Jinxed Art! All Advice is Appreciated. ^_^

[Jinxed Tarot Card]

Hello! First of all, thanks for taking a look at my thread! I want to improve my art, but sometimes I don't know how or where to start doing that. Would love any and all types of advice.

Edit: Just realized I didn't put anything about myself and current experience level. My bad. sweatdrop

I only really started to get serious about art a year ago when I decided to start taking classes. Before that I was just randomly drawing cartoons every now and then without much thought behind it and eventually stopped altogether for a very long time.

My goal is to become a Video Game Designer and do art and music for various types of games. One day, I hope to have my own company. Video Games are the reason I got into art and the driving force that pushes me to get better. The idea of creating an entire world is just amazing to me.

My main focus right now is human and animal anatomy. Would also like to start working on landscapes and perspective. Everything and anything that helps me improve.

Would like to know what your opinions are on my pictures and where you think I need to focus on improving.

I'm currently in my second drawing class and I'd really love it if someone could give me some tips on working with charcoal and drawing from life.






http://jinxedtarotcard.deviantart.com/art/Eye-And-Mouth-Practice-144160551

http://jinxedtarotcard.deviantart.com/art/The-Jackal-Gaia-Avatar-144158819

http://jinxedtarotcard.deviantart.com/art/Jinx-On-MegaTen-Imagine-144161768

http://jinxedtarotcard.deviantart.com/art/First-Try-at-DA-I-D-144162433  

[The Titanium Spork]

There's no good way of putting this.
You need to stop drawing anime for long enough to learn to actually draw people.
Always go for realism before style. The anatomy in most of your sketches is virtually nonexistant.
Anatomy, anatomy, anatomy. Then you worry about having a unique style.  

[Jinxed Tarot Card]

Thanks for the advice! I've actually been trying really hard work on my anatomy and not draw animelike. Playing too many Japanese RPGs might have ruined me. XD Been wanting to take a life drawing class for awhile now, but the class times always seem to conflict with something else. >_<

I have been reading books and tutorials about anatomy and practicing drawing people from a cosplay magazine. Is this an okay alternative to classes or am I just hurting myself more?  

[The Titanium Spork]

Drawing from photos and reading books is definitely a good thing.
You don't really have to go to a class, just carry a sketchbook around, and draw random people holding still. The drawings don't need to be perfect, it's the observations that you make while drawing them that are important. The "hey, that's where that muscle joins" is more important than it looking exactly like the person you're drawing.
Good luck.  

[Jinxed Tarot Card]

I do carry around a notebook for drawing on the go. I'd use one of my sketch books, but don't want my bag to be too heavy. Maybe there are some people that have old fashion magazines they don't need anymore.

Once I've drawn a few more things, I'll post some to see if there is any improvement.

Thanks for all your help! Nice to hear something other then "that looks good" for a change. XD  

[The Titanium Spork]

XD
You're welcome.
I don't think I've ever said "that looks good" without sarcasm, even to my favorite artists. I am a bitter b***h. 8D  

[FrozenVendetta]

Your irises are pretty well drawn, but the eyelashes are scary and really thick. If you look at many manga books you'll see it's a mass of black.

The anaomy can be fixed by the before given methods. I've been working with realistic style for a couple months and it's really helped my anime.

You have great potential, even though I'm probably not one to say it.  

[Errol McGillivray]

Try this:

Everyday draw 3 things.

One person you see. (If you live at home, sit in the kitchen while dinner is being prepared. Or draw someone watching TV or doing something that keeps them relatively still.)

One object you can set in front of you.

One thing from outside that's not a person.

Just draw whatever you're drawing as the shapes that make it up. You're only allowed to use spheres, cylinders, boxes, and cones. Don't worry about things being pretty. This is about learning how things are put together. Draw the large shapes. Don't worry about little details. Don't work on tiny paper and make sure you fill the page.

This will help you start to get a better hold on form.  

[Jinxed Tarot Card]

@The Titanium Spork: That makes since to me, actually. Since it's usually followed by a "but" or said by my parents. XD

@Nighsongbird: The eyelashes are scary? Mind if I ask how? 'cause I just don't see it. ^^; I tried to make them varied and use different types. See what works, ya know?

@Errol McGillivray: That's a really good idea! Sometimes I think there's no time to practice drawing (or I just decide to be lazy about it) so doing quick sketches with just shapes and not worrying about details should fix that. I always end up spending too much time on them. >_<

Thank you all for your help and input! Wish I could be as helpful to others. @_@  

[Jinxed Tarot Card]

Okay, so my teacher has told me to work on my line quality, but for some reason I have a hard time understanding the why, when, and how to use it. >_< Could someone please help me with this? I can't post any of my newer stuff until Monday since I have a classmate taking reference pictures for me with my camera. So, this is the last picture I did in my Drawing 1 class.

http://jinxedtarotcard.deviantart.com/art/Oriental-Still-Life-for-Class-115937311

Also, for my next assignment, I was thinking of drawing a brick wall with graffiti on it. I'd like to know what people think of this idea and advice on how to approach it.  

[Griffonage]

For line quality, at least for now, you should focus on making sure that the lines are seen as one solid line. This is done well with the flowers in the center, but the fan is made up of many jagged lines, which muddles the form. On quite a few of these objects, it looks like you were drawing what you thought they looked like rather than drawing the shapes that they were actually made up of.

Also, if your friend is taking reference photographs for you, that probably means that you could look at them in person, which is a much better option than drawing from photos. Photographs are put into 2D for you, whereas the real world you have to transform into 2D with your perception. This doesn't mean that you should never use photographs for reference, but if you can see something in real life it doesn't make sense to draw from a photo.  

[Jinxed Tarot Card]

Thanks so much! Now I understand why he said I need to make my lines cleaner. Yay for "Aha!" moments. I'm getting the hand of figuring out where to make the lines lighter or darker to bring out parts of the drawing and whatnot, but that had me stumped. I also tend to forget about looking for basic shapes first. That probably adds to my proportion issues. >_<

I actually couldn't be there for what I asked him to take pictures of. There was going to be this neat battle in this big open area by the library and I wanted some pictures of the people fighting (I can't draw that fast yet), but couldn't stay for it. He also goes to a martial arts dojo, so he was gonna take some there as well.

Thank you again. ^_^