A quick Critique?

[shadefalcon]

I KNOW I TYPED A LOT, AND IT'S LONG, BUT I APPRECIATE THE HELP OF WHOEVER HAS THE PATIENCE.

My friend, Yoshy-Ryu, gave me some quick critique on a character I'm working on. Here's what he said:

The arms a a bit long, mate, but only because the torso is long. Either that, or you made the legs too short. The elbow on the right arm seems to be sticking out very oddly. Considering the way you drew the right hand, the elbow shouldn't really be showing (like how the left arm is). The shoulders are a bit uneven as well. I suggest simply making the legs about a head longer, and adding some visible hips. He looks like the legs are coming from his stomach- which is kind of creepy. Overall, you're doing good. Just because your current drawing is off, it's because somewhere something went wrong. You got the right ideas in mind, so either redrawing or tweaking this one will result in a better outcome.

Here's the original link:

http://shadefalcon.deviantart.com/art/Bo o-Hoo-Sketch-261411885

Okay having read that and my artists comments, for my style (since I've had issues with people with style) I know my friend Ryu is right but he had to log off shortly after he said this, and I don't quite know what my mistake was, and I do understand proportions, but I still screwed something up...

I managed to fix him so he has hips, made his shoulders more even, fixing the elbow on his right arm so it's not so visible, BUT, I don't know how I made his arms too long, or legs too long/short etc. I know the eblows to fingers is about the same as knees to toes, and I did the same thing for hips to knees and shoulders to elbows, and I also know the legs are generally the same height as the head plus the body. Can someone tell me how I can tweak this in the right direction? I don't want to get into designing the charcter before this is right, and I understand what I did/am doing wron.

[Kinsei]

One of the things you seem to have missing here is the lack of any sort of hips and groin. You have the torso practically connecting to the legs. You need some hip space.
Your head is a little big too.
The character over all is 5 and a half heads tall. Although not a game breaker for a characters stature, but it does make him rather short.
Speaking of heads. Remember that heads is the usual scale measurement.
Your torso is two heads tall when it should be around 2.5 to 3 heads tall.

Also increase the muscle mass of the arms and legs, or decease the mass of the torso and shoulders. Cause the two don't match as they are.

Study some anatomy books/websites, and get a better grasp on proportions. You seem to have some knowledge at the moment, but you need to expand that knowledge and then practice it.

[Little-Eise]

At 10/3/11 10:58 PM, shadefalcon wrote:

I don't know how I made his arms too long, or legs too long/short etc. I know the eblows to fingers is about the same as knees to toes, and I did the same thing for hips to knees and shoulders to elbows,

Well there's your problem. Generally speaking, your lower leg (knee to top of the foot) is the same length as your UPPER arm (shoulder to elbow), and your lower arm is slightly shorter. For a man who is 8 heads tall, the upper arm is 1 3/4 heads long, and the lower is 1 1/2 heads long. Likewise, the general rule for a leg is the upper leg is 2 heads long and the lower is, again, 1 3/4 heads long.

Just remember that those measurements are the general guidelines for a character who is 8 heads tall; you have to scale them if you want to have a smaller character.

Speaking of a smaller character, I have a few questions about the design. I know you are aware that your character is about six heads tall, but was that intentional? In other words, did you want to make him almost two feet smaller than an average adult male? Is he supposed to be a kid? From your comments, it seems like you're at least somewhat modeling him after yourself, but i seriously doubt that you're about four feet tall.

On a side note, I really don't see the Bruce Timm influence. When I see his name mentioned I automatically think Batman: the Animated Series, but, honestly, I don't see any of the similarities you said were present.

[shadefalcon]

Well there's your problem. Generally speaking, your lower leg (knee to top of the foot) is the same length as your UPPER arm (shoulder to elbow), and your lower arm is slightly shorter. For a man who is 8 heads tall, the upper arm is 1 3/4 heads long, and the lower is 1 1/2 heads long. Likewise, the general rule for a leg is the upper leg is 2 heads long and the lower is, again, 1 3/4 heads long.

Okay, so my mistake with the arms is that the forearms, or elbow to wrist, should not be as long as I made them, they should be a touch shorter than the upperarm, I understand, okay. =)

But as for the hip to the knee. What is that proportionate too in size on the body?

Speaking of a smaller character, I have a few questions about the design. I know you are aware that your character is about six heads tall, but was that intentional? In other words, did you want to make him almost two feet smaller than an average adult male? Is he supposed to be a kid? From your comments, it seems like you're at least somewhat modeling him after yourself, but i seriously doubt that you're about four feet tall.

On a side note, I really don't see the Bruce Timm influence. When I see his name mentioned I automatically think Batman: the Animated Series, but, honestly, I don't see any of the similarities you said were present.

Yeah I'm like 5 foot 5 in., but I made him thin like myself. He's going to be kind of a short adult, so yes the height was completely intentional. Most of my characters are going to be kind of short for height I'll say ranging from 4 heads to about 7 only in height. My main character is like 6 and a hald heads tall and I wanted this guy to be shorter than him. As far as bruce timm goes, I made some parts a little more angular, like the New Adventures of Batman as seen in the last seaon of Batman TAS.

I made the corrections too.

[Civilized-Apocalypse]

his forearms are also huge

[Daverom]

It's not so much his forearms are huge but that his legs are really short, and has no notable crotch.

[PoisonTheCure]

I agree with all of the critique here, his legs are too short, his head isn't very proportionate and his arms are a bit too long. I would advise you to find some of Andrew Loomis's books and learn how to draw from there, you should be able to download it as a PDF somewhere or the other or get it from Amazon. His figure drawing boos are really helpful so at least have a look.

[Re2deemer]

I'm really surprised nobody has chewed you out on this, but...

Credit for the photo

I was going end here, but this has to be said - you don't look like you know what you are doing here. You need to understand anatomy and what is going on both on the skeletal level and muscle level if you are going to pull off drawing any half-believable nude/seminude character. Your shaky linework and your "fixes" being small Ctrl+T actions deeply infuse me with doubt as to whether you truly understand what you just fixed and hence whether you will ever be able to avoid that same error.

[shadefalcon]

At 10/4/11 10:31 AM, Re2deemer wrote: I'm really surprised nobody has chewed you out on this, but...

Credit for the photo

I was going end here, but this has to be said - you don't look like you know what you are doing here. You need to understand anatomy and what is going on both on the skeletal level and muscle level if you are going to pull off drawing any half-believable nude/seminude character. Your shaky linework and your "fixes" being small Ctrl+T actions deeply infuse me with doubt as to whether you truly understand what you just fixed and hence whether you will ever be able to avoid that same error.

The photo is one hell of a coincidence I assure you of that, I just used a picture of myself as reference. But yes, I do learn from making these corrections and have stopped quite a few other mistakes by learning this way. There's just so much you can learn from studying a book over and over. I'm more hands on so I find it more useful to learn from my mistakes this way, where I can have people point out to me what I'm doing wrong.