Help me with my sketches!

[Pesmerga]

I need your help. I want to make sure they're "OK" before I finish these. If you don't have time or are to lazy to check them all, just comment "Girl 8" and "Character - Cyrus".

Smooth Criminal (http://www.deviantart.com/view/9759967/)
Seems to be off balance. I'm not sure if the torsion is alright.

Girl 8 (http://www.deviantart.com/view/9759507/)
I notices her legs are too long and the body curves seem wrong. She looks weird.

Merfolk 4 (http://www.deviantart.com/view/9784663/)
I'm not sure about his right arm.

Character - Cyrus (http://www.deviantart.com/view/9784707/)
The way his sitting on the horse. I'm having some trouble with the perspective. They both look wrong.

Fairy 3 (http://www.deviantart.com/view/9784729/)
I like the composition. I know her arms are too thin but is this one cool? I mean the way she's sitting and all.

Monster - Selthar (http://www.deviantart.com/view/9784760/)
I haven't studied water effects or somenthing but I tried my best to make it look SPLASH!

[alex_86]

Can't see the pics man try another hosting server. If I might suggest one >> www.photobucket.com :rendered:

[emily g]

I can see the pics if I click on the links--I would suggest getting another host though, because people are more likely to comment if they can see the pics in the post.
Ok, here's some comments:
Smooth Criminal--it's good that you are constructing the figure using forms like this, but I'm having a little trouble seeing which way he's facing. It looks like the legs are facing forwards and the torso is facing backwards.
Girl 8--overall, she's a little too elongated, in the thighs especially. The lower legs seem pretty good, though.
Merfolk 4--his body has a nice gesture, especially how it curves into the tail, but I really can't tell how the arms are working. The one that's above his head almost looks like it's bending the wrong way.
Character - Cyrus--the biggest problem here is that the horse is too big (unless he's supposed to be a small character?) I would look at some reference to see the size comparison between riders and their horses. Also watch the arm holding the sword--it seems a little short.
Fairy 3--This one has good proportions and a good background/composition. This one is the best so far.
Monster - Selthar--I really like the curving motions you have going on here. The water looks pretty good. Are those hurricanes in the background? They are a little confusing to me.

Hope this helps. Good luck and keep it up!
emily

[alex_86]

AHHHHHHHHHHA! :!:

That second last image says it all.

STEP AWA-A-A-A-AY FROM THE :aa: :an: :ai: :am: :ae:

It's a HUGE mistake to start drawing cartoon style before being able to draw a relistinc figure. If you are really serious about drawing, put the anime books away and get anatomy books, reference pictures, or whatevr you need to study the 3D world and light in the 3D world.

I started the same way as you and have only in the last 1.5 years (thanx, in part, to the discovery of this site) began to learn art the correct way.

Once you are able to draw something with the most amount of detail you can simplify it to death, trust me, I do it all the time. I actually prefer drawing cartoony stuff myself, but I also know exactly what i'm drawing because anything I draw in a toony style I can redraw in a realistic fasion. Until you can say the same thing, no simple "tips" will be able to help your drawing.

G'luck

[Pesmerga]

Thanks a lot. I don't understand why you can't see the images though. They're links to Deviant Art where I update my portfolio and my sketchbook.

meDrawUC > Listen, I don't know what kind of jabroni you are but you're not fooling me. I may not be an expert but I understand something you don't seem to get. Young artists should stay away from cheap cartoony styles such as non-polykarbon manga or any stuff that simplifies too much. However, as long as I respect the anatomy, there's nothing wrong with it.

example: http://www.deviantart.com/view/9702242/

To think that drawing like this will affect my capacity to reproduce reality is just absurd. Don't you guys worry about that, I still study anatomy and practice a lot (I'm into self portaits right now) but I'm not gonna stop drawing cartoony stuff just because some "superiors" think it's bad. Drawing is a hobby before a career.

By the way, I'm an assistant designer at Ubisoft. I'm still not good enough though. I'm some kind of apprentice I guess. In 1 or 2 years, I should be working for them.

[Eew]

hmmm ... you try to construct your bodys thats a good thing but it seems
1: like you have a 100 kg pencil ... losen up a lot ! ( 2 : you maybe darken it after scaning -> if yes .. my bad srry .. )
before even thinking making finished work get the basics right ... cause you say yourself there is wrong perspective ,legs that are way too long ... the horse itself looks kinda weird like it comes from some cartoon for little kids....
do a lot of sketching on those posses do it till you feel that you got it right and work it out further .... wel that my honest crits hope i wrote anything usefull ...

edit : "By the way, I'm an assistant designer at Ubisoft. I'm still not good nough though. I'm some kind of apprentice I guess. In 1 or 2 years, I should be working for them."
And what that got to do with your drawings or you asking for crits ?? What people here trie to say to you is that your cartoony stuff will never be good if you dont get the real stuff right first and what everyone see from your cartoony stuff is that you dont have enought basic knowledge to even think of doing cartoony stuff ....dont feel ofended but if you ask for crits you should be aware that they will be hard but usefull if used the right way ...

ohh yeh no one says cartoony will make your skills go down but cartoony shows the lack of your skills .. just so you dont get the things people say wrong .. and no one is "superior" or whateva...
But if you still sure and thinking the same wat you should just draw some expresinism or whateva style so noone can say you that anything is wrong cause there will be no realy skill in ,only "emotions" ... and other stuff that people come up with .....so you can sell your art for money and people will put it on the walls as part of decoration and never even will look at it as art ...so when you ll be 80 and die no one even will know who you are or what you did .... so do everyone a favour and listen to the crits that you asked for if you want eva improve ....

[Cyrus]

I felt like responding...don't ask me why though.

I pretty much agree with whats already been said, you're definetly on your way so just make sure you stay on track.

Heres a good thread that discusses how realism/anatomy relates to drawing anime:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23336

and if you're worried about deviantart as a provider, heres the best free alternative:
http://www.photobucket.com/

[Woodrodius]

Thanks a lot. I don't understand why you can't see the images though. They're links to Deviant Art where I update my portfolio and my sketchbook.

meDrawUC > Listen, I don't know what kind of jabroni you are but you're not fooling me. I may not be an expert but I understand something you don't seem to get. Young artists should stay away from cheap cartoony styles such as non-polykarbon manga or any stuff that simplifies too much. However, as long as I respect the anatomy, there's nothing wrong with it.

example: http://www.deviantart.com/view/9702242/

To think that drawing like this will affect my capacity to reproduce reality is just absurd. I'm not gonna stop drawing cartoony stuff just because some "superiors" think it might be bad for my drawing skills. Don't you guys worry about that, I still study anatomy and practice a lot (I'm into self portaits right now) but I'm not gonna stop drawing cartoony stuff just because some "superiors" think it's bad. Drawing is a hobby before a career.

By the way, I'm an assistant designer at Ubisoft. I'm still not good nough though. I'm some kind of apprentice I guess. In 1 or 2 years, I should be working for them.

Woah tiger, wait a second. You asked him to critique these sketches and he did. It's obvious that your anatomy is a bit off, and it's also obvious that these sketches are cartoon (most likely anime) inspired. Now, as we have no realistic sketches to go by, we can only assume that part of your anatomy problem stems from your attempts at stylization. If this isn't the case, sorry, but until you post some realistic sketches, it's tough to crit the anatomy.

That said, I agree that your pencil seems to be a tad soft for the size your working in. It looks like you are using a 4B and drawing pretty small. I suggest either drawing larger, or getting a harder pencil. My personal favorite is an HB or regular Number 2 pencil. That should make your images look a bit sharper and it will be easier for the viewer to distinguish character from background.

Anyhow, don't get angry at criticism. This isn't DeviantArt, it's a higher quality site, and if you can roll with the advice that people here give, you will be a higher quality artist.

[jetpack42]

it's pretty unprofessional to attack somebody giving an honest critique. assuming you are the professional or almost? you claim to be.

[Woodrodius]

it's pretty unprofessional to attack somebody giving an honest critique. assuming you are the professional or almost? you claim to be.

Well Pes didn't really say he (she?) was working at Ubisoft, but an "assistant designer". I'm guessing he's (she's?) referring to an internship, which is awesome. I'd love to have an internship at ubi-soft.

[Pesmerga]

Hey, I'm just saying! I appreciate your comments. I just think it's wrong to take this too seriously (even if it's too be a pro). What's the use of drawing if it's not fun anymore? I refuse to see drawing as a work.

Woodrodius - It's "HE" :)

By the way, all these sketches are done with an HB (and not with a 4B).

[Eew]

look fun is when you 5 years old and dodling monsters and aliens cause no metter how you put it on paper its still perfect in your mind ...but we not 5 anymore aint we...? drawing is in first place ALOT of learning then working .. and when you did enought of those you ll have fun by drawing the same monsters and aliens but only difference will be that now they will perfect on paper too and not only in your mind anymore...

[sone_one]

if its just for fun, why are you asking for help, wasting the precious time of those who really like to help?
if you get what youve been asking for you attack him/her? thats a bad attitude.

[Woodrodius]

Hey come on, lay off the guy. We all do this with different degrees of seriousness, and there's nothing wrong with his lighthearted approach to the activity. Though I will say that even if it is just for fun, good advice shouldn't be shunned because it's not the funnest route. For most people here, the fun (and satisfaction) comes from improving your skills, and the road to that improvement isn't always fun. But it's a lot funner than being stuck in a rut. Anyways, good luck.

[egerie]

By the way, I'm an assistant designer at Ubisoft. I'm still not good enough though. I'm some kind of apprentice I guess. In 1 or 2 years, I should be working for them.
Cool. which team ? But wait, are you working for them or not yet ? Anyway, what's always good to study is anatomy even if it seems boring and tedious in the begginings. You'll see that drawing becomes much much more enjoyable when you start to comprehend musculature and perspective better. It becomes second nature and really lets you focus on what you really want to convey.

[Yoell]

look fun is when you 5 years old and dodling monsters and aliens cause no metter how you put it on paper its still perfect in your mind ...but we not 5 anymore aint we...? drawing is in first place ALOT of learning then working .. and when you did enought of those you ll have fun by drawing the same monsters and aliens but only difference will be that now they will perfect on paper too and not only in your mind anymore...

cant beat that quote.

Im in the middle of converting my ways.

as for the images, I cant see them :(

[Pesmerga]

Yoell: You're not missing much :^^;:


egerie: I'm from Montreal so it's the Ubisoft Montreal Team I guess (creators of Splinter Cell 8) ) No, I'm not working for them yet. The character/monster designer creates and I add some details... but I'm not paid for it. They told me I wasn't good enough but they saw my potential as a designer (my originaliry and my patience with details). I'm an Art student now I'll probably get a lot better in a year or 2. I still have to work on my backgrounds and color (I have opencanvas but don't have a tablet yet... and god knows how hard it is too colour with a mouse :$ )

Cyrus: Thanks a lot for the links.

I darkened my sketches with Microsoft Photo Editor. But I have a bad habit of pressing too much on my pencil when I draw. Yes, I drew small for these. When I don't have a lot of time, I sketch a small 20 seconds scrap, then I resize and darken :^^: You may call it cheap but I think it's pratical. I just throw my ideas on paper and use these as models. That way I can do 16 designs in 1 hour :P

[alex_86]

HAHAHA, JABRONI, thats such a funny word. LOL I really didn't even really resent that I laughed my ass off.

Pesmerga Quote
However, as long as I respect the anatomy, there's nothing wrong with it.

Let me bring up an analogy, I'm very good at those and it's easier to explain with them:
You can get to Africa by air or by boat. The airplane ride will be much faster but it will cost a lot of money, the boat ride is easy on the wallet but it will take you a gazillion years to get there. Right now, you're on a boat to Africa. You dont like paying for your talent with hard work so it's gonna take you twice as long to get to being a pro (which i assume is your goal).

Also, I usually assume that when someone needs help they wanna draw seriously not just play around, well my fault for doing that I guess, because several times now I've been disappointed to hear the opposite (such as fromy yourself). "I just wanna doodle, meh meh meh."

I'm gonna say this to you now. The quote I have written up there is incorrect. You can never get as good as you can be by drawing in an anime style because most good anime artist know what they are drawing, to copy the lines they have drawn (i.e. to draw in the Anime style) is to be ignorant to why the hell you are drawing those lines in the first place. Thats gonna take even more time to figure out.

Drawing realistic figures lets you see where lines should go (when switching to a cartoony style) so taht you dont need a 'template' to go by. If you want to draw in the anime style, draw in it because you prefer it not because you have no choice. Thats, I guess, that I'm getting at.

[Eew]

wel i think its called thumbnails ??? and no its totaly not cheap or anything ... what you mean by saying you resize them ?? you make them bigger ??? if yes -> then this is your main mistake.. you do those just to get the idea down and maybe some basic compisition to get the feeling...keep doing those thumbnails but when you see something that you might wanna develop further take a new paper and draw the big version of the thumbnail... again if im mistaken about you resizing small images .. my bad ...

edit : grrr MedrawUC posting same time as me ... :upset: lol just kidding but this :right:If you want to draw in the anime style, draw in it because you prefer it not because you have no choice:left: this is just gold... keep the both sides of the brain working :thinking:

[Pesmerga]

Yeah... but the cheap thing is, I sometimes copy my own sketches (That's why I resize :^^;: ) but only when I'm damn proud of my "thumbnails" :needle:

[Woodrodius]

oh, well if these are thumbnails it's a different story. Try banging out a few larger drawings with sharper pencils and we might be able to offer more constructive critiques.

[Eew]

ahhhh.. now everything is clear .....hehe :teeth: however i still recomend to do lot of anotomy studies because there is realy no way around it ... even Mentler is doing him and he is not that young anymore( lol Mentler plz dont strike me with you mighty pencil for this ...)