Lindsay_24's Sketchbook (updated 8/27/08, need WIP help)

[Lindzeh-Lou]

About Me:
Well I'm new here and I draw anime (though it usually turns out chibby-like...this is unintentionally). So far, I am mostly drawing anime girls from a frontal view. I don't have a tablet or use a computer program for drawing yet. I do all my work by hand with a regular old pencil and pencil crayons (therefore, any tips on art supply investments would be appreciated). I tend to do a rough sketch, then darken the lines and give it a more polished look. I procrastinate a lot and I am very random with starting/stopping drawing, but one of my goals this summer is to drastically improve my drawings.

My Goals:
- CURRENT: finish all my old drawings and my sketch book
- 3/4 and side view faces
- to be able to draw backgrounds
- a variety of poses
- have more correct anatomy
- work on colouring
- portraying different emotions

My Previous Work:
http://www.gaiaonline.com/artarena/index.php?mode=artistPage&postid=294120  

[Lindzeh-Lou]

My Current WIP's:
- Links to an old drawing I've been working on for months...*sigh* I never finish these because I just procrastinate >.< but I'm happy to say I've obviously improved this one a lot from the original xD

http://i24.tinypic.com/av520g.jpg
http://i21.tinypic.com/30m6bnm.jpg
http://i23.tinypic.com/10hkh3r.jpg
NEWEST:http://i20.tinypic.com/b54bok.jpg
I'm really wondering about the clothing folds, the armpit, the hands, the feet (size only because they are not finished), and the anatomy (are parts too big or too small, etc). Thanks so much! <3

Finished WIP's

Yay I finished it! Finally >.> I've got re-inspired to draw again! I'd say it turned out pretty well...definitely an improvement on the original. Any criticism is appreciated (I know the shading isn't that great...I didn't try too hard hehe, but I'd still like critique on it anyway...mostly on it's placement ^_^). Thanks in advance! heart Oh! And I used a reference for the feet - http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Big-Guide-to-Drawing-the-Body-15014442  

[Anpu the black Seraph]

Your style is definately cute. You might wanna start trying different poses and widening your range a bit. It's one of the issues I ran into. You definatley wanna have some variety in your portfolio as well, regardless of what your focus maybe. My best advice for drawing hands is to try drawing your own. Better yet, get a friend or family memeber to pose with the hands or feet in different poses/positions. Good luck.  

[Mogtoats]

ARGGG!!! LINED PAPER OF DOOM!!!!

Seriously, don't draw on line paper. Even printer paper is better than that. -_-

You might want to do some realistic rendering practice; they help alot. Just take pictures from magazines and eyeball them for practice.  

[Anpu the black Seraph]

The Martian

ARGGG!!! LINED PAPER OF DOOM!!!!

Seriously, don't draw on line paper. Even printer paper is better than that. -_-

You might want to do some realistic rendering practice; they help alot. Just take pictures from magazines and eyeball them for practice.

Yeah, Martian's right. Magazines, sports, fashion, muscle, they're all your friends. Best way to learn the body is to draw the body. Choosing anime as your prefered style is great but you still want to have a basic understanding of human anatomy.  

[Lindzeh-Lou]

Yeah, I hear what you are saying ^_^ and after reading stuff in this guild and a tutorial on what not to do when learning to draw...I realized I already have a lot of bad habbits. So the three I am fixing is no more lined paper, draw hands, draw heads the correct size, and add variety. I'm just finishing all my old unfinished drawings, so some of them aren't quite up to speed xD. Thanks both of you 3nodding heart I'll try to find a reference for the foot >.< I'm just stuck on getting feet to actually look like they're on the ground without being an awkward position.  

[apiyo]

You're art looks flat, you should work on light and shadows. When you draw keep in mind were your light source is. Were the light hits the object/person, it will be brighter and it will be darker on the side were there is less light. It would help to look at things in the light so you get that. Drawing still life is a good excersize for that, or you can work on it while working on body parts that give you trouble and you'll knock out both once. A good source is Posemaniacs.com. It has skinless figures so you see how the muscles work. Unfortunatly real people have skin but atleast you'll get a good idea of what happens to light as it hits people. And when you draw from magazines and eyeballing, really analyze the shadowing. Especially on the face because anime will make alot more sense when you understand a real face.  

[OhDearie]

(I agree with everyone who's posted before me.)
Besides what the others said, I've found some more things...
I just browsed through your galley, and am sad to say that every picture looks roughly the same!
Instead of smiles and full-on faces, work on various poses with different emotions, such as a sad warrior theme, or a frightened little girl being chased by *****. Variety.
You have to remember, hair isn't one big clump of plasticine. Individual strands of hair (and the pretty big eyes which you mastered) are what makes anime anime. There are many hair tutorials on deviantArt, and it won't hurt to see some of them.
You also have to draw ears. It's one of the most obvious things on faces. It doesn't matter if it's a half-watermelon-seed shape with a line around the top half of the rim (does it? That's what I do. Don't copy me if you're wrong redface ). Just start out basic, and then go more complicated.

Keep going though, you can only get better with practice!  

[Elixias]

Regarding lined paper, if you have photoshop, you can remove 'blue colours' from the picture and thus removing the lines as well. smile

When you get it I might show you how (if I remember the way to).  

[Elixias]

I'm not very good.. but here's some help! (Might make things simpler for you I hope ><)



I'll try to help you with feet if I can. biggrin