Armored Girl

[CuriousJoe8]

Hey there everyone. My name is CuriousJoe8 (duh :P ) and I'm fourteen years old. I have a sketchbook here, but I've never got something critiqued. I typically draw "manga" style, but I've recently been trying to do a lot of figure studies. I want to animate in the future, so I'm trying to get my anatomy down as early as I can. This is just a little animé style girl I did. Nothing fancy, just a little concept.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y286/CuriousJoe8/Futureperfectgirl.jpg

Crit the hell outta it!:teeth:

[Thórisson]

Hey there Joe.
I have one comment; I don't believe you are 14 and if you are then you must've used reference, or traced parts of this drawing.

Now if you *are* fourteen and this is all your doing, please don't care if I don't believe you because then this is a very good compliment. If you aren't, well... nice job anyway.

I see nothing here to critique, except for very small details like her right palm could be improved and the fingers seem a bit bent the wrong way.

Keep it up.
-Th

[Pixeldragoon]

Hey Joe, glad you are getting an early start. You are doing the right thing by coming here.



I'm having trouble reading where she has clothes on and where she doesn't; It seems there are some parts you forgot to put lines or soemthin'.

The anatomy/proportions seem really nice, but a few key things are off;

Her neck is a bit too long, which throws alot of it off. You know how humans are approximatley 7 heads tall, right? The nipple should be the second head down, the belly button the third, and the crotch the 4th. Because of the long neck, you can see how this might affect it. As well, the forearm is a bit too long as well. Your wrist should be paralell with thr crotch; Though this crit is a bit more of an apporximation, so I could be wrong.

The boobs seem a bit 2d =\

Everything else is nice. Good start being 14, but don't let it get to you. We have a few 14 year olds on here who are quite good.

[codenothing]

Excelent work for being 14. There are anatomy problems, but as you are just starting out, other people have already commented on it, and professional manga has the same problems, I'm not bothered by it.

Overall I think you have a good design sense for it, I'm sure you took insperation from some other manga work (which is fine) but I'd like to see something a little less gineric with the costume. Ask yourself who this person is, what their roll is, and try to add some characteristics that give her an Icon.

for example, In star wars EP1 designers wanted to give Darth Maul a 'temting' quality about him to lead others to the dark side, and they considered adding feathers to his costume because feathers are used to 'attract' things in nature.

The only other thing i would suggest you work on is study the use of line weight. Thick lines should be used on the shadow side of things, and to make objects 'pop' in front of one another. Thin lines (and in some cases lines that disapear to nothing for a moment) should be used on highlights and objects that fade back in the distance. Its a very difficult thing to master, but your off to a good start. :tihi:

excelent work, your gona be great one day! :yayca:

[CuriousJoe8]

wowza, thank you so much everyone for the detailed critiques. And yes, Thorisson, I am 14 ^__^
You're all right. I did take inspiration from both Samus's suit and the evangelion jump suits. I'll be sure to mention where I get ideas from next time. I didn't have a ref. though, I just tried to make it reminiscent.
I made a big booboo in the neck area, not including the neck being too long(thank you for pointing that out by the way :D ). I was intending for the jump suit to cover her neck, but I accidentaly added definition to it without thinking >__<
thank you pixeldragoon especially for the tips on bodily proportion. I wrote those down in my art notebook.
Keep the crits comin, guys ;)

[silverslash]

pretty good, what was said about proportions above is generally accurate ,however getting away with stretching them is something that most good anime does, most of the problems in the drawing would prob enter the realm of acceptable exagerations if the head was a tad bigger.

-jose

[Pixeldragoon]

And you write so eloquently too! I think I speak for a bunch of us when I say you make us very Happy. :D

[BlueMech]

If you've lurked around CA enough you know that at this age your main focus should be figure studies and life drawings. And trust me when I say this, I'm speaking from personal experience: drop the anime. Not forever, just until you have your basics. There's no need to stylize everything now and if you get stuck drawing anime, it will cripple your artistic growth.

Has anyone else noted that anime is such an easy way to get easy compliments on so many communities? I posted a semi-anime/chibi drawing as a satirical jok on the WoW forums and I got too many compliments on it to feel comfortable. :/

[CuriousJoe8]

I totally agree with you Bluemech. My art teacher is a really great help to me when it comes to advice about the art world. She gave me a really helpful heads up by telling me that animation studios and art schools won't take you if you've developed your own style because they want to see that they can teach you.