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TomboyishFF's Sketchbook

TomboyishFF

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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:46 pm

So, I need help like whoa, because after many years of trying to self-teach myself, it hasn't really gotten me far. At all. I'm currently a senior in high school planning on going into 3D animation, and I'm in Art 2. I've always been interested in anatomy, and I think the only reason I'm as good as I am now is because I studied it so much. /:

I seriously still lack in everything (color, anatomy, shading, perspective, paneling), but I really feel like I'm missing some key beginner skill many artists have already learned. After browsing many an art thread, I figure my art just looks horribly 'flat'. It won't 'pop' off the page. This is my main deal, and any sort of drills/comments/etc that can help me will be most welcomed. Is it just learning perspective, or what?

Too many things to list that I need help with. Everything and anything. I'll post sketches (mostly sketches, now - AP exams are going to kill me) in here, but I'm also gonna post some old stuff. 'Old' as in it was done a while ago, but I still haven't improved.

For the know, I'm incredibly interested in 'western style' comics. Please deter me from any anime/manga tendencies I might have learned from my days as a nerd. ):

Art Galleries: DevArt
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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:57 pm

To make a picture 'pop' you have to add depth to it. You need to shade your pictures. Pick a place where light would be coming from and shade the areas that wouldn't be touched by that light. And the mans left shoe needs to have the heal brought in more so it doesn't look like the shoe is stretched out on the outer side. And with the cape there would be a level difference between it and the jacket. It looks like the cape just flows out of the jacket now. It looks really well drawn other than those things. You want to go into 3D animation so think of your art as if it were 3D. Imagine what it would look like from all sides to help it not be so 'flat'. I cant really help you with your coloring if you don't show what your coloring is like now, same with paneling really.

CariRae

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tirbutt
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Sparkling Sentai

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Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:46 pm

By "pop off the page" do you mean... in an eye catching way? Or a 3D way? XD...

General thing to keep in mind is that everything you're drawing has volume... it's not just the 2D image you have on the paper - it extends into and out of the page, and in doing so, it has physical impacts on everything around it.

What you have here doesn't look too bad... pose looks a bit stiff, and the stick he's holding should be closer to his feet or he'd have to hold his arm more to the side to accommodate it.

Right now the picture is just lineart, but even then there are ways you can emphasize volume - don't choose line weight arbitrarily - things that are in shadow should have heavier lines and things that are near the lightsource will have lighter lines.

That being said... there are absolutely amazing 'flat' illustration pieces as well, but it doesn't seem to be what you're going for here.

Good luck! smile

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:18 pm

Thanks for both comments. 3nodding

What I mean by popping off the page is the 3D way. I've been told that shading is the sole way to get something to look 3D, to look like it has volume, but I can't believe that. Compare my illustration with something like this, where most of that stuff has very little or no shading at all, but is no doubt a hundred times better, and seem 3D.

As for my coloring or paneling, if there's any examples on my two gallery links, it's the same skill I have in it now. I haven't improved. But I'll try to get some new examples up.

TomboyishFF

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Griffonage

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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:20 pm

The way to create volume with only lineart is to use different perspectives, create action within the image, and use varying line width that goes with the contours of the shapes. Your picture is pretty good, but it isn't interesting. There isn't anything going on, it's just a pinup.

These tutorials should help with lineart. The last one uses very specific techniques for Photoshop, but just pay attention to the line width variances that those techniques achieve.

As for the image itself, I wish you had put more time into the sword (?) and the cape. If that is a sword then the bell guard ( the semi-circle of metal coming off of the hilt) should be large enough to allow passage of the hand, and if it is supposed to be a fencing sabre then the blade should be narrower. Try looking at references when drawing weapons. There are far too many weaponry nerds in the world to get away with mistakes like that. His left foot is not solidly on the ground, and his cape should have more folds unless its made out of hard plastic or something. It doesn't look like it's affected by gravity.

I really do like the design of the character, and I'm sorry if I'm being too harsh with a critique that you really didn't ask for. These are things that I'm dealing with myself, so I think I notice when other people make the same mistakes sweatdrop

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