My first, realistic mess up =)

[Avatar of Virtue]

This is a newly drawn, realistic ( I hope ) drawing of the Avatar from the Ultima series... I know it sucks because I never drawn this way before, and never drew a character in a weird stance/pose like this before either. Looks good if it were a quickie.

Well, here it is. Close your eyes!

Don't mind the big white square stick out up here, put the thing in the scanner weird and had a big black space here, didn't look nice.


I can never draw people with a mean expression without making them seem evil... Maybe that is how it is supposed to be, after all I look evil when I look mean.

The proportions are messed up at the arms and legs, and the muscles are weird i think, scrawny knees and such. Eyes are weird (what eyes? ), but considering I have trouble drawing at a microscoptic level I think I did very good. I understand that some of the more, elaborate drawings with many details and such are usually drawn with a bigger scale, but I only have printer paper and # 2 pencils... (Edit: And the boots look cruddy too, can never draw feet well for some reason...)

A couple things about him, his hands and feet are exaggerated on purpose by his gloves and boots, kind of like the characters from Warcraft 3 (hands bigger than their heads, jeese). Face seems a bit older, but I was trying to go with the original Avatar's older look from Ultima 9 (looks a bit in his late 20's to 30s or so) but with the long hair from Ultima 6.

Well, I think I could fix this up in Xara X or Photoshop, or something. But I need some advice on any mess-ups that I might not already know.

[dannE-B]

Right well like you've already pointed out, there are a lot of anatomy issues, his legs and feet look a little too big for the rest of his body, and the pose is a little stiff, but thats stuff that cant be helped if you havent learnt it well enough yet. when i myself do drawings that i can see many flaws in i look at it make note of my errors and quickly move on. The more you do the better you will get. Keep churning out drawings and soon you wont have to point out so many flaws in your own work....but good try.

[Shamagim]

Hey, you are young, is a very nice mess up...but try to stay completly away from special styles where the anatomy is anormal to make the characters look better, to deform something you have to know the real form...advice...try real anatomys and keep sketching...a nice point is that you know what you did wrong...dont settle or justify( i mean never say to yourself "is enought...and is ok for my current age/level") though..bring the next one soon and keep on sketching


Good luck

[Avatar of Virtue]

Perhaps I can try drawing a 3/4 facial view of this character, I'm good with faces but never drew one realistically. Maybe I can try my manga style on oneand see if I can convert it towards a realistic portrait.

[Kian]

Seen as though you understand whats going wrong and where, you should develop very fast if you practice as much as possible. The best piece of advice I can give is stop drawing the fantasy characters, (not completley orse it wont be as fun ), but draw as many real people such as atheletes in interesting poses, or stills from the matrix lol. That way you should start to understand how the body moves and looks in reality. This will improve your drawings immensely

[Avatar of Virtue]

I guess I can draw some normal looking things for a bit. Maybe more portraits of some Ultima characters to get an idea of wrinkles and facial expression, hair style and flow.

[Threshold]

when someone 'good' (as opposed to 'evil') looks "mean," think righteous anger.
A serious, cold, and even sinister expression is acceptable, but DON'T give him an evil grin.
More later...

[WrittenShadow]

Another good subject to get an idea of how the body interacts is pictures of yoga practitioners and often porn and lingerie mags.

...thats my excuse for perving anyway...