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At 9/4/12 06:33 PM, CypressDahlia wrote: I think the message everyone is trying to send you is: show don't tell.

I'll help you once you try more stuff, but if it's not appearing I can't help you at all.

Okay. I'm going to try more action-based stuff, starting with my project on my news feed. For now, I am saving the basic designs for tomorrow. I am not really in the mood to start it now, so when I did think of it, I wrote it down so I could begin work on it the next day. Thanks for your support everyone.

One of the subjects for the next project. She is an amazoness warrior.

It's not bad. Do you have access to a scanner, though? The pictures are clear its just I see warping on the page, and I'm not sure if it's your drawing or just the perspective.

I would like to see some of your action poses, though. You seem very much conditioned to drawing people in a 3/4ths angle. While that's fine for character designing, it's hard to tell what you're good at and what you're not unless you show us stuff outside of your usual repertoire.

Also: stiffness. Have you tried gesture drawings? Your character seems to be relaxed, yet the way you've drawn the pose seems very tight and stiff. This probably is a side effect of drawing things at orthogonal angles all the time. It looks flat against the page. You should integrate more overlap into your drawings. Have limbs behind other limbs, accessories behind the body, etc. And the last point is hands: the hands are very simplified. Hands are one of the coolest parts of the body, man, and one of the most poseable. Don't downplay them so much. They can add a lot of dynamics to a drawing.

Right right, let's think this character design through. She is an amazon warrior, thus she probably resides in a forest, possibly the amazon forest.
Thick brush, massive tree roots, varying terrain, vines, mold, holes, rocks, mud, and you've given her high heeled shoes for footwear.

This warrior isn't going to win any battles.

Hands are one of the coolest parts of the body, man, and one of the most poseable. Don't downplay them so much. They can add a lot of dynamics to a drawing.

What should I do with the hands, then? Make them bigger?

Yeahhh.. If she was in a battle she'd die in 5 seconds flat. Give her more protective armor.

At 9/6/12 10:53 AM, StarPaladin wrote: Yeahhh.. If she was in a battle she'd die in 5 seconds flat. Give her more protective armor.

Possibly a bit of muscle as well, wouldn't hurt.

At 9/6/12 10:53 AM, StarPaladin wrote: Yeahhh.. If she was in a battle she'd die in 5 seconds flat. Give her more protective armor.

Not many amazon warriors depicted in fantasy stories wear that much armor. I mean, look at the amazon from Dragon's Crown.

At 9/6/12 10:00 AM, PatBest22 wrote: Right right, let's think this character design through. She is an amazon warrior, thus she probably resides in a forest, possibly the amazon forest.
Thick brush, massive tree roots, varying terrain, vines, mold, holes, rocks, mud, and you've given her high heeled shoes for footwear.

The high heels I can agree with. I'll just shorten them a bit, and if I can, give her a slightly bigger frame.

At 9/6/12 12:41 PM, HiryuGouki wrote:

At 9/6/12 10:53 AM, StarPaladin wrote: Yeahhh.. If she was in a battle she'd die in 5 seconds flat. Give her more protective armor.

Not many amazon warriors depicted in fantasy stories wear that much armor. I mean, look at the amazon from Dragon's Crown.

She's wearing a bikini, that's hardly a reference. She's also some 6-foot tall, 350-400 pounds of muscle.
Fantasy stories have a habit of dressing up their women in a way that aims specifically to please the men who will be playing it.

TBH, to evaluate the effectiveness of the design we'd have to look at the story and universe context of the character. High heels, though, I can agree, are not very suiting.

But I can see a character like that working just fine in--say--the Slayers universe or something. Personally I'd expand the armor more, though. Believe it or not, when it comes to manga, the most defining features of a character are in the clothing design. Give yourself more space to customize the clothing and integrate more design elements.

At 9/6/12 02:21 PM, CypressDahlia wrote: TBH, to evaluate the effectiveness of the design we'd have to look at the story and universe context of the character. High heels, though, I can agree, are not very suiting.

But I can see a character like that working just fine in--say--the Slayers universe or something. Personally I'd expand the armor more, though. Believe it or not, when it comes to manga, the most defining features of a character are in the clothing design. Give yourself more space to customize the clothing and integrate more design elements.

In actuality, I think minimal armor is designed for speed. Also, correct me if I am wrong, but most amazon warriors tend to be strong, no matter how they're depicted. I have now decided that I will draw fantasy women, dragons, etc for this thread. I will post some monster sketches I have done as of last year, starting with this golem. This thing will be seen in some later art pieces. But yeah, I do agree with what you're saying, I just don't feel like adding anything more, clothing wise would be very beneficial, as it would add weight and slow her down. Also, I have decided to use both the re-design of this character and Nautilus to keep it simple.

Thanks for your suggestions everyone!

At 9/6/12 08:57 PM, Aigis wrote:

At 9/6/12 05:58 PM, HiryuGouki wrote: In actuality, I think minimal armor is designed for speed.

If you're designing it for speed, though, why would you give her high heels and kind of strangely restrictive shoulder pieces?

I'm not going to say that you need to prize practicality over everything, because it is fantasy and stylisation with respect to armour is acceptable in fantasy. The real issue with battle bikinis is in works where all the males are fully armoured, which gives it a kind of sexist male-gaze thing that I won't go into.

Agreed. Which is why, if I go further into this character's concept, I'll make sure that both males and females within this primordial warrior culture dress similarly, with men's almost entire torsos exposed. If it's relative to a culture within a world, I would stress the point that if your women are scantily clad, especially in the case of jungle warriors, your males should be as well. This not only avoids sexism issues, but also tells you that it's not just women that dress like that. Even more so, if you keep that kind of dress within only a certain part of your fantasy world, it separates that culture from the rest, thus not only making an identifying feature of that culture, race, etc, but also avoids the sexism issue altogether.

I have always wanted to treat female characters the same as male characters, simply because I, myself, am not a sexist. We need to have a change in the games industry that says, "If a male is wearing the same kind of outfit as a woman, it should not look too off base for the male character model." This is especially a problem in MMOs. Have you ever played an MMO and wondered whenever your female character acquires the same set of armor as a male character, is statistically better than your current armor, yet looks skimpy as all hell? You wonder, "Why the hell did they do that?" And then, you realize that kind of thing makes women out to objects, which is shameful and shows a lack of maturity on the developers' part.

At 9/6/12 07:53 AM, HiryuGouki wrote: One of the subjects for the next project. She is an amazoness warrior.

the figure looks a quite stiff and the body parts look a lot like puppet joints, I'd really suggest more life drawing as well as placing your figures on a 3/4 angle

the figure looks a quite stiff and the body parts look a lot like puppet joints, I'd really suggest more life drawing as well as placing your figures on a 3/4 angle

I know that. This is only a design for the character. Also, can we please drop the whole "draw from life" crap? I know, and I get it. I know you're trying to help, but I only wanted critique on the DESIGN. Critique the ART. Not the way I draw. Point out flaws in the ART itself.

REDESIGN!!! Sorry for the low quality, though. I had to save it under minimal settings. This design, to me, looks a lot better. I have gotten rid of the stiffness, and did away with the high-heels, instead making a heel that's only an inch high. I also moved the tattoo onto her abdomen, and I will be drawing the back view next (hopefully without screwing up this time).

Keep in mind, I only want critique for whatever art I post here. Nothing more. Just the art, nothing else.

Can't guarantee this to be 100% correct but yeah, it's definitely more correct now.

Keep workin' hard

At 9/7/12 10:35 AM, Ludic wrote: Can't guarantee this to be 100% correct but yeah, it's definitely more correct now.

Keep workin' hard

Thank you! Anyways, I will get started on the back views and such, later, because this cold I have is just really taking it out of me...So yeah...

I can also design HUDs.

I can also design logos!

I know that. This is only a design for the character. Also, can we please drop the whole "draw from life" crap? I know, and I get it. I know you're trying to help, but I only wanted critique on the DESIGN. Critique the ART. Not the way I draw. Point out flaws in the ART itself.

...WHAT???

At 9/7/12 04:36 PM, Lucky wrote:

I know that. This is only a design for the character. Also, can we please drop the whole "draw from life" crap? I know, and I get it. I know you're trying to help, but I only wanted critique on the DESIGN. Critique the ART. Not the way I draw. Point out flaws in the ART itself.

...WHAT???

Well, I am just saying, no need to bring up that tired old phrase.

Wow...No one has decided to comment at all...Well, time to revitalize my efforts!

This is really old...

A TCG format card.

An HUD design. I would appreciate critique on my overall designs if possible. That would be very helpful!