Sadaoakimichi's snail crawl through the arts(updated 1/28/08

[sadaoakimichi]

So this is my Mentee thread. You can call me Sam. I'm 16 and I've never had any proffessional teachings of any sort. My style is heavily anime influenced, but i've spent the last year trying to stamp it out of my art.

My current goal is to learn how to draw realism. The following pictures are from last year and will have the media used and comments below them.


This is a picture of a roleplay character I came up with a few months back. She is a genie, she is from greece and her name is Nyx. She was named after the greek goddess of night, because she is an insomniac. She was trapped in a conch shell, and left at the bottom of the ocean for a loooong time. Her clothes are greek styled, or as best as I could do from the top of my head.

Used assorted colored pencils and a normal pencil to do this.


This one was a present for a random person I found giving out free art.

Done with a normal pencil, lined and colored in photoshoped.


This one is a character from a comic I started about a month ago. She is based off of the World of warcraft video game. Her name is shadeblossom and she is a night elf child.

Drawn with a normal pencil, then lined in photoshop.


This is a personal favorite of mine. Done early last year, this is a picture of my beloved character, Patch. She is a pirate, a seasoned one at that, and I drew her for the sake of a roleplay I got into around the first time I joined Gaia. Her leg is off, and I could have done better on her hands, but I still love this picture.

Used a normal pencil


This one I gave to my friend as a gift and consists of three parts. It's his character Ivy, and the first part I did off the top of my head. The second I did with reference. and finally, the last I lined and colored. The friend I gave it to said my faces are off, and the coloring could use some work. it was my very first shot at shading, and the colors were murder.

Used a pencil, lined and colored in photoshop.



So this is a picture fo my baby brother max. He's not really baby like anymore, he just hit his first growth spurt, and I give it another year before the b*****d is taller than me. He got the italian nose from my dads side, and i think thats the only thing I got entirly right. I am however proud of this picture. My first shot at a portrait, took me about 30 minutes.

Used a normal pencil.

So, I guess I'll post more after I go through things a bit. Please please please offer constructive critique. It's more important than encouragment.  

[Haloquine]

Heya Sam,
Picture 5 is my favourite so I'll concentrate on that. One of the first things I noticed in your pictures was a tendency to avoid drawing hands. The final version of pic 5 has ok hands, and it could be taken for a style, but they could benefit from work. The back of the hand seems to be almost twice as long as it should be, which makes the thumb look too high and tiny. The fingers look quite claw-like. You might want to practice drawing hands from photos or life to get the structure down. (Hands are notoriously difficult, as I'm sure you know!)

The eyes on all your pictures are a bit too high, so there isn't much space for brain in your characters. Remember that the eyes should always be roughly halfway between the top of the head (not the hairline) and the bottom of the chin.

The right ear (to my left when I look at your pic) looks misplaced. Her left ear seems to be located quite close to her face, whereas her right ear is towards the back of her head. Again, something to look at. It might be worth studying feline anatomy in that respect. A cat (which I get the impression you were relating her to?) would only have an ear down like that if it'd been half torn off its head! For fantasy characters you do have more freedom, but still. Its a thought.

The lines on the legs and tail are also not very smooth, I can't do digital work, so I applaud your attempts, but that might be something to look at linework wise.

The shading on 5, on first impressions, looks ok. On closer inspection its quite flat, you could do with adding in darker shadows in places, and it would definitely benefit from highlights. The hair definitely needs texture, but I couldn't suggest how to do that digitally. I'd probably use shadows and highlights.

I like the proportions, head and limb to height-wise. I also like the Genie, the clothes design is nice and her hair is a good shape. The clothes remind me of things I've seen claiming to be arabian-nights styled, so I'm not sure how greek they are... smile

I've seen this linked to several places on Gaia, and it is something I'm going to be giving a go at following, it looks useful so i thought I'd link it here; DA Shading and Highlights Tutorial

 

[sadaoakimichi]

First off, thank you for being my first helpful critic. Like ever.

I'll try and explain myself on some of the specific aspects of the picture. Hands are a terrible thing, and most of these pictures are from before I started learning how to draw hands more. The cat-ish girl's hand actually has the thumb tucked into her belt, and the rigidness of her posture doesn't really credit it. Her hands are a bit too long, but again I'm still trying to get the hang of hands. Her hands are actually claws. They're supposed to be like that, but again thats no comfort because I don't know how to make actual claws look like actual claws.

I am terrible at textures. Terrible. I tried so hard to work out textureing on the tail, and my friend said it look like I tried to make her one of those nine tailed fox thingy's. I can agree it's no good, but I personally don't think it's like more than one bushy, tangled tail.

That is the first piece I ever shaded. Ever. and I also am a noob at photoshop on top of it, and I thank you so much for including a tutorial in your post. I love you for it whee

I've been trying to change my faces but I've been doing the exact same thing for years, so it's hard to stamp out, but thank you for confirming my suspicions.

The ears I debated with myself about, and after 4-5 failed attempts at changeing it, I let it be. I'm not good at ears, another thing I intend to work on. I've just barely got the concept of normal ears down.

Thank you thank you for your helpful critique. As I said, I've never gotten a helpful critique before. whee  

[Chaotic Mana]

Since you want to focus on realism, I thought I would comment on your last picture, please keep in mind I wasn't there when you drew it so I have to make a few assumtions about the piece.
The thing that stands out the most is the glasses since they have no perspective. I redlined it to help explain what I mean. See how I made that rectangle, it lines up both the frames of the glasses so they look in line and straight (my glasses are made that way anyways). Now the glasses may have looked curved when you were looking at them, but you need to translate that properly to the people viewing it. Believe it or not, when you draw from life the real life is still reference to your work so if it looks weird, remember what the shape of the glasses are and apply that over what it looks like at that angle. Now I wanted to help you with the eye because it looks profile but I don't have anyone around to use, sorry.
Next is the hair. I notice you making it ragged at the bottom like hair looks but to simulate the many layers of all those strands you might find adding lines like I did here help give that illusion. The jaw line I added was to remind me of something. If this is a child then it is possible that the jaw line is not defined enough for you to see it this far back so you might not want to draw it all.
Also, you head phones seemed too thick, so I tappered them as they went further back into space. I did this because I thought that the headphones would be flat across the top of the head while yours looks like it is a round tube all the way across.
An important thing to keep in mind is that most realistic pictures are rendered with shade and tonal values so if you are stuggling a lot with defining shapes and form it's because you are only using line and defining the outer edges of your shapes.

Hope that helps you. Keep at it heart