Cirenes || [ closed; too busy ]

[Cirenes]

(lol, mock auction banner above)

♦ u P d a t e s ♦
9/12 : I'll be closed for the rest of the school year. Not sure if I'll open up again, but thanks for anyone who is/was interested! :]
8/29 : Still open to one mentee, under the condition that my free time is now severely limited, and that response time may be slow.
6/24 : Open to one new mentee, but only if he/she will keep in mind that I will be busy July 2~Aug 25 and does not mind.
5/24 : Mentoring service open.

♦ b a s i c I N F O ♦
○ Hi! My name's Cirenes, also known as Blizz.
○ I'm 19 years old, and I go to a liberal arts college hoping to major in psychology on the track for cognitive neuroscience. <3
○ I've taken maybe three courses in art at the Art Institute of Boston, but those skills are rather irrelevant to what I draw now... Frankly said, I do not have education in art. Everything I know about art is self-taught. So please don't expect me to rattle off any art theories for you! ^^;
○ I live in EST time zone. My online times are rather sporadic but frequent. :]
○ I decided to try mentoring just for fun. I'm not doing this because I want to improve by teaching or anything like that--I just thought it'd be nice to impart any "wisdom" I might have to those who want it. ^^

.......

♦ a r t I N F O ♦
○ deviantART
○ I draw shoujo/otome game style anime art.
○ I have been seriously trying to improve since 2004. Here's how I improved.
○ I use SAI and a Wacom tablet (and on occasion for editing, openCanvas 4).

.......

♦ t e a c h i n g ♦
○ Strengths (or things I would teach well):
-Anime art
-SAI
-openCanvas
-CGing
-Lineart
-Facial expressions
-Folds in clothing
-Hair
-Mood/tone
-Chibis
-Cute things
-Bishounen (my specialty xDD)

○ Weaknesses (or things I probably won't teach well):
-Realism
-Traditional art (CTRL+Z please OTL)
-Photoshop (I can use it, but I haven't fully explored its features)
-Proportions
-Overly detailed art
-Detailed backgrounds
-Professional art techniques
-Manly men, mecha, anthro, things I don't draw

○ How I plan to teach
-Please show me at least one WIP a week (more is fine too!), and tell me what you personally like/dislike about it. I'll comment/critique as I see fit. Basically, I'll try to help you improve on the things you want to improve on most, while adding a few things I noticed myself. :]
-No formal assignments. I only ask that you consider the advice I give you and incorporate it into your future pieces.
-I will also advise that you don't force yourself to draw. If you aren't inspired, you aren't inspired. Time off isn't a bad thing; this is how I personally improved.

.......

♦ m e n t e e R E Q U E S T ♦
○ Please only apply if you're willing to draw at least once a month, and will be relatively dedicated to improving. Remember, this is for you, not for me. And there may be others who want advice as well.
○ Please be intermediate level or higher and be trying to draw anime style--I apologize, but I don't think I'd be very helpful to beginners. ><; I believe my advice would be most useful to those who have been drawing for a while already.
○ Please don't be offended by critique! I will do my best not to be too critical or mean about it, but offer advice in a friendly way.
○ Please don't expect full tutorials! ^^; I'll do quick tuts if I notice something you seem to be having trouble with, though. :]
○ I will take one mentee at a time for the duration of a month.
○ Don't forget to have fun with this! ^-^

.......

♦ s i g n U P ! ♦
Please use this form to request a mentorship! ^^

Quote:

.......
Name:
Samples:
Years of experience:
What you want to learn/improve on:
.......

.......

♦ m e n t e e L I S T ♦
*

♦ p r e v i o u s M E N T E E S ♦
1. Eina-chan (5/24/09~6/24/09)
2. Elsiane (6/25/09~7/25/09)

.......

♦ o n C R I T I Q U E ♦
I'm posting this here because some people seem to be very... mean about delivering critique. :< This is to say that I'm against soul-crushing critique and am wholeheartedly endorsing and will be using the alternative because I am certain there are better ways to get your point across. ^^

Full version here.
(hehe, please don't mind the foul language.. I was angry at careless, rude dA critics who sounded really condescending ><; )




Thanks for visiting! <3

 

[Eina-chan]

.......
Name: Eina-chan
Samples:





Years of experience: Eight years?
What you want to learn/improve on: SAI, CGing, Lineart, expressions, pretty much everything you have listed that you teach well (except oC, because I don't use that xD) Oh, and not to mention: Shading. Big thing there that I need. 3:
.......  

[Cirenes]

@Eina-chan: ^-^ Cool, I'll be your mentor then!

Would you like to kick off by showing me with something you're working on right now? :3 We can discuss informal "assignments" after I see how you're working. ^^

Oh yeah, don't feel pressured at all when you're WIPs to show me later--I believe people learn best when it's fun and not for some "I must improve!!" purpose. Just think of me as one of your viewers on dA or something. :>  

[Eina-chan]

I think that this is the latest thing I've done so far. c:
I tried to go for black and white, but it looks REALLY sketchy.
And I didn't draw a body because I know I would suck at it XD  

[Cirenes]

Ooh~ she's adorable! ^^ I really like the touch of pink in her cheeks and hairclip. Her clothes are so cute too! biggrin

I'm going to address the things you said for the "critique" since that should give you specific pointers for things you want to improve on.

1. If you want to make it less sketchy, why not try using the ink pen tool on SAI? :> I did a little example below of what I'd do, along with some other things I listed below.



I personally tend to variate pen width (just pen pressure, with 4pt for face, 0.7pt for hair), and SAI does this very well. You don't have to, but I think it makes doing lineart much more fun than just drawing it flat with a single width. xD

Another thing that might be making the image look sketchy is how the hair has a lot of visible strands. If you condensed some of the strands into locks, it might come out looking less sketchy.

Also, for the coloring, you can try using a solid color with the ink pen tool (or select & paint bucket), then add a bit of gradient using the airbrush tool. That might reduce sketchiness as well. ^^

3. I'm sure you can attach a body to her if you wanted to! :> You can start by giving her a torso, though it does help to draw the whole thing. xD Many people draw the whole figure by measuring with the number of "heads."

Usually, the second "head" (this doesn't include the chin, I don't think) ends at the middle of the upper arm. Drawing a line down the character's middle helps proportion things out, too, though you seem to be doing fine there already. ^^

4. Nitpicks now--don't mind these so much, as they're things you'd probably notice if you came back to the picture a lot later. xD

Her right shoulder could be a bit further out (as in the red sketch). Her neck could also be a little to the left. I'm sure you've heard of this before, but stick figure sketches are really helpful in getting all the anatomy in place. (I use them too, lol)











Her left cheek could also be a bit higher. See the pic to the right. The green lines are what the right cheek's position suggests should be the alignment of the facial features (eyes, etc). The blue lines are what the eyes suggest is the position of the facial features (they match with the cheek's position in the red sketch). It's really a small nitpick on my part, though. xD;



Hope this helps! If you need anything clarified, just ask. ^^

--

Hmm, since it appears that we're free to teach however we like, I'm not going to give any "assignments."

However, it'd be great if you could show me at least one WIP a week (more's perfectly fine too!) for the rest of the month's mentorship. You should address certain things you like and dislike about your WIP specifically, or any vague things you like/dislike--there's usually something there. This way, we can work on what you want to improve. :]  

[Eina-chan]

I don't think I have that ink pen tool on SAI. o.o
I don't know, it's like, it doesn't tell me the exact brushes.
So I don't know. x_X  

[Cirenes]

o.O; Really? It looks like this:

What does your SAI look like? (if it's still in Japanese, you can make it into English with this)  

[Eina-chan]

I don't know, I don't have that. o.o
My SAI is like really weird. The brushes has these weird symbols.
But my version is English too, because it says normal etc in the drop-down.

 

[Cirenes]

Whoaaa, it's definitely not supposed to do that. xD Btw did you know you can change the names of your tools by double-clicking on them? It might be helpful if you renamed them all to English, haha.

You can also make your own tools. To make an ink pen tool specifically (since you don't seem to have it by default), right click on an empty space and select "pen":


And these are the ink pen tool stats. Just change the density of the regular pen tool:


You can make other tools to your choosing if you want. Just mess with the density stats. xD  

[Eina-chan]

Okay! Thank you! ^^
Oh, and is there any shading technique that you can teach me throughout this month? :3 I've always wanted to shade properly -is shot-  

[Cirenes]

No prob, glad to help. ^^

Sure! We can start with celshading if you'd like, since we're doing anime style and all anime shading styles are essentially built off of celshading. :>  

[Eina-chan]

Celshading? o: There are different types of shadings?  

[Cirenes]

I don't think it's formalized or anything, but people do celshading (like in anime), soft celshading (like in otome games--what I do), and other variations depending on how they like to color. :>  

[Eina-chan]

This is terrible.
I don't have a WIP to show you,
because I don't know what to draw D:
Like, I know I should draw a person.

But idk.  

[Cirenes]

lol, if you don't know what to draw or are uninspired, it's only natural you won't be able to draw anything. It's not a requirement that you show me a WIP or anything--remember, it's for you, not for me. :] You can try to wait out the block or get inspired via art/music/anime, I guess. xD