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At 2/1/11 09:05 AM, TurkeyOnAStick wrote: Just to tag onto my previous post, but explaining it in words is horribly lame, especially since you have used different greys in your pic.

Here's your pic with a slight gaussian blur on top, to kill off linework and emphasise silhouettes. With it you can see what stands out quite well (the girl in the foreground, the nearest robot) and what doesn't. Where's the corpse and the crying girl gone? The rear robots blended in with the scenery. :(

Haha, I understood what you meant in the first post, but thanks for pinpointing it. It was a problem I was frowning over myself, but I guess I'm a bit scared of putting a lot of contrast in drawings. Sometimes.
And I agree with what you said, the people in the foreground kind of dissapear in the greys of the rubble. The picture used to be even more grey-ish before I played with the levels a bit... Anyway, I'll try to put in a little more contrast and maybe more highlights where needed, darken the ground the robots (or whatever they are) stand on. Some really dark shadows wouldn't hurt either...
The second robot blending in the background was a bit on purpose btw, because if I hadn't made such a difference between robot1 and 2, it looked like they were entangled or something.
Anyway, thanks a lot! I'll try and get on it, since I have nothing better to do, really.

I think I have something of a finished scene here. Um.. Is that decent enough to be accepted? And if not, what should be changed, or what could be improved non the less? I don't know how the quality will be affected by uploading..
I had a lot of time on my hands so I kinda tried to finish it in one haul. Save for a few hours sleep, that is. It's been a looooong time since I put that much effort in background and surroundings.

Okaydokay, let's upload a little sketch I have here, since that seems to be the usual way.
I like how it turned out and the positioning and everything, but the problem is I tend to leave things sketchy and I'm seriously not skilled in digital colouring.. So I really have no idea how I'm going to finish this thing. I don't think watercolours will work on this one..
Alien invasion? Robot rebellion? Alien robot rebellivasion? Take your pick.

Haha, shit, that last one was from a long time ago. Damn, the dates here are so goddamn tiny. I apologize, but the critique still stands, though.
Anyway, on a rather more 'contemporary' note...

At 1/12/11 08:39 PM, JoseFonz wrote: Here is perhaps the most complete drawing I have ever accomplished. Except it may be rough, and well lacking color...

The drawing is nice, but there are certain types of faults that give away you're a fairly inexperienced drawer. With human anatomy, that is.
First of all, the girl is leaning against a wall thats positioned pretty straight and flat in front of us, yet you try to give the girl a 'turned to the left' perspective through the placement of the feet. Or should I say foot, you forgot one there. The foot that's now positioned on the ground would have looked far more believable if it was set to 'face' the viewer: with the tip towards us. But because you are only learning, it's common to try and avoid perspective like that by placing bodyparts either straightly forward or viewed from the side. If you were to really stand like that, you'd surely slip from the wall and fall on your ass.

Anyway, I think it's best you start drawing the base of the character first, before you add details like clothes and such. It's often easier to see your faults when you draw a basic human figure. Don't fear to try to slip in some perspective. It might even help to go stand in a full-view mirror for a moment and take on that pose: you'll see what's comfortable and what's not. In this drawing too, your arms are very long and out of proportion.

I have to give you credit for that last face though, I like it. I can also see you try to pay attention to hands, which is also very nice.

Oi, and now to make an ass of myself somewhere else.

At 11/24/10 02:59 PM, Kakashi1930 wrote: Here, just trying to help.
For the first pic, all I did was stretch the legs. Do you see the difference? Doesnt it look so much more correct now that the legs are the right size?
For the second one, you made an extra joint in the legs. I fixed a few anatomy isseus (i.e. the arm that is visible) and drew lines underneath so you can see how I flesh out my characters, starting from a :stick figure", per se.

No offence, but what you are teaching him is completely wrong. First of all, your 'improved version' with the longer legs isn't improved, it's just cartoonised. Please measure the length of the legs compared to the length of the upper body. In an average human body the legs are seldom much longer than the upper body and the head combined, while your length difference is pretty extreme. Your drawing isn't anatomically correct, it just looks prettier.
Second, he didn't add another joint in the hips, thats actually how real hips look since the hip-bone does make that kind of 'bump' in the butt. You also erased the normal-looking waist-to-hip-ratio and replaced it with a weird-looking slant body of a rubber girl without bones and a butt.

I agree that the first drawing looks pretty weird, but that's not because the legs are too short. It's because the upper body is too heavy, the shoulders are too broad and most of all: the arms are way too long. On average, hands are positioned on the hips, maybe only a little lower. The legs are anatomically weird, since the knees are positioned straight but the feet outward. Also, the crotch-area looks a little.. overaccentuated :D
The second drawing of the sitting women is very good in my opinion. I would personally have made her head a bit larger (but that's not nessecarily a good thing), her butt a bit rounder and on the stretched leg it's too 'deeply' cut out below the knee.

JoseFonz, you're progressing nicely and if I have to give you one tip it would be what has been previously said: first 'real', then cartoons. First of all your cartoons and manga wil become increasingly better when you know what characteristics to accentuate, and second of all: drawing manga now will damage your ability to draw realisticly forever. I know personally, and it sucks.

This excercise just reminded me of why I steer clear of a colour-based drawingstyle in the first place.
It's crappy, but just because I never do a thing like that I find it kind of funny too.

This seems like fun. First shot at a collab, or at posting something artsy on this forum in general, but I'll see to it as soon as I can.

I'm a cartoonist.. In the sense that I make comics and cartoons. I don't exactly do the comical 'young' style you use in the beginpost, though. Most things I make are far from photorealistic, but I never really liked the cartoony kiddy style.

About the 'tilt'.. I think it's in the chair. Your character sits a little crooked as it is, but the base of the chair is leaning waaay too much to the left. It kind of looks as if it's made out of rubber and the character tries to keep it straight with its foot, there.
I suggest you redraw the seat of the chair to make it a little more straight (parallel with the 'horizon' of the room), and give the chair a different 'leg'. Maybe four legs instead of one. Or one, but with a broader base like those desk chairs.

To do so, I think it's best to save your image as a new one (so you can keep your original), and then completely erase the legs as well. Chances are they'll look weird when you redraw the chair. Don't forget you character is sitting on it, it's not just background. You should try and make a habit out of drawing what's underneath first, that way you position your character on the chair, and not the other way around. It'll look a lot more natural.