SO. I know there are lots of artists and also young artists around! I love being helpful, I love providing tutorials, and I mostly just love answering questions. I want this to be a thread where we help each other improve, gently critique, and in general just help each other to get better at things we want to do. This can be for any kind of art or craft, you can privately message me as well for tips or help if you're nervous. Things you are allowed to do: -Post a drawing for a redline/anatomy suggestions and help. -Request tutorials, help, or in general advice on how to work programs/do a thing/anatomy/comics/whatever you need. -Give critique on artwork. One thing I want to stress is that do not be overly harsh or mean. This is to LEARN, not tear people down. A good critique points out not only what went wrong, but what went right. If you don't know what is wrong with a thing, don't just go "well something is wrong but idk what" as that doesn't actually help. -Post work you're proud of or feel shows improvement. As a note: any art posted here though is subject to being critiqued. Keep this in mind. I plan on hosting some tutorial style drawpiles at some point, where we can all sit around and teach each other a thing, show someone how to draw something, or in general have a sort of collective class-like atmosphere! I want everyone to have fun, learn a thing or two, and in general learn how to be confident in what they're doing. Also once I get some of my craft supplies, I may host some on camera livestreams teaching how to do handcrafts and other such things. I will answer any questions about my own technique to the best of my ability as well. Mostly I suggest if you feel you may easily be hurt by things, to be cautious about posting. I don't want to hurt feelings, I want to help, but if you are going to take it the wrong way I do highly suggest you avoid posting until you feel ready. Also at some point, may make a tumblr for critiquing things! I am also not infallible, if you feel something was wrong, or harsh, point it out! Everyone sees things in a different light.
Ahhh dude this is awesome. Will def be taking part when I get home, haha. My anatomy always can use help! Also I am not great at feedback but I'll try my best!
Absolutely! I know lots of people who feel like they don't get useful feedback on things, and I feel like sometimes people really need or want it! Decided to help fulfill the niche. I love art and artists and just want everyone to learn haha
Ok here is my very important question for the day! How is foreshortening done without the resulting picture looking like some sort of lumpy potato coming straight for you? Especially arms/hands. This and just dynamic poses in general are a huge issue for me, and I would appreciate any advice or tutorials on the subject.
Oh this is really cool! I may or may not end up putting stuff up, because in past I know I've been really over sensitive to criticism, but dammit I really want to know, but I don't want to get mad at you. :c I guess first thing for me is how legs and arm work in a cartoony (ish) drawing style. Also simple hands, and how big they are compared to arms. Also, how to draw different body types? I can draw average sized women, and slightly lean guys, but anything else is just ???????? I noticed when I draw legs I try to make the inside a curve, bigger at the top a big, and the outside a straight ish line. Is that actually a good general rule?
Also to reinforce that I am at least slightly improving (and I am open to critique because I Am A Strong Independent Artist Who Don't Need No Praise), here are a few pieces from over the years. Probably all the best(ish) of the year I did them. All digital, got my first tablet back in 2009 at the tender age of 23. Saying that makes me sad, hahaha. Spoiler: 2009, First digital pic ever, physically painful to look at Spoiler: 2011 Spoiler: 2012 Spoiler: 2013 Spoiler: 2014 Spoiler: 2015 Lots of different shit in there, tried to stick with painted and/or lineartless pieces where I could. Looking back, the stuff I'm not at least 90% embarrassed of started showing up in 2013, but I'm still working on it. Even the better pieces have their issues (how does that helm work as a 3d shape, god dammit), but eh. I don't hate most of this! I'm especially happy with how I did the shading on the 2013 piece, and while I really don't like the laser-type-thing serving as the light source due to it kind of clashing with the style of the rest of the pic, I also don't think it's too bad. I also haven't done shit this year (digitally, I do a physical drawing of a pokemon every day), I really need to get back into it.
I can't offer critique my own self because I have no idea what i'm doing 99% of the time, but I would like some critique my own self if at all possible? I'm not sure exactly where I'm stuck at the moment, so I guess I'll just toss down some pieces and hope someone can notice. In, uh, no particular order of having drawn them because i don't keep my art folder in any kind of useful arrangement and half my pieces from the last couple of years were connected to my ex and i's universe and are therefore hidden away elsewhere. ...If I could ask, I'd also like some stuff on what's good about my art as well as what's bad, because I don't know THAT either. Spoiler: Horrid art dump, a couple of bits of nsfw I'm afraid
Ohhhh foreshortening is fun! I actually knew this trick for things where you literally kind of swirl yourself a tube in the general shape of an arm/limb you're trying to foreshorten. It's hard to get at first, but when you erase the inside part it def works. There's actually a video for this lemme see..... Here! The coil technique can be pretty useful. Okay, to start with honestly you really want to understand how anatomy works realistically before starting to draw cartoony. Do life drawings, watch how people move, and how real legs seem to fit each other. Considering cartoony styles VARY so much, there is no given rule on how to stylize. If you know your basics, you can then learn to push it where you want. So really before you just start stylizing, totally just try to draw some normal people sitting around, or some online photos of people. I've got some sites around somewhere for doing life drawing exercises.... Leg Tutorial and stuff. Life drawing sites. It's not a terrible rule, but not always the best unless that's the style you're going for. I know the way I draw legs is different from that, which is generally I will draw a line of the basic skeleton of the leg. Then I draw the thighs and calves as slightly pointy at one end ovals. I change thickness and length depending on character. Well good crit should always do good and bad, so generally if anyone crits something they SHOULD be doing both. Because that's how you help and not just be rude. First thing I note is your drawings are a bit stiff. This isn't the worst thing to happen, happens to about everyone at some time or another! You're already much better at couples though than I feel I am so good on you for that. In general it just seems like some anatomy practice would help, and maybe practicing some inking as you've got a bit of shaky lines on the chibi there. Trying to do long fluid strokes tends to lend more motion and less of a static feeling than short somewhat jerky ones. Your body types are decently varied, you don't seem to rely too much on one type which is pretty good. Got a pretty good grasp on hands, I still struggle with those and they're not easy, but you look like you're doing pretty good with that. I don't have too much else to really say, most of them are black and white sketches and reaching out and trying some new techniques and coloring wouldn't be a bad idea!
I feel like I hit an Art Level Up recently, and it was actually kind of funny why. I showed my wife some of my most recent drawings, and asked for her critique, and one of the comments was, "You should try doing more realism in faces, maybe." I apparently took this straight to heart - "you want more realistic faces? I'LL GIVE YOU MORE REALISTIC FACES" and cranked out the first piece that was anything at all like this style. Before I'd been focusing on pose anatomy etc etc and just drawing reasonable but kind of cartoony faces on my little people, but I took a closeup faceclaim image for one of our fantrolls and reproduced it to the best of my skills and... actually loved doing it? So now I'm doing a whole series of them. Here are pictures of the first two! I would absolutely adore critique. I'm sorry if the image quality isn't the best - I took the best pictures I could, but I don't have access to a scanner. Spoiler: Mintuu Spoiler: Catriv
Oh nice these are indeed worthy of an art level up! One thing I notice is that it seems very much that these are directly copied from photographs, I think on the second one I even recognize which photograph it is. On the first image, the hairline is a bit awkward, mostly just looks like it needs to be evened out and not be lopsided. The second one has a bit of just awkward and thin shoulders, and the arms and breasts are awkward. I always say reference, but there is such a thing as directly copying. Learning how to reference from photographs is an acquired skill though, so don't feel too bad about that one. I do have a lot I like though! You got the eyes very even, and it shows! You also seem to know where you lighting is, the shading isn't all over the place which is nice and I've seen a lot in people who are just now trying out realism. The facial proportions on the second drawing are pretty well down, I think her lips and cheekbones and eyes are amazing. You also got the hairstyle down on that one pretty good. All in all you've got some of the shapes right, and it does show! I can give some specific redlines in a bit if you want, to point out what might be a better fix on that one. I think you're doing pretty good and practicing some more will only help! Even I don't do realistic faces much, so it's not the easiest thing.
This thread is everything! @Kit you referenced Zendaya for the second one, didn't you? :D Learning how to simplify and replicate facial features is really tough, but reference is one of the fastest ways to do it so you're on the right path!
I think cartoony really wasn't the word I was looking for, heh. I just meant, les realistic than your drawing tend to be, and still life pictures are, but more realistic than.. Gravity falls, for example. The links looked cool, I'll look at them. I thought I'd compare these two, as like, a time comparison. The johndavekat is from shortly after Christmas, and the Eridan is from good Friday. So a few weeks ago. I'm pretty damn happy with Eridan, but he is wearing very baggy clothes, so maybe it wasn't the best comparison. l: There is also this leijon family picture, with the kids all grown up. (To like, sixteen and thirteen)Recent, drawn yesterday. So uh yeah? If you guys want to tell me what I can improve, and what I'm already doing well, that'd be cool?
Hm. Mostly it is that your poses are entirely stiff! They're all standing still an facing forward. You're doing pretty well with figuring out expressions, but one of the things you really should do is branch out into trying new poses and facial shapes! It looks like you're trying to perfectly emulate homestuck style, which is nice, but also very sameface and bland and not always the best way to go. I think you're very good at copying a character's design, just seems you need to break out of the "standing still" phase and try new and interesting poses and faces. But yeah, as it stands still stay by the "learn to draw slightly realistic and then learn to stylize". It's kind of the "learn the rules before you break them" thing that is a key part of art.
Seconding "learn realistic before you stylize" but with an addendum: learning realism does not mean having to be perfectly photorealistic before you're allowed to stylize. It might sound redundant, but you'd be surprised by how many people end up frustrated and angry because they can't draw every single one of Jensen Ackles' pores. Learning the rules before you break them doesn't mean replicating the rules before you break them. Photo reference and life drawing are really good, but if you're having troubles breaking out of stiff posing, really campy anime are something that's worth referencing. One Punch Man, Naruto, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and One Piece are all good shonen that come to mind where you can get a feel for how to loosen up poses and stretch characters out without it always looking absurd. (Luffy doesn't count.) Deviantart has, buried deep in its rotting soul, some pretty good stock photographers. Here's one, and here are [one] [two] a couple free sets of stock as well. Using words like "dynamic" in your search helps, and forcing human poses to the limit was something that made it easier for me to draw simpler poses without them being stiff. (I'm probably gonna toss a few things of mine up sooner or later; I know I'm out of practice and I'm pretty sure my digital art's suffering for it.)
Hmm. Yeah these are all some of my standing still ones, mostly cause I like the recent ones, and the old one was comparison. I'll put together since e of the ones that I tried to do differenter poses for. I'm glad about the expressions though, I never thought I did those very well. As for the style thing, not really? This is actually just kinda how I draw full body people. Unfortunately everything in here is Homestuck, because it's all I've been drawing. :/ Pictures where I tried poses Also when my laptop isn't dead I'll post some with my super realistic (for me) faces and eyes.
@Void & @prismaticvoid thank you! Yeah, the second photo was def Zendaya. *wry grin* I... am mostly proud that I even have the ability to copy rather than just reference? Like I jumped feet first into this and I have no idea what I'm doing, lol. That's part of how the lighting is coming out so consistently. I would love a red line if you have time and spoons... I saw that the shoulders were wrong after I'd inked already >. <
This is absolutely true and more what I meant! My wording is Not The Best at times. OH MAN THIS IS ACTUALLY VERY MUCH A GOOD IDEA. I still sometimes reference ridiculous anime poses, because it has MOTION and FUN. Nothing wrong with drawing homestuck, but I can certainly see the obvious influence on your style. It's very round and flat, with very little body or facial diversity. Which for homestuck, is a thing because you're supposed to headcanon them how you want. When doing personal artwork though, it can sometimes get a bit stale and same-facey. Poses are hard, and it's difficult when you go "but i want to draw cartoons why would i need to learn how to draw actual people" but it just gets easier when you know how the other things work. I can certainly see about doing a redline! One thing about referencing really is just learning how to NOT copy exactly what you see. Doing quicker sketches can help, like with the life drawing sites I posted earlier. Twisting a pose or face to make it your own is totally a good skill.
if anyone has tips on how to convey emotions good with characters that don't have even remotely humanoid shaped head or faces (We're talking a rubik's cube for a head here) i'd be much obliged. My brother has an OC and i fell in love after he asked me to draw up a design >_>
