(+18 only) Need help to improve

[AntagonistDC]

I actually enjoy drawing women, especially explicit artworks, but I've noticed that I've been getting low ratings on my artwork. I need you guy's opinions on what you think might be wrong. I mean, is it really that bad? No....IS IT REALLY THAT BAD??? I've actually seen plenty of artwork that look as if a 7 year old drew it, yet they get a 4 or 5 star rating? WTF? I honestly don't think my work is terrible, and I also don't think it's perfect either. I just need some criticism on what could be done to improve.

This was an artwork I did not too long ago and the only problem I have is that I put too much emphasis on Amelia's ass.

[AntagonistDC]

This is another one I drew and shaded of Amelia smoking D

[AntagonistDC]

I also want to add one more picture of this wicked slut, Amelia, which I think is the best. I like how I did the highlights and shading on her glossy see-through cat suit. I also like the expression on her face as if she's ready to fuck. LOL!

[Template88]

For some reason I love to do this so I'm glad I saw this.

Okay, just first off, pretend you are a 13 year old kid and you are fapping on newgrounds of all places for some ungodly reason, and you see this drawing and then in the middle of it you see this face. Seriously. Think about it.

Then theres the anatomy thing too, but honestly I've seen much worse so thats probably not a super serious factor here, but its something you absolutely should work on.

I think what it might be is how you render your figures, its kind of interesting, you do have an understanding of how to light your figures even though they arent constructed particularly well and id be interested to know why you would develop that way, but its not a bad thing. Maybe in this case though its not working in your favor, your figures are muddy, and i dont mean their complexion, i am quite partial to darker skin tones, ahem, anyways they arent defined very well as you dont seem to want to commit to either using lines or values/tones to define your figures, you kind of have a wishy washy inbetween and it doesn't look so great.

general blunt conclusion, your drawings are kinda ugly.

No biggie though, work on refining your guys to make them look more solid, and dont make ugly sweaty dudes the focus of any of your panels unless you want to make gay male porn or those ugly+cute kinda porno pics.

[AntagonistDC]

general blunt conclusion, your drawings are kinda ugly.

No biggie though, work on refining your guys to make them look more solid, and dont make ugly sweaty dudes the focus of any of your panels unless you want to make gay male porn or those ugly+cute kinda porno pics.

Thanks for the feedback, but damn, really? All of my drawings are ugly? Do they really look that bad? What about my other pics I've posted in this thread?

[Template88]

Its funny because they arent BAD, you understand on a basic level LIGHTING which is something a lot of people struggle with but HOW you are going about rendering your figures isnt attractive looking. If you were drawing something other than porn it would be alot less jarring. You are also using color in a kind of amaturish way, like you are still using the burn and dodge tools instead of mixing your own colors/using other colors for light/shadow instead of the same color darker/lighter. Your saturation and contrast is all fucked up, but you have to understand thats not an inherently BAD thing, it just means you need to figure out how to do it in a way that makes your figures look more attractive. I really dont want to discourage you, it just a matter of looking at porn people like and deconstructing whats good and whats bad about it and absorbing the good things into your own art.

[AntagonistDC]

At 10/31/15 04:17 PM, Template88 wrote: Its funny because they arent BAD, you understanding on a basic level LIGHTING which is something a lot of people struggle with but HOW you are going about rendering your figures isnt attractive looking. If you were drawing something other than porn it would be alot less jarring. You are also using color in a kind of amaturish way, like you are still using the burn and dodge tools instead of mixing your own colors/using other colors for light/shadow instead of the same color darker/lighter.

Ah....Okay, but I actually have been mixing colors in my work. I use the burn and dodge tool along with color mixing, but I guess I'll try color mixing next time. I still think my best artwork was that last picture I posted, because that's where I did most of the color mixing in, but I still used burn and dodge somewhere too.

[Template88]

Do not use the burn and dodge tools. Ever. It will make your work look like that of a beginner. When i am drawing the brown colored peoples that i so enjoy I like to use purple in my shadows, strange colors will work well with that skin tone, try dark green for shadows too, try blocking out your lights and shadows more clearly for a more solid looking figure, you are trying to blend (probably using the blend tool dont do that, learn to manually blend/use a mixture of softening tools and manual blending) use bolder colors for contrast, lighter lights darker darks. Color is a hell of a skill to master, but I know you can do it if you practice just from what i see here.

[AntagonistDC]

At 10/31/15 04:26 PM, Template88 wrote: Do not use the burn and dodge tools. Ever. It will make your work look like that of a beginner. When i am drawing the brown colored peoples that i so enjoy I like to use purple in my shadows, strange colors will work well with that skin tone, try dark green for shadows too, try blocking out your lights and shadows more clearly for a more solid looking figure, you are trying to blend (probably using the blend tool dont do that, learn to manually blend/use a mixture of softening tools and manual blending) use bolder colors for contrast, lighter lights darker darks. Color is a hell of a skill to master, but I know you can do it if you practice just from what i see here.

Very well then. It ain't hard to do color mixing alone, It's just that I'm too comfortable with the burn and dodge tool, because those were the tools I've always used since day 1. I'll try and work on another artwork and show you how I do my way of color mixing.

[StormEngineer]

At 10/31/15 02:55 PM, AntagonistDC wrote: IS IT REALLY THAT BAD??

That question in all caps just begs for a comforting "no it's not bad" reply, but I'm not going to say what you want to hear, sorry. I'll give you a honest opinion, and you may not like it.

I'll be completely honest: Your art is very-very beginner. In every sense.
- Your anatomy is all over the place*
- Everything is flat, there is no proper sense of depth and space.
- Composition is not that bad, but could use some improvement
- Shading is very rough, you don't have proper lights, shadows and highlights. You also don't have light sources.
- Perspective is not there

You can't expect people to be blown away by beginner stuff. At this point, what you need is to get the foundations, the very basics right. Practice drawing basic shapes in space, like simple objects, observe how lights and shadows work, study anatomy, and so on. I see that you are trying, and you know a little bit of these things, but you need to know - and practice - much more.

Basically, you need to start learning the basics of drawing, anatomy and specifically figure-drawing. There are tons of tutorials out there. Practicing these basic things will help you more at this point than focusing on trying to make more artworks.

No offense meant but I think that you believe your works to be much better than they truly are. And that's because you are inexperienced, and can't see your own mistakes just yet. This is again why you need to get the background knowledge and practice the basics first, then your eye and judgment will improve too. It's like learning to fly an airplane: If you try to do it without knowing at least the basics of how it works, you will most likely crash.

* When you draw anything erotic, anatomy is the most important. If it's off, the whole thing will end up creepy and/or repulsive rather than arousing.

[AntagonistDC]

You can't expect people to be blown away by beginner stuff. At this point, what you need is to get the foundations, the very basics right. Practice drawing basic shapes in space, like simple objects, observe how lights and shadows work, study anatomy, and so on. I see that you are trying, and you know a little bit of these things, but you need to know - and practice - much more.

I never expected people to be blown away by my artwork. I was just asking for criticism to help improve my work. Did you at least take the time in reading my whole comment? I even stated that I don't think my artwork is terrible, nor do I think it's perfect either. At the end of the day, it's your opinion and I can respect that. I personally think my work is good, but not expert level. I think my only problem was the shading, because the artwork actually does look kind of amateurish.

[Template88]

Just remember we arent trying to insult you or put you down in any way, personally I think your work shows you try pretty hard at what you do, you make backgrounds for your figures, color them and give them light and shadow and I dont even do that, that shits hard. I think if you keep up what you are doing with a mind to improving yourself and you find that cycle interesting youll be an ace at it someday.

[AntagonistDC]

At 10/31/15 04:50 PM, Template88 wrote: Just remember we arent trying to insult you or put you down in any way, personally I think your work shows you try pretty hard at what you do, you make backgrounds for your figures, color them and give them light and shadow and I dont even do that, that shits hard.

Thanks. I can accept anyone's opinions as long as they don't come up with asshole responses.

[StormEngineer]

At 10/31/15 04:47 PM, AntagonistDC wrote: I never expected people to be blown away by my artwork. I was just asking for criticism to help improve my work. Did you at least take the time in reading my whole comment?

Yes I did: You rant about how some art you think is bad gets good rating while yours don't, you state you think your art is good, and you "shout" in all caps.

"Good" is relative. If YOU think it is good, that is your personal opinion, you have all the right for that opinion, but it doesn't mean others will agree. I believe the majority of people wouldn't call it good, sorry. I'm not calling it bad, I call it beginner, because I believe you can get much better if you, as I suggested, learn the basics and keep practicing.

I think my only problem was the shading

In reality, you have problems with everything. And again, I'm not saying that to be mean. See my list of problems in my previous post. As long as you believe something is OK, when it is not, and you stick to that opinion instead of accepting critique, you won't improve.

The first step in improving is realizing our mistakes.

And just to add some backup to my opinion, here is my best finished piece, in case you are interested: http://storm-engineer.deviantart.com/art/Sir-Terry-Pratchett-Rest-In-Peace-522892996
As you can probably see, I'm not beginner - I would call myself intermediate. I say what I say because I've also started somewhere, made mistakes, and had to admit I was believing my art to be better than it truly was. That's when I started improving.

[AntagonistDC]

At 10/31/15 05:25 PM, StormEngineer wrote:

In reality, you have problems with everything. And again, I'm not saying that to be mean. See my list of problems in my previous post. As long as you believe something is OK, when it is not, and you stick to that opinion instead of accepting critique, you won't improve.

Okay, well it's fine that you think my work is not good. That's your opinion. I've also read through your thoughts about my work. I personally don't think I have problems with EVERYTHING. I just think the shading is what makes things look bad. You say that you BELIEVE that most people will agree with what you say, but you forgot that everyone is different. I've shown my artwork to many people on facebook and they all liked it. There's someone else here in this thread who agrees that shading is the big issue I have, so in that case, I'm willing to work harder on my skills, so I'm now making another drawing to show what I can really do.

As for your deviantart artwork, I'm not saying that I'm better than you, but did you really draw and shade all that detail with just your own thought and skill? Or did you use some reference to draw and shade, because the vast majority of my artwork is done with just my own original thought, skill, and style.

http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/Lynda-566586831

http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/Trish-Campbell-566451562

http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Brandy-565524320

http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/Edom-Princess-Brandy-565422785

http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/Young-Madam-Rogue-Immortal-559989070

http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/Madam-Rogue-The-Peruvian-Avenger-557543843

My point is that I shouldn't have to make artwork like yours to be ranked "intermediate". I've seen plenty of different style of artwork that looks great in it's own unique way and has better ratings than yours. My style of artwork is supposed to be cartoonish, so anatomy shouldn't really be the big concern, since we all know that cartoons are to look funny and warped anyway. I just think I need to work on shading with characters.

[StormEngineer]

At 10/31/15 06:09 PM, AntagonistDC wrote: I just think the shading is what makes things look bad.

I see you have already made up your mind and decided not to listen to critique about anything else but shading.

did you really draw and shade all that detail with just your own thought and skill? Or did you use some reference to draw and shade, because the vast majority of my artwork is done with just my own original thought, skill, and style.

Big-big beginner mistake here: Drawing something bad from memory is not better than drawing something good using references. Actually, you should ALWAYS use references. Even famous professional artists use references most of the time. Famous historical artists also used references in the form of having live people pose for them.

You have very little experience and knowledge in regards of anatomy, lighting and many other things, and you are trying to get them right from scratch, which won't happen. If you used refs, it would be much easier to see your mistakes because you could compare your work to the references.

I've seen plenty of different style of artwork that looks great in it's own unique way and has better ratings than yours.

Quality has nothing to do with style. It is completely different to have a simplified, or näive style, or lacking the skill to do better.

My style of artwork is supposed to be cartoonish, so anatomy shouldn't really be the big concern

And that's the biggest mistake of your life. ALL the cartoonists, I mean the good ones have a very-very solid understanding of anatomy. Many beginners like you think, that simplified styles like cartoons are easier, or that they don't require so much anatomy but that's wrong. You can only properly simplify anatomy if you know it very well. Cartoon anatomy requires just as much anatomy knowledge as realism, and if you lack that, it will simply look ugly, creepy and bad.

since we all know that cartoons are to look funny and warped anyway.

Since when did you become a professional on this subject that you know what "we all know"? Also, see my previous point.

I just think I need to work on shading with characters.

You asked for critique but then you discarded most of it. You discarded everything that you didn't want to hear. Well, do whatever you want. But mark my words: You won't get anywhere as long as you keep lying to yourself.

[AntagonistDC]

At 10/31/15 08:11 PM, StormEngineer wrote:

At 10/31/15 06:09 PM, AntagonistDC wrote: I just think the shading is what makes things look bad.

I see you have already made up your mind and decided not to listen to critique about anything else but shading.

Well I always like to draw with my own style and skill. I didn't really made up my mind, hence why I said that I "THINK" shading is my main problem, so what are you talking about? If I made up my mind, I would flat out say that shading is the problem, so I don't need help now.

Out of habit, I've been drawing ever since I was 8. Year after year, my drawing has been improving the more I draw. If you think I'm bad with digital art, then you should see how I draw traditionally. I don't feel comfortable with using references because I feel like I'm cheating myself. I know what you'll might say. You might say to use references to help improve and have understanding how things are drawn, which makes sense, but that's not how I roll. I sometimes sit and study parts of Leonardo Da Vinci's artworks to get an idea of how certain body parts look in different angles and I also study good artworks from many people in deviantart. I go and draw to compare my work with other people's work.

Long story short, I know how to draw, but I'm still learning, especially with shading. In case you didn't know, not all professional artists use references. I can name a few artists to prove you wrong. There's artists that draw by pure memory and I happen to be one of them, but nowhere close to their level.

Are you serious? There's plenty of cartoons that lack realistic anatomy structure and the purpose of that is to make the cartoon characters look funny. I'm sure anyone knows this. As far as my artwork, it's not perfect, sure. Nothing is perfect, but I tend to draw things my way in a cartoonish fashion. Everytime I draw my pictures, I look back at my previous artwork and I seem to be gradually getting better everytime. As far as shading, it's still under some work, so next time I post up my next picture, I'll show you what I can really do.

Like you said, I lack some aspects such as shading and depth. When you say those things, it makes me want to work even harder next time. I know that you're trying to help and I appreciate it, but just remember that we all have our own styles of art and people have their opinions on them whether you think it's bad, or good.

Check out this artwork and tell me if it's better than my latest artworks as far as anatomy. Keep in mind that it's purpose to be in a cartoon style art.
http://boobella.deviantart.com/art/Leona-Morimoto-and-Nishizaki-Momone-526644144

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Yo. I'm kinda jumping in at the end here, I haven't read the entire thing.

The first thing I notice about your drawings is not your shading, but your line quality, and the habits that create bad line quality are probably affecting your shading. You want to try and make your strokes smoother and more controlled. As a human being, your body naturally shakes around, so as an artist, you need to take steps to avoid that.

I think you mentioned that you do your art digitally. If so, the best way to improve your line quality is to cheat. Make your images much larger than the resolution you want to publish to. For example, when I want to upload an 800x600 image, I work with an image that is 3200x2400 and scale it down before upload. If you're using Gimp, there's a great setting attached to the Brush and Ink tools called Smooth Stroke, which will mathematically eliminate natural wobbling. Many programs also have vector tools, which will mathematically calculate all of your lines and shapes instead of drawing pixel by pixel, which is what gives Flash cartoons their iconic crisp look.

For most people, line quality is tied to "confidence". Basically, you want to make your strokes very quick and precise, like just flick your wrist and put the mark down. This is really hard to do straight from a blank paper, so it's a great idea to go ahead and make sketchy squiggly lines first, and then make a new layer on top and trace over them, so you don't have to think about what your drawing is going to look like while putting down lines.

Some other suggestions I've heard are to draw with the shoulder, not the wrist. Sit with your back straight and feet flat on the floor. A lot of artists advocate doing daily geometry sketches to work out the muscles in your hand. Lifting weights or doing yoga and playing fast video games are also supposed to improve the muscles. If you go for weights/yoga, remember it's the hand and not the arm or pecs that you want to work out, so you want to be more precise than upper body exercises.

If you're using a mouse, I've found that mousepads have too much friction for drawing. Use cardstock or posterboard under your mouse instead, or printer paper if you can't get a hold of these, but normal paper may pick up little bumps from your desk. You can also turn down your computer's mouse sensitivity, which helps eliminate little jitters and will offset the lack of friction from switching the mousepad to a piece of paper. If you're using a cheap drawing tablet, you may find a tricked out mouse can give you a much better result.

[AntagonistDC]

At 11/1/15 12:10 AM, AcetheSuperVillain wrote: Yo. I'm kinda jumping in at the end here, I haven't read the entire thing.

The first thing I notice about your drawings is not your shading, but your line quality, and the habits that create bad line quality are probably affecting your shading.

Thanks for the tips. I'm about to change up my style a little to see how that turns out. I pretty much reach your whole reply and I'll try out some of the methods.

BTW, what do you think of my artworks in general?

[AcetheSuperVillain]

At 11/1/15 12:22 AM, AntagonistDC wrote:

At 11/1/15 12:10 AM, AcetheSuperVillain wrote: Yo. I'm kinda jumping in at the end here, I haven't read the entire thing.

The first thing I notice about your drawings is not your shading, but your line quality, and the habits that create bad line quality are probably affecting your shading.

Thanks for the tips. I'm about to change up my style a little to see how that turns out. I pretty much reach your whole reply and I'll try out some of the methods.

BTW, what do you think of my artworks in general?

The poor line quality is overwhelming. It's hard for me to really analyze anything else. I don't think your anatomy is too bad for a cartoony look, though, so try to fix that problem and I think your total quality will skyrocket. This guy's actually very good.

You should check out Superion's NSFW sketchbook thread, it sounds like you both have a similar target in mind.

[AntagonistDC]

At 11/1/15 01:33 AM, AcetheSuperVillain wrote:

At 11/1/15 12:22 AM, AntagonistDC wrote:

At 11/1/15 12:10 AM, AcetheSuperVillain wrote: The poor line quality is overwhelming. It's hard for me to really analyze anything else. I don't think your anatomy is too bad for a cartoony look, though, so try to fix that problem and I think your total quality will skyrocket. This guy's actually very good.

You should check out Superion's NSFW sketchbook thread, it sounds like you both have a similar target in mind.

The guy that you mentioned in the first link was actually me. LOL! That was my own artwork I made with Adobe Flash. LOL!

And as for the second link you posted, I've already been to that forum and It looks as if the person probably used Adobe Flash as well. Adobe Flash has very good line quality than photoshop, unfortunately.

Your biggest concern is the outlines of my characters, which doesn't necessarily make them overall bad, right? The reason why the lines on my current pictures have faded lines, or "poor quality lines" is because I wanted to make the art appear smooth and soft, but I guess it didn't go that well, or I didn't put much effort into smoothening the lines.

[StormEngineer]

@AntagonistDC
I think your two greatest problems are not actually related to your art but your attitude:
1; You confuse skill level with style and use style as an excuse.
2; You are very confident about some things that you evidently have a limited understanding of - no offense meant.

Are you serious? There's plenty of cartoons that lack realistic anatomy structure

You still don't understand. I say again: simplified cartoon anatomy is based on firm knowledge of anatomy. Otherwise it won't look funny, it will look bad and amateurish. The ONLY type of cartoon you don't need anatomy skill for is the kind where you intentionally draw shitty, like ragefaces and memes.

and the purpose of that is to make the cartoon characters look funny. I'm sure anyone knows this.

No offense but you are being arrogant, even if you don't realize it. You make statements like you are well learned on a subject when you clearly are not. Put your pride away, and start always looking at your own knowledge with a critical eye. never take anything for granted, and keep questioning yourself.

Don't confuse healthy self-confidence with arrogance, it's an easy pitfall.

Check out this artwork and tell me if it's better than my latest artworks as far as anatomy.

Yes, it is better, sorry. Once again: cartoony does not mean lacking anatomy.

Out of habit, I've been drawing ever since I was 8.

And I was doing the same from an even younger age. And let me tell you a story:

I was VERY talented as a kid - I'm not saying this to brag, keep reading on and you will see my point. So I was very talented, and surpassed everyone of my age greatly, without any art education whatsoever. In preschool I already discovered perspective and basic shading on my own, when fellow kids draw a rectangle with lines coming out one end and called it a tree, I drew a proper tree from the roots up with every single branch and twig and every single leaf drawn. I think I was around your current skill level at the age of 10. And I didn't even care much about drawing, I was just doing it for fun.

And just like you, I thought that various aspects of my artworks are good already. Actually, I thought I don't need art education at all, or doing those boring practices, drawing cubes and vases and other super-boring stuff they do in art schools. I though that's only needed by those who have no talent. And guess what, I couldn't have been more wrong than that!

After I finished secondary school, my friends convinced me that I should get more serious about art and go to art school, so I thought, well, I guess there is still something I can learn there, and it will also be useful to have an art diploma. So I went. And in my whole year, there was only ONE person who was better than me at the point of starting art school. So I still thought I'm good with most stuff.

Now, long story short... yes, I was talented, yes I was better than others at my age, but in the art school I soon realized, that I wasn't actually good. Not at all. At this point I was way beyond your current skill, and yet I had to realize that all of it was really shitty. My anatomy sucked, my shading sucked, my line quality sucked. Only when I was taught some of the basics, did I realize how bad my stuff was.

I was confusing arrogance with self-esteem and self-confidence, just like you do right now, and let me tell you from experience: That took me nowhere. Quite the opposite: I wasted so much time not learning and refining my skills, thinking that they were already good.

Moral of the story: Never assume anything you do is good. Always look for flaws and mistakes, and always assume that there is much to learn.

As for line work, you don't have any line weights. At all. All your lines are the same. Line weight means that some lines are thicker and more opaque while others are thinner and pore transparent, and this is how you give your line work depth and form. Here is a good summary of the basic concepts:
http://michaelmetcalf.deviantart.com/art/Line-weight-Tutorial-384281679

[StormEngineer]

At 11/1/15 01:48 AM, AntagonistDC wrote: And as for the second link you posted, I've already been to that forum and It looks as if the person probably used Adobe Flash as well. Adobe Flash has very good line quality than photoshop, unfortunately.

For the sake of humanity... don't use Flash for drawing. It's not a drawing application. And 100% sure that guy did NOT do that in Flash.

What you confuse Flash with is vector graphics. As opposed to pixel graphics (Photoshop), vector graphics doesn't have any pixels: Everything is described by mathematical algorithms, and that's why lines are perfectly crisp no matter what, and it can be zoomed in to infinite magnification and it will still look perfectly crisp.

Vector graphics is actually good for cartoons. Many cartoonist uses vector graphics applications. From Adobe, that's Illustrator. There is also a free one, called Inkscape.

But you don't need vector for nice lines, just use a Wacom tablet (other brands are very inferior in quality. Yes, Wacom is expensive but worths it, really! I tried other brands and they suck.) and use stroke smoothing/stabilizing in whichever program you use for drawing. Photoshop does have that as well. For a free alternative, use Krita, which is probably the best drawing/painting tool out there at present. Or, since you want cartoons, you may consider Manga Studio which is geared specifically towards cartoons, but it isn't free. Paint Tool Sai is also said to be very good at lines, but it also isn't free, and it is very lacking in other aspects such as brushes.

Your biggest concern is the outlines of my characters, which doesn't necessarily make them overall bad, right?

Let me ask you a question: If there is dish cooked of various delicious ingredients, but somebody peed into it - that doesn't make it overall bad, right?

Art has a few fundamentals, and if any of the fundamentals are bad, the whole thing will look bad. Once the fundamentals are in place, you can have one or two things worse than the rest and still look good - not in every case though.

The reason why the lines on my current pictures have faded lines, or "poor quality lines" is because I wanted to make the art appear smooth and soft, but I guess it didn't go that well

Not really.

You might say to use references to help improve and have understanding how things are drawn, which makes sense, but that's not how I roll

"You can say that learning to drive a car before signing up for a race will help, but that's not how I roll"

Once again, put aside the arrogance and stop making excuses - unless the way "you roll" is the way of doing things the bad way. Doing something wrong and saying "that's how I roll" won't make it not wrong.

-
Anyway... I did what I could in regards of giving a critique. You dismissed most of it without considering. If you still don't want to listen, this is all I could do. I'm out.

[AntagonistDC]

At 11/1/15 01:43 AM, StormEngineer wrote: As for line work, you don't have any line weights. At all. All your lines are the same. Line weight means that some lines are thicker and more opaque while others are thinner and pore transparent, and this is how you give your line work depth and form. Here is a good summary of the basic concepts:
http://michaelmetcalf.deviantart.com/art/Line-weight-Tutorial-384281679

Alright, let's take a look at my earlier artwork. http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/Antagonist-Interrupted-557543018

This is actually a line art I made as well. http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/Antagonist-Line-Art-551333699

I never really wanted lines in my artwork, I actually want it to look similar like this,

http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/This-is-my-dream-120942999

That artwork has some lines in it, but my point is that lines isn't always required to make good artwork. Like I've said before, I was gonna work on another picture, but with a different method of work put into it. I'm gonna show you what I can really do.

[StormEngineer]

They all have lines in them. Are they better than the pictures in this thread now?

There isn't really much difference. There is some line width variation in the second one, but it's not conscious - they are not thicker where they should be and thicker where they shouldn't. See that example I linked to you.

Also, try to set your brush larger, and draw thin lines with very little pressure, so you can easily make thickness with more pressure. It is a good idea to train yourself to draw with very litle pressure by default, and only use more when you want visibly stronger strokes.

I never really wanted lines in my artwork, I actually want it to look similar like this,
http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/This-is-my-dream-120942999

Then what you can do to achieve that result is to simply paint over the lines in the painting phase.

[AntagonistDC]

At 11/1/15 02:48 AM, StormEngineer wrote:

They all have lines in them. Are they better than the pictures in this thread now?

There isn't really much difference. There is some line width variation in the second one, but it's not conscious - they are not thicker where they should be and thicker where they shouldn't. See that example I linked to you.

Also, try to set your brush larger, and draw thin lines with very little pressure, so you can easily make thickness with more pressure. It is a good idea to train yourself to draw with very litle pressure by default, and only use more when you want visibly stronger strokes.

I never really wanted lines in my artwork, I actually want it to look similar like this,
http://antagonistdc.deviantart.com/art/This-is-my-dream-120942999

Then what you can do to achieve that result is to simply paint over the lines in the painting phase.

See that's exactly what I'm talking about. That's the method I was gonna use. All this time I've always been drawing my characters with the pencil tool, and after I finish, I use the smudge tool to smear the lines to get rid of the annoying line pixels to try and give it that smooth edge, which doesn't look that bad at all, but my biggest concern is the shading, because I always use the dodge and burn tool, which actually does make my artwork seem flat and lifeless.

Like I've said before, I was gonna stop my current method and use a new method to show you what I can really do, as far as shading.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

At 11/1/15 01:48 AM, AntagonistDC wrote:

At 11/1/15 01:33 AM, AcetheSuperVillain wrote:

At 11/1/15 12:22 AM, AntagonistDC wrote:

At 11/1/15 12:10 AM, AcetheSuperVillain wrote: The poor line quality is overwhelming. It's hard for me to really analyze anything else. I don't think your anatomy is too bad for a cartoony look, though, so try to fix that problem and I think your total quality will skyrocket. This guy's actually very good.

You should check out Superion's NSFW sketchbook thread, it sounds like you both have a similar target in mind.

The guy that you mentioned in the first link was actually me. LOL! That was my own artwork I made with Adobe Flash. LOL!

And as for the second link you posted, I've already been to that forum and It looks as if the person probably used Adobe Flash as well. Adobe Flash has very good line quality than photoshop, unfortunately.

Your biggest concern is the outlines of my characters, which doesn't necessarily make them overall bad, right? The reason why the lines on my current pictures have faded lines, or "poor quality lines" is because I wanted to make the art appear smooth and soft, but I guess it didn't go that well, or I didn't put much effort into smoothening the lines.

I know that the first one is yours, I'm saying you did that well and you should think about doing more art as you did that one, if you want to improve your quality level.

It's not the blurriness of the lines (although that's not helping) it's the jagged and wobbly look that they have. Using the smooth tool does not hide that. Call it stroke quality if you want, because it will show up everywhere, not just in "lines".

[Bawrf]

At 10/31/15 02:55 PM, AntagonistDC wrote: I actually enjoy drawing women, especially explicit artworks, but I've noticed that I've been getting low ratings on my artwork. I need you guy's opinions on what you think might be wrong. I mean, is it really that bad? No....IS IT REALLY THAT BAD??? I've actually seen plenty of artwork that look as if a 7 year old drew it, yet they get a 4 or 5 star rating? WTF? I honestly don't think my work is terrible, and I also don't think it's perfect either. I just need some criticism on what could be done to improve.

This was an artwork I did not too long ago and the only problem I have is that I put too much emphasis on Amelia's ass.

I have to say your style is awesome! I have no idea why you wouldn't get higher ratings! My opinion is that you are already good at how you draw and there is nothing from my point of view that you need to improve on. This art is cool, creative and very colorful. Keep doing what your doing! :)

[Template88]

^

Says the guy with almost exactly the same problems with his artwork.

Man I dont want to be rude anymore, but seriously. Open the fucking echo chamber dont get trapped in it.

[SourCherryJack]

This thread is cookoo bananas. To the OP I'm gonna echo template and say don't use the burn and dodge tool, the look that creates is just bad, its gross and really pulls any drawing's quality down a lot, flat unshaded colors would look better. Also you should look into some color theory, its a lot to take in, but when you learn how to work with colors better and understand how they interact and play off of each other it opens up a bunch of doors stylistically speaking. Also stop caring about scores, it'll drive you crazy if you let it and no one cares about the guy whining about low scores on his art. As for the content, I find it all really unappealing and "mature" in the most juvenile possible way, you're edging the line between sick perversion- graphic fucking for shock/entertainment value because of the coloring and anatomy, and a genuine wholehearted attempt at drawing erotic depictions and the inbetweenness isn't helping it at all.
I would recommend doing some straight up figure drawings, work on proportions and shading to get the anatomy down if you're trying to not make horrifying graphic nasty stuff, and if you are trying to do horrifying graphic nasty stuff then really push that nastiness and warped proportions