Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

At 11/7/11 06:36 PM, Daagah wrote: Haha, I just knew someone would speak up against this. I couldn't disagree more with the editorial, which is why I won't contribute. I have some principles. But, seriously, come on. Threadstarter came with an request, there's payment involved, it's not that hard to just DON'T DO IT if you feel that it doesn't suit your own personal beliefs.

Of course people are going to mention it. I had no desire to do it, though I did want to share some perspective on it myself. As much as the OP didn't intend to, he should at least be aware that what he is doing stands upon the very lines of what he is standing against. Simply making a comic about such a topic comes into a touchy zone, that in most cases shouldn't be touched.

As such though, I feel as if I owe an apology to the OP. I am not here to mock you, or challenge your beliefs, and I am sorry if I have offended you.

Oh please. I love the fact that you complain about hypocrisy, but don't even realize that by making this topic, you are just as hypocritical as either party.

It isn't as simple as hypocrisy though. Atheism hardly tries to shove their beliefs down peoples throats. They typically ask what reason there is to believe in a God. I know plenty of atheists. They are great. You know why? Because they don't try to shove a stupid religion down your throat. Because they don't have a stupid religion, and thus don't need to talk about it.

And this is coming from a non-atheist. So here, have a cartoon.

Here's a sketch or something.

Here... These are some of the most well thought out ninjas I have ever thought out for less than ten minutes.

Eh, I'd be willing to talk about it. I love working on games, and could certainly use some portfolio material. The connections wouldn't hurt either.

I don't know why you are avoiding the style however. This is a fairly important thing for your artists to know. And while I am fully capable of animation, is there going to be any? Or is your artist exclusively an artist? Is it concept, or in game art. Anyways, hit me up with a pm if you want to talk details.

At 10/29/11 12:34 AM, Aigis wrote:

At 10/28/11 03:50 PM, ThunderSpam wrote: Yeah, I know dude. I couldn't double post.

Here ya go.

And here you go.

I lol'd. Love it. Thanks dude.

At 10/28/11 11:48 AM, jeeshwa123 wrote:

At 10/28/11 10:01 AM, ThunderSpam wrote: I wanna see what you guys can get out of this. If you want to have fun with it, any purple area of her body extends.

you forgot the image, good sir ^^

Yeah, I know dude. I couldn't double post.

Here ya go.

I wanna see what you guys can get out of this. If you want to have fun with it, any purple area of her body extends.

While I do consider myself a fairly talented artist of various sorts, you offer absolutely no information about your project. Proposed styles, difficulty, time, pay... etc. I personally have no interest because you need to offer more information. Simply saying paid work isn't enough to get an artist interested.

Also, just as a heads up, if you are looking for sprite artists because you think it might be easier, don't. It isn't.

While a drifting mind can be one of your greatest assets, it can also become your biggest inhibitor. The mind does tend to drift when coming up with ideas on what to do, which can certainly pour a great deal of creativity into your work. Unfortunately, if you don't control yourself while doing this, it is easy to lose a sense of direction.

Personally I like sketching things out before I draw them. I have a friend though who has enough solid concentration to merely see what he is going to draw in his head, and his work is incredible. Either way, when you concentrate on what you are doing, the quality of work will improve exponentially.

At 10/10/11 07:58 PM, AchievementGaming wrote: Here is my final attempt. I'll never upload art to Newgrounds anymore. I keep forgetting this is sort of a professional environment. Sorry for the trouble.

You asked for opinions. Don't be stupid. People are simply telling you that you are confusing pixel art with "i maed sumthing in MS paint".

Now if you really want to make pixel art, I'll tell you how to do it. Zoom in. Get right in there. About 400% zoom will do. Now grab the pencil tool. Yup, that one that delivers you one pixel at a time. Now, go nuts. You should be able to figure it out.

Regardless, if someone could just write "Game over" and have it constitute as a piece of art, I would be pumping out pieces like nuts.

At 10/8/11 01:15 PM, Spyduhmahn wrote:

At 10/8/11 01:07 PM, ThunderSpam wrote: I really don't see why it matters that this girl is bisexual.

Anyways, if you are going to make someone out of taffy, make it count. Taffy is childish, so make it playful and fun.

You are my new god!

It's because I rule.
I rule so hard.

I really don't see why it matters that this girl is bisexual.

Anyways, if you are going to make someone out of taffy, make it count. Taffy is childish, so make it playful and fun.

Honestly, your preference between digital and traditional medias is really just a preference. In the end it all boils down to skill. And you will only get skill if your practice, practice, practice. A lot of it is transferable, but try to pick something and stick with it.

If you are looking for personal opinions though, I say digital. It is a very powerful and versatile medium if you use it right.

Well first things first. I commend you on your colouring. I almost expected to see half assed marker lines everywhere, smudging and whatnot. Congratulations on not being part of the general populous that can't colour using markers.

The comic is not the worst thing I've ever seen, but it's not quite the best either. The characters maintain to real proportions, often changing in depth, angle and the like. Oh wait though... your characters are arrows. The characters don't offer very much visual appeal, most being the same geometric shape, with some hair tacked on top and some hair. They are honestly just boring characters. You've taken what would traditionally just be a stickman and changed its shape. This however does not save it from the boring simplicity of the stick figure. I am not saying you need anatomically correct humans or anything, but a little variety in characters would be nice. At least throw in some more shapes... like cubes, cones, etc.

The three panels don't do a whole lot to hold the attention of the reader, and each piece to it seems fragmented. However, the story itself isn't developed enough for me to actually care what is going on either. Remember in English class, your teacher would show you that stupid ass mountain diagram with the introduction, rising action, climax, and conclusion? Turns out that shit is actually useful, and form the basis to any good story. I have no real reason to want to get to know Steven Arrowhead, and he is honestly just a weirdly shaped guy that quickly gets into a plot about nothing as far as I'm concerned.

Keep going, as it takes a surprising amount of tenacity to maintain a webcomic. You'll certainly hear a lot of advice from a lot of different people. Just take it into mind, but do what you want to in the end.

Alright, I was just screwing around before. Let me legitimately critique your characters.

First off we have Phillip J. Fry. Okay, he isn't Fry, but he resembles him pretty darn well. Two hair spikes in the front (Even though Fry's point up), spikes in the back, similar hairline, colour, etc. While his head shape is also pretty different, certain features and design choices (sizable eyes, shirt colour) lead us to the concept. But let's ignore the fact that this is a Fry rip-off, and move to more technical issues.

As previously stated, pay attention to the neck. I also briefly mentioned it myself. His eyes look disturbing. His pupils are huge, and he is staring directly at you. You can have characters look at you, but his eyes are rather soul-less. His expression is also very generic and fairly boring. Practice your eyes. I also think that you should try making his far eye narrower. He is at 3/4, make his entire face look like it's at 3/4.

His hair is also lumpy and weird. Even though cartoons use a fairly solid shape for hair, it would still sit upon the head like hair. However, this hair sticks out far too much, and should be brought in at the back.

I'll leave Fry alone for the mean time and take a look at your other two peoples. Let's start with straight guy, and for the purposes of this, I shall name him Eric. Eric, unlike his friend Fry, seems to have developed eyebrows through his life. He also has had a large heavy object dropped on his head resulting in a flattened top of the cranium. This dude has no skull beyond his face. His neck also has an amazing power to absorb his collar which should be in front of his neck. He also always has fans surrounding his feet, causing his jacket to flare out rather than wrap around his body. His eyes are also perpetually 6's, and he is always bored. Eric is a cool guy.

Now let's move onto Diane. She looks like a Diane. Unlike her good buddy Eric, she actually does have a top to her head, which is a nice touch. Unlike Eric however, she does not have a defined neck, instead just having a thick fleshy mass that oozes into her chest. She is also an amazon warrior, as she has cut off one of her breasts, and whittled the other one to be spiky. Presumably so that she can poke out Fry's creepy vacant eyes with her chest. But then again, she suffers from the same stare. Her ear hangs off the side of her head and could be ripped off in moments, and her nose looks like it's upside down.

Listen, you are trying to do something that I think maybe you should rethink. You are making cartoons, but you are doing what other people want you to. You are trying to make them more life like. But cartoons are not life. In 2005, your characters were not pretty. But by 2007, you had something more stylized. But then as you move forward, you lose that stylization, and get a creepy representation of a human form. Honestly based on what I can see, I like 2007 the best.

When someone tells you to pay more attention to anatomy, they aren't wrong. But if you can roughly draw the anatomy of a regular human, you will start to be able to do it in your cartoons as well. I would take a few steps back, and look at how you are drawing things. Perhaps 2007 isn't the best style you can achieve, but it does have appeal to it, and more characterization. Work on it and improve it. Constantly improve it. Never stop trying to make it better.

Just my opinion anyways.

At 9/8/11 02:24 PM, WayofthePencil wrote: Please consider my entering.

Can someone please tell me why the anatomical sketch of Twilight is not being added to the list of entries.

It is fantastic.

I would try tooling around with proportions and shapes and whatever right now as well. The character design is nice and he is a fairly well rounded character. However currently he has a bit of a creepy vacant stare. I am bored so I doodled him.

It really is incredible how a little bit of outside style can really change a character.

Here, I did a quick side by side sketch. Made some notes, but I am not sure if you will be able to read them when I post the picture. Anyways, like most people, you need to work on your proportions and shapes. People aren't just lumpy blobs.

It's not bad. Everyone is right though, you should check out some facial anatomy. Or at least use a few references. That is if you are drawing realism. But you aren't drawing realism.

It's fine that you aren't trying right on key. But it only works if you do it on purpose. This piece has a lot of fundamentals for a good picture, but you do need a few tweaks. I'll include a sketch that I did based off of yours, but with a few changes.

First off, your girl has no real cheek bones. Its just sort of an ovular curve down the face and into a pointy chin. Try drawing a few heads with more defined cheek bones at three quarters of an angle. Try some high, low, bony, wide, fat, whatever. You'll start to get a feel for it. You were going for more realistic eyes, but due to there not really being a cheek bone, they look out of place. Personally I would lower them down a notch, along with the nose. This is not realistic. This is me giving the character a bigger forehead. It's a bit cutsier, but I think it suits her well.

Speaking of the eyes, I made them bigger, and gave her larger irises. I didn't include the pupils in the sketch, though she does have an increased focus. With your position of the eyes, and the lips and neck, she looked a little dopey. I also gave her eyebrows a little bulk, as they aren't just lines. The area between the lip and the nose, I aligned so that the center of the mouth would meet that line. In your version, it was angled to the left, making it look like a duck face. I also trimmed a bit of upper lip off, since they typically are thinner, and made the line of her lower lip longer.

I also gave the girl a thinner neck. I did this to produce the effect that she has a cranium. Your face and jaw does not merely end your head. There is a significant amount of skull back there. I didn't overdo it, but you can at least see it now.

Finally the hair. I feel as if her hair would swoop a little more. The way you have it drawn, I think you are debating swooping it versus keeping it straight. Anyways, I wouldn't cover her eyes so much either.

Obviously a lot of these are stylistic preferences of my own, and I take more inspiration from cartoons than from realism or the anime structured head you developed. Find what works specifically for the way you draw. That or draw from life.

Okay, let's take a look at this... This needs a lot of work, honestly.

I'll start off with your figure. I had trouble seeing the exact shape of the head due to the black hair with no contrast against the background. After screwing with the lighting in the picture, I managed to clearly see what you meant to do. Anyways, his head is far too small, and his hair has absolutely no life to it. His forehead is a weird shape, his nose is at a bizarre angle. His eyes are wacky to the max with black irises. He has no real cranium, and his ears are oddly placed. I suppose his spine juts out at a ninety degree angle after it leaves his neck to follow the curve in the back. None of the limbs have any real shape or form, the shoes are huge and don't match his attire, and his back arm is coming out of his back.

Listen, I could pick this thing apart in detail, but it wouldn't be a productive use of either of our times. This isn't a complicated pose. You can pretty much find pictures of it by looking up "Sitting Floor" on Google images. Find images and use them as reference, or go and take some yourself. Even if you have to trace, you are going to learn more than trying to draw freehand without knowing anything to begin with. So, get some pictures, and use them as reference. Constantly check back to them, and compare your drawing with a photo. Eventually you won't have to use reference anymore.

I am not even going to talk about your line quality, colour choice, or any of that other fancy schmancy stuff. Honestly, just focus on basic object structuring.

You're thinking about this all wrong, Mr. Gryde. Part of your problem is that you shouldn't be colouring realistically. You should be adding believable form and shade, but so long as you continue to use black outlines to hold shape, there is no point in even trying to make something realistic.

I can however point out a few things about this piece. You are drawing armor, which is a metal. Metal has dark shadows, but brilliant high lights. Very bright gleams of light. Your lines are also fairly shaky and you should work on making them smooth and clean. Speaking of lines, you should finish them before you start colouring. Finish your sketch. Jeeshwa is right, this is merely a fragment of a finished idea. At least give us something more to critique.

"I just don't feel motivated to finish something when I know the result will be butt-ugly", you say? Well surprise, that's part of learning to illustrate. You'll draw it, it'll look like crap, you'll acknowledge this and get better. Always experiment as often as you can. You will find new ways to get different effects. Even if something looks like crap, at least finish the stage your on. If your sketching, finish the sketch. If you are colouring, finish your colours.

Let's let someone else talk for a bit. I'm fairly distracted.

Here kiddo's. It's one where I don't swear and I am uncreative.

Here you go!

Dumping grounds or not, you still should have marked it.

Regardless, let's actually take a look at this. It took me a moment to figure out that the figure on the left is actually a man. I thought it was just a very unattractive female with bizarre lumpy hair. Perhaps due to his ridiculously thin body compared to the girl. Anyways, the nose is huge, the curve into the mouth is too long, and the tongue is really long and hangs out of his mouth like a dog, rather than a man licking something. Also I think his hair is lumpy and dumb and his bangs wouldn't sit like that.

Now I am not too well versed in these activities myself, but I don't think very many people would take this stance. First of all, he is all balled up. I think you would be a bit more relaxed, and thus stretched out. Now I am not telling you how to live your life, but typically when I interact with things I don't turn my torso ninety degrees to interact with it. I would turn to face it. But I get how this might obstruct that giant nose you worked so hard on, so I can understand why he isn't quite facing it. If he was more laid down, then you could make a slight turn to his back, rather than the dramatic one you have now. Also, cool story, his toes are messed.

As for the girl, mainly just a few issues. Weird looking arm. Gigantic hands with mega sasauge fingers, and ridiculous wrist bones. Her right knee is on the outside of her leg. She has a dumb shaped nose. A weirdly placed ear. Gravity defying hair. The works.

Also, that twin bed is really tall, and they have a flat fucking pillow.

First off, you misunderstand what a proper critique is. It is not merely seconds. Mere seconds would be someone saying, "This is nice". A critique breaks down the elements of your picture, stating what you have done right, and what you can improve upon.

Now I see you have simply taken a picture of your sketch book. That's fine, as not all of us have fancy scanners, but try making sure you have an equal light source all around the picture. Thankfully however, your lines are dark enough to see what is going on.

Now I can tell that you have a base understanding of the basic muscle groups and skeletal structure. That's good. But unfortunately this is undone by a lack of planning. The deltoids are too far from the neck, behind non-existent collar bones. Your shoulder muscles and the biceps are opposing each other, and you have no real elbow joints. The midsection is lumpy and odd, and the hands are facing forward.

So, what is the first thing you can do to improve? Plan. Sketch out a basic figure using geometric shapes. It doesn't matter what you use to sketch, it can be anything. I personally use spherical shapes, where as a friend of mine uses cubical ones. Give your character a little bit of life. Even if the character is just standing, there is going to be a bit of posture, rather than arms limply hanging at the sides, and looking straight on.

I'll sketch you an example of what I mean in a bit. Let's let other people talk for now.

Honestly, I find that using a colour palette is fairly restricting. I keep my base colours around, but for the most part, I myself am fairly organic in my colour choices. I find it works well for cartoonier pictures specifically, since you can really pump some life into them this way.

Once again, that's just me.

Hmm. Well it isn't bad... But there are a lot of things you could make better. Sharpen up and make the edges smoother first of all. Second, your colour choice is all wacky. Considering your scene is at night, look at how dark your sky is. Your other colours should reflect this. Your grass looks like its the middle of the day, and your leaves have absolutely no shadow to them.

Your choices of highlights and shades could use a tune up too. Shadows aren't simply a single tone that are slightly darker than the original colour. Try using multiple colours to define your shadows. Because it's night time, I would probably use some green to blues, getting very dark at the edges. I would also use a blue light to highlight his face.

Just my opinion anyways.

At 8/29/11 11:52 PM, Kumakun4 wrote: You can't expect everyone to just show up in the forums with a decent amount of talent. I think it's kind of base to insult any work that doesn't meet your standards unless the person is seriously asking for it, which I don't think is the case here as OP just seems to be blissfully ignorant that his art is lacking in pretty much every department.

Dude, I am not insulting the OP. I am showing him that his concept is good, and that he should work at it. It's something called inspiration. I don't expect him to be good. But look, its showing him the difference in shape and form, expression and lines. If anyone is insulting him directly, I think it would be you, who straight up called him "blissfully ignorant".

It could be better. Just did this based off of your drawing. You should focus on making things visually interesting, and adding a bit of personality to stuff.

Try thinking your pose out a little more before you draw it. Despite the fact that you don't have hands or feet for this girl, the pose is awkward and weird. Ignoring the rubbery limbs, this pose is fairly hard to do, and is a strain on the arms in specific. Human bodies have limits, and its so easy to test them yourself.

Here, I quickly sketched a pose that your girl would more likely take. Its not perfect, but I hope I kind of show you what I mean.