Apiyo's Sketchbook-Updated 9/11/2009

[apiyo]

INTRO

Greetings guild chumps. I'm apiyo, typical college student. I like drawing, video games, anime/manga, and those RPG guide book things just so I can look at the pictures. There's not too many things I hate besides stupidity. That's about it, there's not much to say because I'm boring.  

[apiyo]

ART RELATED

I started drawing when I was around four, don't know the exact time, just that I started drawing and writing around the same time. I've been improving almost soley by catching bad habits (which can take a while with no artistic feedback) and a helpful semester of highschool Art I. I originally joined DA to get artistic feedback ( rofl ). That's where you guys come in.

My DA I draw a fair amount of manga-styled art, yheah yheah, "draw realism first", I've heard it before, too bad noone told me 10 years ago. Seriously though, I'm trying.

Things I'm working on:
Anatomy
Shading and Colouring
Dragons
Real animals
Designing (as in clothing, for characters)
Machinery
Guns, Armor and weaponry  

[apiyo]

Well, here we are, a dragon I was working on a week ago. I've been working on profiles and details. Tips and techniques are helpful, as well as dragon tips in general.

 

[apiyo]

Okay new pic, this one's a WIP. the string looking things are guide lines to his jewelry. Critique away chumps and chumpettes. I have big plans for this one, so I want the anatomy tight.

 

[Chaotic Mana]

First off I would say the hand is either too small or the wrist isn't defined enough. His arms are too long too, elbows only go down as far as the bottom of the torso so try bringing them in a bit. Also his pose is very stiff, adding some more curve to his pose should bring him to life. Play around with it and good luck.  

[Errol McGillivray]

I really like the simplicity of his features and the linework. Don't loose that feeling as you work on the body that you have in the head. You'll want things to be consistent.

Building on this, I think you should try to minimize details to what you need to suggest form, rather than have too many lines that aren't supporting what's going on. That may be starting to happen around his abs and rib cage. The lines are hard and suggest edges rather than different slopes of his body.

I won't get into anatomy too much because you can see a lot of it yourself if you compare this to a reference shot of a guy with a similar build. There are some things that stay consistent. Hands are generally much larger than people think they are. Spread your fingers out and put your hand on your face. You can feel just how big it is. (And there's no feet in here, but the foot is about the same length as the inside from your wrist to elbow.)

One thing that I notice is that he's very flat. Sometimes, I put a little bounding box around my drawing to check and make sure that all of him is in the same perspective. Because of the turn, I feel that his elbow should be coming towards the viewer more, so there would be more foreshortening in his arm. His hips look a bit wide, and all, males have flatter hips, so the boxness is more visible. Be sure that in a static stance like this, his hips are in the same perspective as his torso.

One last thing on overall design too. Black in the guy on another layer. The shape should still tell you what's going on and be interesting without inside details. Be sure that his design has a good silhouette. (A lot of people don't do that and end up with boring looking drawings. Same with weapons.)

I think this is coming along nicely.  

[oVera]

The left hand is too small, especially the fingers and this is just my personal preference, but the head is too child like. Try elongating it and a more defined chin.  

[apiyo]

Thanks for your suggestions every one, it's great to have good input. I'll see what I can do 3nodding .  

[Errol McGillivray]

oVera

The left hand is too small, especially the fingers and this is just my personal preference, but the head is too child like. Try elongating it and a more defined chin.

I disagree. I think the head is the defining part of this drawing the the rest of the linework should be worked to keep that feel and flow. It's unique, attractive, simple, and reads very well. Hell, if this were a character for a comic or animation project, I'd say that it's pretty much what the reference should be for the whole style.  

[apiyo]

Updates Away!! I resketched the previous pic. Hopefully he's not so stiff now. I also changed his sword after I realized I've drawn one just like it almost, Boo to repeats! I'm not all that happy with his face because it looks generic and child like which isn't what I'm going for, but it's the best I could belt out and I'll change it when I think of something. As advised I'll simplify his abs so they go with the picture, but I'm not fixing it now because I'm too lazy to rescan it. Anything else to help improvement is greatly appreciated.



Multitasking is so fun I'm continueing my Zodiac series with the tiger (Oh man I"ve got a long way to go xp ). Her dress will be a loose, lolita chinese-inspired number so her body won't be too big of a problem, but it's always nice to get things right. I tried to make her look spunky and energetic, as opposed to random. The biggest problem on her is probably the nose. How the crap do I draw it so when I colour it, it doesn't look weird? Normallly I draw my to-be-coloured pictures from a 3/4 so it's not an issue, obviously it is now. I left it a dot nose for the time being but that most likely won't work.

 

[Anetra_Pendragon]

In the first picture, the face is probably the weakest part at the moment, it does (as you say) look very child-like. Were I to be tackling it, I would probably raise the indent of the cheek on the right side of the face, to give the impression of a longer, less rounded face.

I would also, but I by no means claim this part as being the correct course of action, try moving the ear further in to the right, to make the left jaw line look "longer." I would probably move the rightmost "connection part" of the ear to roughly where the bit of sideburn-hair is right now, and then develop the musculature of the neck from there.

The abs and chest are good, but would probably look better if the waist and legs were more defined.
I would probably bring in the line that goes "behind" his arm on the left, given the angle, but that also depends on how stout you want the character to look.



On the second picture, how to go about the nose depends mostly on what style you want to complete the image in. If you want it to look very anime - as the eyes currently suggest - the single dot is acceptable. Two dots would also be acceptable, as would a sort of down-facing triangle shape accompanied by a line along the left or right side.

Additionally, her right breast is lower than her left.
 

[Errol McGillivray]

Your last sketch of him was better. neutral This one lost a lot of the character the last had and his stance isn't making much sense. I know you're trying to lose the stiffness, but he should still be balanced and in character. I can't recall anyone fictional or live (fictional especially) with a slouch and a sword that wasn't a WoW troll or shambling undead. The stronger the abs, the better the posture. (It's weak abdominals and back that causes us to slouch on a regular basis anyway.)

As for the girl, I think Anetra covered the technical things. Besides her pelvis being a bit insubstantial. At least, I can't tell where her hips end and her thighs start. I also don't get a sense of a ribcage. Her neck seems a bit thick for how slim she is as well. If she were a stockier character, I'd say it would fit.

You should probably start drawing full bodies since I notice that you're cutting them off. Start drawing the legs because you're having problems with them.  

[apiyo]

Thanks everyone, or you 2. I totally did not think about the whole slouch-troll connection. I'd actually love to draw them full body, especially the girl because of her outfit. You know the papers that come out when you print in a library, and on the front the top 3rd has all that junk on it. I draw on those, and if I draw full body, it'll be too small for me to draw all the intricate details.  

[Anetra_Pendragon]

Detailing smaller pieces can also be good practise. If you're worried about how much paper-space you've got, you also have the option of tilting the paper 45degrees. Drawing between these two corners will get you a little bit more length.


Regarding what Errol McGillivray mentioned about the girl's hips/thighs, I was going to link you to a tutorial I'd found particularly influential on the topic, however, it appears that this tutorial either never actually existed, or I misremembered who the author was.
The former seems slightly more likely, and I'm left to suspect that I'd merely inferred this information from the red line-overs in steps 7, 8, and 9 of this unrelated article. (It's a tutorial on drawing breasts and the very last step has a coloured n****e, viewer discretion is advised.)

Note the indented lines on either side of the stomach/waist/hips, sort of hinting at actual body mass. The artist's style is such that it's difficult to put this into perspective with real people in mind, but nonetheless, the indentations would seem to indicate that her silhouette isn't completely smooth and uniform.
 

[apiyo]

I added her clothing.