion, the legs will appear long and the head, usually 1/6th of a body, will be reduced to a much smaller size. A good way to get in practice of this is breaking the body down into basic shapes, like this.

View attachment 908309

Sorry for the quick mspaint scribble, I couldn't find a good google image to show what I meant.

It's easier to picture a rectangle or block in space than a thigh, so if instead of drawing a body, you draw a series of blocks to represent each limb and forshorten those blocks, thinking of them as blocks and not limbs, then it's an easier start.

Here's another quick shitty mspaint doodle I did to try and show what i mean a bit better.

View attachment 908321

I hope this helped!!
The look of ms paint it great. If you master it you could create works that are truly mind blowing. I would suggest adding a background and more shadows
thank you guys!! I'll keep working on that squishing and shading! a couple years ago I made a bunch of ms paint comics and landscapes, but im not really sure where they are sadly. I'll post some more stuff once i get a bit better!!

Are there any decent resources for coloring, specifically clothing? Skin/faces would be helpful too, but I'm close enough to getting "there" with it to not mind if a resource didn't include it ... I'm looking at comics in a similar style to what I'm aiming for, but somehow I just can't "deconstruct" how the clothes are colored aha...
I usually look at a real world equivalent or something similar and do a study, then try and stylize it, especially if you can look at the same article or face at different angles or in different lighting.
 
wow, that looks like a cozy thread

I drew this couple months ago, and now i want to finish a rendering and details, so anatomy and shading critique and advices would be awesome!

1567026714033.png
 
wow, that looks like a cozy thread

I drew this couple months ago, and now i want to finish a rendering and details, so anatomy and shading critique and advices would be awesome!

View attachment 911328

Dang, that's crazy impressive! It wouldn't be out of place in a concept art book! The rendering you have so far is amazing and the fabric folds are absolutely fantastic! I love your exaggeration of her curves and legs, it's like Loomis's ideal woman had a spawn with Ruben's. There's a lot of personality in the colors you chose and her pose as well, she really does seem straight out of media! I really love the energy. There are three main things that I see that I think can stand some kerfuffling with though.

The first is her left arm and shoulder. The way they connect seems off, I think what's happening is some foreshortening gone awry. If you can just push her arm a bit further into that shoulder socket, so that there's more overlap and more of the top of her arm is hidden, that'll help a lot. The upper am seems to have the same issue where it's drawn flat like it's a head on view, but when I compare it to the perspective of the rest of her body, it seems like it should be foreshortened. The forearm and hand area looks great, it's just that upper arm that needs readjustment in space.

The second thing is her left knee in the forward facing view. The back view doesn't seem to have this issue, but in the forward one, her thigh curves into that knee joint a bit too smoothly. If you can go back in and make that knee a bit more distinct in the silhouette and that curve less smooth and flawless, then I think that'll solve the issue and give her leg a lot more structure. If you want to go in and play with where her left thigh connects to her pelvis, I think that making the very top of her leg overlap the leotard a bit more will also make her leg more leg-y. Right now, it curves inward to show that leotard a bit too much, to the point that it's hard to read if it's perspective or just a weird anatomy quirk.

Third thing is her eyes. She has so much personality everywhere else, even in her mouth and eyebrows, but her eyes just seem really generic. They're also gazing off into space which sends viewer's eyes off in that direction, and since there's nothing there, it guides the eye right off the canvas. I don't like telling people to change the subject content of what they've drawn, but I think it'd add a lot more bite and personality if she was looking right at the viewer. That's a personal preference though, and even if you keep her eyes looking in the direction they are, going back in and adding some attitude to them will add energy. Even something as minor as one being a bit more open than the other, or maybe them being a bit more sultry, I don't know, I'm just throwing out possibilities here. I really really do think it's worth going back in to those eyes.

Overall it's super awesome! You have a ton of technical skill and energy and a great aesthetic sense! I hope you'll share her with us when you finish her up!
 
I have a question about using grid paper to help with drawing ...

If there's a figure whose dimensions are (let's just say) Head=4 squares high, Torso=6 s/h, Legs=7 s/h

If I want to make it so the head is 6 s/h, would I add two squares to the other sections, or increase each of them by a half of their original size?
 
I've been trying to get back into drawing, and really have two main issues with my work: dynamic posing, and detail/finishing.

This first one is from quite a while back that I never got around to finishing:
tahu.png

This one I actually was able to get the general detail to where I wanted (e.g. no line art) but looking at it now it just looks static and boring, like he's just floating there not really moving - whereas that's obviously not the intent. Looking back the lighting is also kinda flat and uninteresting but that at least is an issue I know how to solve.

Here's another more recent one that sorta suffers from the same problem - the only way I know how to pose people is vaguely floating in midair, looking off into space. But with this one I had a lot of trouble trying to get rid of the lineart, so ultimately I just called it quits and made some areas extra dark as a "stylistic choice". I'm still not quite happy with my coloring style, zoom in any degree and it's very obviously rough. Though it's a far cry from my earlier stuff where I'd just roughly hatch it and call it a day.
D4c_nofluff.png

Long story short... any tips/guides for more dynamic character posing, and more "realistic" coloring? Tips on quick-and-dirty backgrounds would also be appreciated.
 
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