Fergi's Mentor Thread- No Slots Open, But Open for Critiques

[~FergiGirl~]

Hello smile
I'm a student wishing to help those who feel they need it.
I'll be updating this thread every week! (Or try to anyway wink )
~edit 12-12-09~

I've decided that I think I can take another mentee, so I'm adding another slot! heart
Please be respectful! If you already have a mentor (or two), please let someone else take the spot. If I see that you already have two or three mentors and you ask for the spot, but someone without a mentor asks later, I may take the later person!

Just because I didn't take you as a mentee doesn't mean I'll ignore you though! If you have multiple mentors because you're dedicated and want to learn and not because you want attention or to hog all the spots or something, I'll still give critiques, and if you want you can follow along with the lessons, like a regular mentee. Just remember my regular mentees get priority with critiquing!


12-15-09 3-8-10

Last slot has been filled
3-6-10

It's been way over a month since I've heard from Roxas, he's off the list.

4-15-10
Tiara-Estella has resigned for now, but I don't think I can devote time to any more mentees right now. I'll open the slot again when May rolls around.



Current Mentees are:

~ A--Minty_Fresh--Mint
~ tulir

When applying for being a mentee, please take into consideration all possible factors. Such as, ability to post/participate in lesson, how active you can be, etc. If you have a DA page, please link me to it so I can look through your stuff. Thank you.

I give critiques as well ^^  

[~FergiGirl~]

My strengths are:
~Speed drawing/finding the form of figures(read below)
~Teenagers and adults, both genders
~Composition
~Dynamic Poses
~Clothes and Folds
~Landscapes
~Watercolor and some other traditional mediums
~Adding lifelike details
~backgrounds c:


I'm improving at:
+coloring in general (digital, watercolor, etc.)
+animals in general, both real and mythological
+proportion in general
+inking

My weaknesses are:
-Machines and anything machine related
-dogs
-legs
-consistency

Because of an awesome art teacher in my freshman art class, I am a bit faster in getting the basic form of a figure. Even in the AP art class, when the girl whose parents are art teachers (I wish I was that lucky! ) is still getting the basic shape when we're figure drawing, I'm already adding details and starting to tighten up the sketch.

However, this means that sometimes I have a tendency to not follow through and tighten up as good as I should, but I have been trying to teach myself to quit that habit, and so far I think I'm succeeding smile

My freshman art teacher's words on sketching!

Sketches must be:
1) light
2) fast
3) loose
4) large

We even had a quiz on just that, to make sure we remembered! D:

How to Contact Me!

If you want to PM me or note me on DeviantArt, that's fine and dandy too
My DA page


Education!
I have had no formal education other than Middle School Art, and Art 1 and 2 in High School. However, I am in AP Art right now. Most of my skills are self taught/learned from other artists.

Random Info
I have an Iscribble! PM me with your username and I'll invite you to my board ^^
That may mean you'll get live help with your work. That, or we can goof off together >_>

If you don't have the motivation to learn then why are you here in the first place? wink

I don't like to deal with people who think they're godlike, so if you think you're all that and a bag of potato chips, please tone it down a little for me, k?

I'm in the Eastern time zone, and since I'm still in High School I usually get on at 4 or 5 p.m., sometimes later

I've not been very active on Gaia lately, but I'm almost always on DeviantArt.

~Edit January 27, 2010~
Decided to add some rules.

~FergiGirl~

You can still be a mentee as long as you can still access the internet, check in with me every week or so, and do the lessons alongside us. Once you are able to upload, upload all that you have done to that point.
I might start assigning projects and due dates, but only when I talk it out with you all to come up with a reasonable date.
I'll make the lessons smaller, but in exchange I'll expect them done quicker (hopefully before the next lesson)

I realize that you all have lives, heck I'm currently struggling with mine as it is. Scholarships, colleges, AP art concentrations, art trades, contests, schoolwork, and on top of that I normally am the only one cooking and cleaning at my house.

If I don't hear from a mentee for more than a month, said mentee will be off the list. Like I said before, I realize you all have lives of your own, but if it's to the point where you can't contact me for a month, then you probably don't have the time to do lessons.

You can keep from going off the mentee list by contacting me, either by PM, posting here, or contacting me on my DA.

Any mentee that got put off the list may request to be put back on once they feel they are to commit their time.Don't waste my time by reappling and not doing anything. If you do so enough, I may not let you on the list again.

Going to edit those rules sometime later.  

[roxas-someones half]

Thank you very much for accepting me.  

[~FergiGirl~]

roxas-someones half

Thank you very much for accepting me.

You're welcome. I forgot to ask something though. Is drawing just a hobby for you, or do you see yourself doing it for a living?

Example: I can see myself doing it for a living, so I might be more enthuastic to learn than say, my AP art buddy who views art as a hobby (she's going to major in something veterinarian related, but have a minor in art)

If it's just a hobby, I'll go a little easier on you, but if drawing is very serious to you, then I'll make the lessons/critiques are little harder.  

[roxas-someones half]

Its a hobby. i'm more of a runner/writer. But please don't go to easy on me.  

[~FergiGirl~]

~Edit~
One mentee has resigned, he doesn't feel like he can get the assignments done with his life getting in the way.

Life gets in the way of many artists cry

Current mentee is : roxas-someones half
One more mentee spot is available  

[Tiara_Estella]

Tiara_Estella

Can I be your mentee?
Link to my art stuffs in this guild: Tia's Work

I will have to take pictures of my sketches, but as long as I receive an assignment I will complete it and repeat it until either I can send you my results or you give me a new assignment.

At the moment I have no real goal in college, though I'd like to pursue a career in liberal arts, my voice is no longer apt for singing and my drawing skills are lacking.

I only do pencil sketches/drawings, I don't like drawing something successfully then ruining it when coloring xD But I've been practicing color blends and lighting...horrible at it...@_@





[I have a math class in a bit, just send me a PM letting me know and I'll get to it ASAP, if not then that too ^.^ ]  

[~FergiGirl~]

I've been saying I was going to do this for a while now, so here I am razz
One big warning I should have mentioned earlier: I'm not saying I'm the master of human anatomy when I start on my rant/teaching.
The first few lessons will be about basic structure of the face and body, and once you all have mastered that, we'll venture into the not-so-basic territory, which is where I'm probably at, but for all the beginners here is...
LESSON # 1
Parts of the Human Face

This first lesson is really simple: draw ten sets of eyes, ten sets of ears, ten noses, and ten mouths.

They can be anime-ish or realistic, though if you plan on doing art in college realistic is recommended. Observation is VERY helpful in doing realistic works.

You could get a friend or family member to model for you, or heck, maybe even get photos off the internet or in magazines of random people.

There are two catches: they all have to be different ( no repeating eyes over and over again D:< ) and they have to be seperated, which means don't build them into a face just yet.

It's recommended to draw all your eyes on one paper, your noses on a seperate paper, and so on.

Because I'm weird, I've decided to do these lessons alongside my mentees to kind of show them what I'm expecting out of them.

You all can expect mine in a day or so, after I finish a birthday gift for a DeviantArt buddy. heart
I would very much appreciate it if you would do the eyes first, then the noses, the mouths, and finally the ears. Each group of parts will count as seperate assignments.
~edit
Something I just thought of. The first four assignments will not have due dates, but the fifth and on will. Mentees will need to check in with me so we can work out a good timeframe for you to work in.

One thing I will try to teach you all with this is speed.
Drawing from observation is something one will probably need speed in, because most of the time your models are human beings and cannot stay in dynamic/elegant poses for long.

Unless of course they're superhuman.  

[~FergiGirl~]

Remember what I said earlier?
Trying to teach speed!
I did my example in a matter of minutes : P
http://thelotuspwns.deviantart.com/art/Mentor-143698205

This is the basic format I'm wanting, except do sets of eyes instead of single eyes. If you want to do realistic eyes ( I recommend trying it at least once, eyes are fun ^^) use references. I tried to give every eye a unique personality (then I got distracted >.>; )
Notice how 1, 5, and 9 are all similar and yet different?  

[Luna Kitsune Kasumi]

Eye part 1
Eye part 2
Mouth part 1
Mouth part 2
Nose part 1
Nose part 2

Ear part 1
Ear part 2
Ear part 3
Ear part 4
Ear part 5
Ear part 6
Ear part 7
Ear part 8


I might have rushed on some, but here you go

EDIT:
Lol I forgot about the observe part xD but if I need to do it again I will, more practice = good drawing ^_^  

[~FergiGirl~]

Luna Kitsune Kasumi

Eye part 1
Eye part 2
Mouth part 1
Mouth part 2
Nose part 1
Nose part 2

Ear part 1
Ear part 2
Ear part 3
Ear part 4
Ear part 5
Ear part 6
Ear part 7
Ear part 8


I might have rushed on some, but here you go

EDIT:
Lol I forgot about the observe part xD but if I need to do it again I will, more practice = good drawing ^_^

I'll give a critique on all of them in case you need to work on something, k?

Those are nice eyes, but the eyebrows look a little odd, like on #2 of this http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g274/Princesskatsumi/securedownload-2.jpg
I don't think real eyebrows are that straight o-O

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g274/Princesskatsumi/IMG00425.jpg you kinda cheated here with the wink

I kinda forgot you can't get much variation with anime style mouths, but you did very nice on them.

Noses don't have much variation in them. Not everyone you're going to be drawing has those pretty little noses!
Practice on some different types of noses. I want to see at least one Ganondorf-sized one mad d
Even if you're going to do the shoujo stayle, with characters who all have pretty faces, most likely you're going to have background characters who probably aren't as pretty.
Scott Mccloud stated in his book Making Comics that beauty needs something to compare to- how are those characters "beautiful" if everyone else looks like them? wink

my favorite ears are the lizard ears rofl
I'm not really the world's expert on ears, maybe I should have mentioned that earlier sweatdrop
You didn't really seem to put a whole of variation in some of the ears, though I would never thought of doing lizard ears mad d

If you want to practice some more so you're not doing the same ears over and over again, you can, but you don't have to if you don't want to.
You could probably just do 5 more ears as long as they're all different.
Use references on DA if you need to, observation comes in handy when you can't think of anything else wink

I really like the little bit of humor you put on most of your work. Made me giggle.
You already seem to know how to place the parts on the face, but practice never hurt anybody wink

All in all, very nice, just practice on eyebrows, noses and ears if you want to.

Oh, I got an Idea XD!
If you want something else to do, go sit down with your favorite manga or comic book, and try and pick out at least 4 different noses, eyes, ears, etc. If you're book has the same things over and over again, just go to Gaia's manga, I'm skimming one page and already notice different noses and eyes smile  

[Luna Kitsune Kasumi]

Lol yeah I know, I was just putting them there for effect xD but yeah I just added the eyebrows to the eyes because it would be kinda of odd if I just drew eyes and no eyebrows rofl

LOL razz you didn't say we couldn't xD I'll draw the other if you want, no problem.

Lol thats just the front view, if you see them from the side mad they aren't so cute, but yeah I see what your saying though lol. And not all of those were cute noses xD
I wasn't aiming for shoujo o.o I was just drawing animeish noses O.o so thats what thats called eh? shoujo... shooooujooo xD I think No. 7 isn't a cutesy nose =) and pair that baby with a fat face or something it definately wouldn't be pretty
Lol they won't all look the same xD

Yeah sorry about that, I was kinda in a hurry for you to see them lol. Thats what I was working on when I pm'd you yesterday.

I'll do 5 more, no problem =P lol I didn't think about using any references on DA because I thought it would be cheating! =o

Lol I try, I like when I make others laugh smile
Yep, I like to stare at people alot sometimes and it gets burned into my memory; yep practice can't hurt unless it was something dangerous then yeah it can lol

Thats all fine and dandy, I'll do more eyebrows paired with eyes and noses and ears. I need to if I want my OCs to look good razz but not too good lol. (I'm trying to persuade my best friends to make a comic/manga with me but they're all ike 'nuuuu >.<' lol or atleast a colab/collab)


Lol I don't have.. well I do.. eh xD okay, I'll go skim through those.

Work to do:
-> 5 Eyes/eyebrows, noses, ears, mouths (Really work on it)
-> More funny stuff to make Fergi laugh

edit: I would like some critique if you can  

[~FergiGirl~]

References from DA are fine as long as you give credit.
Don't go saying it's a completely original nose that only you can use or something wink

You did some really nice eyes, but they didn't really look shonen (like naruto or DBZ), and while they're not quite like some shoujo eyes I've seen with really long eyelashes, they did seem kinda girly sweatdrop

Those were some cutsie noses compared to some I've seen mad d
I guess number 7 could be used to make an ugly character...
though I was thinking otherwise when I first looked at it >//>
I was thinking of like pence or something >w<

I did a set of noses, I'll put them up tommorow ^^

You don't need practice on mouths, but if you wanted to you could study how other artists do mouths. You learn from others heart
as long as you're not taking everything you know from them ^^;
My art is probably a mix of growing up watching Inuyasha, DBZ, and more recently artists like the absolutely wonderful Scott McCloud heart

Oo! If you want to make a comic he has a really awesome book out called Making Comics. It's REALLY helpful, and even has some tips for manga artists ^^
The only downside is that it costs like almost 30 bucks D: You might be able to find it at a library somewhere. That's actually how I discovered him, I was looking up references for my english paper on the greatest invention ever. I choose Comic Books heart  

[Luna Kitsune Kasumi]

ok

xD of course girls have mroe eye lashes then boys!

Lol sorry, xD I never really seen an 'ugly' feature on someone really so.. xD
lol

okay cool, can't wait to see yours! ^_^ I'm redoing my eyes right now. I'm taking more time with them this time too. I've made up some and now for the other half of the page I'm going to look a my manga books ^_^

I need to learn how they are shaped for emotions lol I kinda just guess XD based on memory.. ah good ole memory bank -pats brain-
Nah, I'm not smile if I do I only take alittle bit like || that much xD which is barely anything. I might take how they shade or shine or position it or something and I just mesh it with mine to come up with an eye of my own biggrin Then I take that and change it around so its my own and not a mesh pot of others.
Lol mine are a mix of.. (roughly speaking) D. Gray-man, Naruto, Inuyasha, FMA, Rosario + Vampire uh.. Karin, um.. Bleach.. Fruits basket and ouran.. and some others.. can't name 'em xD But Mostly from Naruto.

Okay cool razz just need to wait for some paychecks to come in that I can use on myself.
Lol comic books = love! XD