Errol McGillivray (illust. & visual storytelling) - [hiatus]

[Errol McGillivray]

Alright guys, I am back. I'll be critiquing today. Man, I got a lot of ground to cover. xD

By the way, Gemini, I did some value studies. I'll post them to my mentee thread if anyone wants to see them.  

[Errol McGillivray]

Gemini: How old is the child? How tall is the woman and the child? This is ideal proportion, but here is an example of how a child's proportion changes with age. Also, looking at parenting magazines will help. They have LOTS of pictures of kids with adults.

Young children usually force the parent to bend to reach them around the shoulders like that. Also, watch your proportions. Even when you sketch. The child starts large and gets smaller as he/she goes down.

For a quick sketch, I think it looks interesting. Very cool concept with the shaving of the head.

I recently took some famous illustrations and did value studies of them. I think you're getting ahead of yourself by trying to make the entire composition all at once. How about we go element by element and make each stronger. Then you can put them all together. First, let's start with your room. Your figures are very lively and animated. However, they look like they're performing a dance on stage. The curtain does a lot to help that image.

First, let's establish the space. In the original sketch, it looked like a very large room. Is that still true? (To be continued. So tired)  

[Yukiko Gemini]

Mm...Nine, I think? Around that age. She's still very child like, but...They don't really go into it, I'd have to reread the book [which I no longer have, unfortunately].
The link didn't work, for some reason? But I do have a medical anatomy book which has some good growth pictures in it that I could reference, just hadn't thought of it until now.
Parenting magazine idea is also good, will try that when I have time.

Good point. That kind of brings me to the idea of the mother just all-out crouching instead, but I don't know. Hmm. I'll play with the idea some this weekend.

Thank you.

Alright.
Is that a bad thing? Well. They aren't supposed to be dancing, but the theatrical effect in itself?
It's supposed to be a fairly large room, yes. Kind of like...a temple, really, would be the best reference.
Very open, fairly high ceiling, and yet...it would at the same time feel very enclosed, because of the many shrouds hanging off the ceiling and the many columns...The way I've had it planned out so far is a kind of circular "clearing" from the columns, not really sure why or how...just how it turned out.
I'm thinking of [for colouring/shading/lighting purposes] making it have a skylight or open dome top [not visible to viewer], but I worry how that my conflict with the veils/composition.

Tired as well.
Two papers to write.
Yay, weekend.

 

[Errol McGillivray]

I feel ya. I am BEAT. Fortuantely, I got my computer. So I'll be setting that up this weekend.

I think you should do with this image as you feel you should do at this point. I think it would help you more to work on specific things from image to image (so you have diffrent ways to come at it) rather than antagonize over one.

The thing I linked is found in the REsource thread under proportions. Should be ideal proportion by age. I tend to post everything there or on the first page of this thread.

So tired. I'm head to bed.  

[_Kyohaku_Nushi_]

A little about me. I'm 17 and I'm a Senior in High School. I have no job, and I only attend three 45 minute classes a day in school. All my time after school, I spend my time reading, doing homework, and being on the internet. So, I'm basically on the computer a lot, meaning I can be contacted quite easily. I have MSN and recently just downloaded AIM, if you'd like one of the two, I can PM it to you. My Mentee Thread is here. I think I'll just be posting my pictures in there, so I don't really have.. outsiders.. looking at the work and having rude remarks towards it. Being an artist-to-be, I kind of don't want to deal with ignorant people just yet while I'm still 'young' and learning.

Can you please be my mentor? *squeeks*

What you used and how long it took
On the little Priestess character from a different game, I'd say about.. 30 minutes or a little more. I erased and tried to do my best on it before I came here.

On the little chibi-kid with the Frogs, I'd say about 20~30 minutes.

On the avatar of myself, I'd say about.. 30~50 minutes. I didn't look at the clock when I started and finished these, I'm sorry.

What YOU think of your piece
Hm.. What do I think about my piece.

Priestess: The first one was horrendous. And although this piece isn't that much better, I put effort into it and I think it shows. I could kill the whole piece, because it was kind of a challenge for me.

Frog-Kid: Wow. Well, I think I did a tremendous improvement from the last time I tried to draw him. The first time I drew him, I used a piece of paper in the back of my notebook, and I didn't even fit all of him on the page; his hair was at least half the page. Now, I did fit a little less than what I did on my second try, but this was on a piece of computer paper folded in half. Also, I see much improvement on this one compared to my first try. His hair kind of looks how I meant it to come out. I had a HUGE problem with the shoulders and how they were rounded and how they sloped, how the shirt sat on one non-exposed shoulder and how it hung off the exposed one; but, I think I got it right this time.

Avatar: Ugh. I'm still not happy with this piece, but it's my second try. It -is- better than my first try, but it still doesn't look all that decent.

A 2-4 sentence self critique.

Priestess: I like the toast that's at her lips, don't know why, but I do. Also, I like how on her shoulder(s), you can see how it's kind of poofy and it's kind of padded.

A few things I didn't like:
- Her arms are stiff.
- Her hands need to be worked on. (Although they're difficult for many artists as well.)
- Her legs are.. awkward.
- The back of the skirt, I think I need to bring the bottom of it in closer to her ankle. I don't understand why I have it hanging out there in the first place.
- Her shoes need to be worked on.
- Her eyes are way too close to the hair under the Tiara.
- I need to detail the Tiara, and fix up the huge jewel in the front.
- Her hair needs to be worked on as well.
- Her ears seem to be way too rounded. One is bigger than the other. One is lower than the other.
- Her left (our right) cheek is more rounded while the other is slanted.
- The cross needs to be moved up a tad.

Frog-Kid: In the first place, I drew two guidelines to show myself that "This is where the hair ends at the top, and where the bottom of his chin should stop and where the neck stops." but as you can see, that didn't happen. Other than that, I like - no, I love how I did the shoulders and the shirt. I like how I really improved on his hair and the eyes.

A few things I didn't like:
-The left (his right) eye should be lowered a little.
-The right (his left) eye, the iris should be a little wider.
-The blushes under the eyes should be lowered a tad more towards the bottom of his face.

Avatar: I started with the eye, and went onto the hair. I -kind of- like his right (our left) eye, don't know why. But, I like the expression he has on his face. With the nose and the mouth positioned like that, .. I just like it.

A few things I didn't like:
-HIS HAIR. Freaking dread locks, man. I thought I'd try to fill it in like the picture to give it more detail, but it came out like crap.
-His left (our right) ear?.. It seems odd. Although, that might be the X's that I have going over the rim of it.
-HIS. SHOULDERS. Well, there's no neck in the picture, so I didn't draw one. "See what you draw." But then, you can't draw a person with a huge head, no neck, and come with a decent body I believe. Or, not on the size of piece of paper I did it on. I tried a few different angles, lengths and curves for the shoulders and arms, but I couldn't find something that worked.

--Edit: I spruced up my first post a little for you. o:  

[Errol McGillivray]

_Kyohaku_Nushi_: I posted in your mentee thread.

Gemini: I'm eager to see more sketches.

Pirate: I posted in your mentee thread.

Huggleberry: I'm working on yours. Give me a bit more time.

Starre: *puts a pocket mirror under her nose*


A note to everyone:
Well, I got my computer. In fact, now I have two. neutral Anyway, I have two work intensive classes and midterms are in a couple weeks. I'm also apparently an illustrator for a columnist in a college newspaper. (I also am supposed to submit comics too, but s**t, when do they expect me to do all this.) Between that and two jobs I can devote an evening a week to critiques. Of course, when work is lighter I'll do more. (And when the ******** columnist asks for the ******** toon at the end of the previous week and not a day before deadline.) I also go over stuff during breaks at work. So I'm not neglecting you if I'm gone for two days in a row. I'm just extremely busy. If I have to be gone more than 3 days in a row, I'll let you guys know.  

[_Kyohaku_Nushi_]

:3 Hope things start clearing up for you soon.

--Edit: My sketch pad is 9" x 12". You say you want me to draw two things a day, one living and one non-living. From your little examples, you want small sketches, yet then again you say to fill up a page. o:

Do you want a page full of little sketches? Two big sketches to fill up the page? *opens it up and just starts anyhoo*  

[Errol McGillivray]

With that size, I'd say 5 on a page. Get the most out of each page, but don't clutter it. This will help you learn to use your space wisely. Try to always fit 5 with this simple little sketches. You should still have room to draw large enough that you can see what you're doing. Once again, these are very simple, so you don't need much detail just yet.  

[_Kyohaku_Nushi_]

Sorry for the delay, mom's boyfriend loves to hop on the computer when I get up for two seconds.

Here's a few sketches. I cropped off the bottom half of the page 'cause it's just blank and white.

--Edit: 10/12s sketches. .. I can't stand the lamp and the lighting. I changed the arms of the lamp so that they're not like an X. I should probably raise the front bulb, or either lower the back one though.  

[Yukiko Gemini]

Taking a mental health hiatus.
My computer's all fixed and happy, so that's not a problem. I'll still be drawing from time to time, too.
But I won't be checking into this guild or on many places on gaia, just 'cause.
Stressed lately.
So. Just a heads up.

 

[Errol McGillivray]

Alright. If that's the case, I'll move your name for now and you can just add yourself back when you feel like it.

Feel better.  

[Errol McGillivray]

_Kyohaku_Nushi_

Sorry for the delay, mom's boyfriend loves to hop on the computer when I get up for two seconds.

Here's a few sketches. I cropped off the bottom half of the page 'cause it's just blank and white.

--Edit: 10/12s sketches. .. I can't stand the lamp and the lighting. I changed the arms of the lamp so that they're not like an X. I should probably raise the front bulb, or either lower the back one though.

Alright. I'll go over them with you soon. I'll also talk to you about perspective and the importance of straight lines. In the mean time, think about what you know about them and maybe jot them down or something.  

[Errol McGillivray]

Hello unholy legion of the pencil,

I've got midterms coming up so I might be scarce around gaia. My msn is elvenboyslut@hotmail.com is anyone needs me.  

[LavenderMintRose]

Whenever you get the chance...

Muse


# What you used and how long it took
I used 2b pencil and white eraser. I drew it out in about an hour, but that was a couple weeks ago, and I've been making little fixes on it since then... so probably about a total of 2 hours.
# What YOU think of your piece
I kind of want a calm feeling with this... I'm going to try to do that better when I color it (I'm planning on using gouache for that, by the way).
# A 2-4 sentence self critique.
The hair looks stiff. The mouth looks odd... I can't really tell how to make either of those better, but they're some of the things I've been tweaking since I first drew this. The same with the hands. I also think it could use more detail (even though it's one of the most detailed things I've done... *is bad with detail*).

 

[Errol McGillivray]

Well, I was planning to pull an all nighter anyway, so once I'm done with my figures and write my paper, I'll go over it. (Something tells me I won't be much use at work tomorrow. I wouldn't even go if the fresh fish wasn't starting.) Edit: I printed it out and I'll work on it bit by bit as I can over the course of the work day. (Not in the mood for this s**t anyway. I'd rather be looking at art.) xd