Hello! I'm Dozy Mike, but feel free to call me Mike or Michael or whatever takes your fancy. I'm a self taught traditional artist, at the time of this post I think I've been drawing for a little over a year now. I haven't been able to have much luck in the way of reaching out to other artists or getting genuine feedback on the likes of Instagram or Twitter, so I'm hoping with this thread I'll be able to meet some people and also I'll be able to get my art out there.

I am currently working on a personal project so for the foreseeable future most stuff I make will likely be original concepts and characters relating to that. I do on occasion make fanart though, usually if I don't know what else to do. I mainly work in ink, but will occasionally have coloured pieces

Feel free to leave any comments on stuff you like, stuff you think I can do better, whatever. Cheers!

Off the bat, I guess I should start with this guy. Regarding my personal project, I'm hoping to eventually start making a comic/manga, whatever it'd be called. This is Oliver, who I'm planning to be the main protagonist.

I liked the concept of a main character who isn't exactly super strong. He's mainly based on stereotypical rogues/assassin type characters. The biggest thing I like about him is his big cloak, which I gave him to try and hopefully give him a distinctive silhouette and sort of mysterious look. I am very much not an expert at drawing cloth though, which leads me to question my decision to give him such a cloak lol. Will hopefully get better acquainted with the idea as I draw him more and please feel free to leave any advice you want regarding drawing cloth and robes and stuff like that

Another original character of mine, Andre, named after Andre the Giant for his large and imposing figure. With my characters, I'm attempting to give them at least one feature or object (clothing, weapon, etc.) that is unique to them and gives a good silhouette and everything else can be fairly simple. For this guy, quite obviously, that would be his wings lol.

I think my anatomy skills when it comes to muscle and stuff is fair enough, not spectacular but nothing egregiously bad (gonna take this opportunity to say that is the best hand I have drawn in a while, take that how you will) but bones are definitely a mystery. I attempted to make his bony wings appear believable enough with my limited knowledge. My intention is that they are similar to the bones seen in bat wings but are also similar to human bones. I was able to make this specific image look ok I think, but I'm not sure about some of the bigger intricacies such as how he would fold them from his back or if he even would. If anyone has any particular knowledge regarding bone anatomy I would be happy to hear any advice.

He's also very loosely inspired by the character of Skellig, who appears in the children's book of the same name, for the however many people who read that book in school lol

I mainly draw character art but will occasionally force myself to work on environments. They are by far not my strong point though lol. I've been told they look fine but they just aren't as fun as drawing a character. This one was a little bit more engaging due to the focus on the funny looking tower, whom I have decided to call Nimbus (as in clouds because I am exceedingly creative lol).

The concept was inspired by Ganishka from Berserk (I feel saying much more than that may be considered spoiler territory). I wanted to make a location with a big threatening tower in the distance, so I doodled some ways to achieve a spooky affect. I eventually drew stick like claws on the sides of a tower and thought, "eh, looks kinda cool" so I just rolled with the idea. A fairly simple and borderline childish idea but idk, if I saw an impossibly huge tower with arms I feel like I would be fairly intimidated

I'm not confident something like this would be allowed on the art portal or not, I still am a bit confused on how this site works cuz I'm new, but I don't think there's anything wrong with posting this here.

I'm hoping to design more monster characters for my project and this was the very first one I came up with. I don't have a specific name for it but have taken to calling it an imp, as that was an inspiration for the design. The term imp is also just meant to imply that this is going to be a fairly weak monster compared to others, which is why his design is mostly just a simple humanoid. Although inspired by an imp, the face was more inspired by the hannya (which I first saw as Majima's tattoo in the Yakuza series).

My goal was mainly just to make an a freaky looking almost-human, with similar but more deformed and jagged anatomy. I'm pretty happy with him, even though he might look somewhat generic. I might rework him a bit to have freakier looking legs or something, but he does his job for now lol

May as well show some coloured art I've done. This first piece was made about a month ago, had just started watching Attack on Titan again in prep for the final season. Was my first time using ink for the lineart of a piece and I like how it ended up a lot more defined than previous coloured piece I've done. The reflection in the sword was tricky but I kinda like what I managed. That said, not so certain about uploading this anywhere but here cuz it's fairly old work. It's just also one of the few colour pieces I'd be willing to show, since my previous stuff just looked plain messy and scuffed lol

This is a more recent piece that I feel is a lot more vibrant and interesting to look at. I don't do furry art really, just I'm a big fan of Beastars and felt like doing some fanart at the time. Was also a fairly experimental piece for me, with the use of ink for shading and the wonky perspective I chose to give it a more surreal look.

I don't always make coloured pieces, currently that's a very occasional thing. The reason being that in the time it takes to colour a piece, I could have refined two different pieces using ink. Coloured pencil takes so long to blend and I haven't really used stuff like watercolour before (I know I'd need some type of specific paper for that I think). May have to eventually make some more coloured pieces eventually though

The sharp lines and detail in all of these are attractive. Like in Oliver's hair.

I like the robe. For drawing cothes I'd use a reference picture and zone out while getting into the folds. Maybe for a robe, Assassin's Creed or a movie like Robin Hood or Silas from The Da Vinci Code or even Rocky.

Wings are like webbed hands with elongated fingers usually. Check out Smaug's wing's. I think the fingers/spines should all come from one point in each of Andre's wings and they can still look right if they're bat-like and slender vs human bones. And they could fold against or right into his back or be taller than him and fold around him (and any lady friends he might have) like a tent or cocoon. Andre makes me wanna work out. Yeah that's a satisfying hand touching the ground lol. Also love the crosshatching in the background.

I'm also gonna check out Skellig even if I'm too old for it, just because I like the name David Almond.

(I didn't draw that Devimon, I Google-imaged it)

Thanks for the feedback! I'll try out a different design for Andre's wings next time to look more like you describe

If I remember right, Skellig is good, has some pretty deep topics for a kid's book

Another character I've been working on called George

This guy is the hardest to draw for two reasons: his face is the most distinct and requires a little more detail than the others, who generally have much simpler faces. He also wears a big black shirt, which can be tricky to make look 3-dimensional. This was a good exercise for me, cuz I got to think a bit more on how the shirt would be affected by light

I'm gonna have to study fire a bit more I think, it's still sorta tricky to get right. I'm usually afraid to make it look too solid when I'm using ink so it took a little bit more planning to execute than all the other elements

So, I know I said the old man was the hardest character for me to draw but I completely forgot how awful I am at drawing women lol. Still working on a name for her, but I've been calling her Bonny Anne

I understand the basic ideas like wider hip to shoulder ratio, softer features, etc. but it's still a big challenge for me. I prefer working in boxier shapes and having very bold, defined lines and features. Any advice whatsoever on drawing women is greatly appreciated

Oh yeah, also I meant for the waves to be way more detailed and show highlights and stuff, but it made everything look too busy and unfocused so I had to settle on a solid black as a stylistic choice

One of my favourite things to draw are monsters. Nice to take a break from perfect anatomy and proportions and be free to make my ow little abomination lol

The concept for this character originally started as this vague idea of a creature held down to the earth. I had the visual of a sticky toffee sweet stuck to a carpet. I also wanted to make it look like it was once human, so there's some inspiration here and there from different incarnations of zombies. I took inspiration from Dead Space Necromorphs, The Tarman from Return of the Living Dead and some loose inspiration from the Nachzehrer from German folklore (although that is more to do with backstory I'm still cooking up lol)

Not sure on an actual name I would give him, but monster dude works fine for now lol

I went through a little bit of art block where I both could't come up with anything to do and Couldn't seem to be able to make the lines I wanted to make. I did manage to come up with one halfway decent piece.

This is another character I've been working on, who I've been calling David. I'm not so creative with names, but I like my characters having somewhat simple and average names, makes them feel a bit more human in a way. He's kinda meant to be a stereotypical hero character but with a massive ego. I always draw him looking sorta smug. I based him off a couple of different characters, the most prominent being Balthier from Final Fantasy 12. I also took inspiration from characters in professional wrestling when making his design and personality, specifically I drew inspiration from Shawn Michaels and Dolph Ziggler.

If anyone winds up reading this, I would definitely love advice on how to draw when you're going through art block. I really wanted to make a more dynamic piece of him swinging his sword or something but everything I tried sorta failed. I usually struggle to make super dynamic poses as well, which is a bit of a worry of mone for when I start my comic because I can't just draw various standing poses and nothing else lol.

Decided to do a change of pace and make a coloured piece. I watch a lot of streams while drawing and would occasionally watch vtubers. Gives me a good excuse to make fanart and practice drawing girls, since I trend to draw guys a whole lot more.

Pretty happy with this piece, I don't always draw things to look cute so it was an interesting change of pace lol

One major challenge I have when drawing is probably trying to show motion in a pose. I tend to draw things involving a quiet or sometimes imposing atmosphere. I don't always draw action packed stuff, so I often get lost in the twists and turns of a really dynamic pose

I think I did ok on this piece, though it is mainly saved by the background I feel. I feel like I at least learned a lot and will be able to make cooler stuff in future, so that's the main thing. Plus, this is a bit of a personal victory for me since I tried something like this last week and couldn't come up with anything lol

Any advice on making my poses more dynamic would be appreciated. I do a lot of gesture drawing and can get dynamic poses from a good reference, just I struggle to apply that knowledge to account for a different camera angle or showing exaggeration in the pose.

Super happy with this piece! I don't quite know how I got this, I was sorta braindead drawing this but I'm not complaining lol

I've discovered that Oliver is super easy to draw, which will be great cuz I plan for him to be the protag of my comic idea. I really just have to find his shoulders, sometimes his arms, and I just pop a head on top of there. Granted, certain poses will have to be more complex but this was a great exercise for me in terms of simplification

I also toyed around with some stylistic stuff. I've recently been trying to work on my lineart a bit and make it look more interesting. A bi inspiration for me when I was starting art was Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, and that show has some extremely bold and poppy lineart. So, I've been trying to make it just as bold but still with some variation for stuff like clothing folds and facial features that require a bit of a more delicate approach.

Change in perspective is the cure to art block. I don't know what I'm talking about but speaking of perspective, David and Bonny-Anne's chins seem to point down while their noses point up!

Do you use figure skeletons to start your drawings? I love them because they let you form the 3d-ness and gesture of your character and then the lines overtop can be confident and energetic. And putting your characters in sequence will force you to have them in action. You can learn about your characters by making a comic of them.

Thanks for the point on the noses, they can sometimes be the part of the face I put the least effort into haha

I would often use simple skeletons to start off a figure, just a little stickman to show where the bones might be. It's very helpful, though occasionally I go straight to the basic shapes to get an overall idea on things. Really depends how on my game I am that day lol

Been watching Godzilla movies for the first time and am getting a little obsessed lol. Decided to do a bit of fanart for fun and make my own design for him

I kinda meshed together bits and bobs from different Godzillas, particularly the new Monsterverse Godzilla and Shin Godzilla. I also made him look a bit more reptilian, with most inspiration coming from Komodo Dragons. I think I could have made him bulkier and I'm not super happy with his colours but the latter is just an issue with not having the exact colours I envisioned in my toolkit lol

Been working a bit on André, particularly his wings and trying to make him look tougher looking and imposing. Unfortunately, I've been lacking any kind of inspiration so I'm not entirely happy with these pieces. It's most likely a case of being too in my head but still, I feel I can do better

I don't always do environment pieces cuz I kinda struggle with still life. Not necessarily drawing things accurately, although I do prefer the less rigid nature of the human body, but just making things look interesting. Frankly, I just don't find it as interesting lol. But, I'm more or less okay with how this ended up

I worry it looks a little empty but the concept is just a little village by the sea, with the only thing of note being a mysterious altar. So, I suppose it's fine of it looks empty, it kinda adds to the lonely nature of it. But, I'll hold my hands up and say it was not 100% intentional lol. That said, I'll probably try and make it intentional in the future and try and use emptiness in more interesting ways

Been watching some NJPW matches lately. I never really caught up much with the promotion but my favourite matches were always from Katsuyori Shibata. I'm usually bad at getting likenesses down since my style isn't exactly realistic, but I'm fairly happy with how this turned out

I've been dealing with some personal issues recently so my output hasn't exactly been great but I'm hoping to get some more stuff done soon and get out of this funk lol

Dunno what NJPW matches are but I love that last piece. His stillness coheres with the blue flame. Hey, for women, try loosening up the lines. And for landscapes, reference photos will expand what you can draw. National Geographic has an infinite supply of environment photos, but I don't know how to search for the specific ones you want.

Been working on a new side character. Not really a finished piece so I'm just dumping them here. I do plan to finish a proper piece with this guy soon though, hopefully will have that posted either tomorrow or the next lol

Haven't really been drawing much lately due to life getting busy again, but I'll still try to keep things updated here.

Wee drawing of my new blacksmith character. Still feel I suck at backgrounds, sometimes wish I could get by just doing characters lol

May not be posting much in the next week or so (not like I was banging things out before but still). Wanna get coursework wrapped up so I can focus more on art, plus I want to work on other parts of this comic I wanna do, like the story and such. May give me an excuse to do more fanart for a bit but I suppose we'll see lol

This is purely just me being fussy, here is another version with the bottom stretched out a bit. I just really liked how I did the anvil and this shows it off a little bit more lol

Been super busy lately, so just drew something easy. Gonna have to get new pens soon. That cross hatching thing I do looks good when I can't be arsed with a background, but it probably uses up a lot of ink lol

Posted the wrong one again lol

I can tell you occasionally use reference for your characters, but it looks like you go totally off the dome with environments. If you're not as interested in them or don't care, maybe approach it from the perspective of aiding character design. Take something like the blacksmith's forge/shop and approach it as an extension of that character's personality. Is there more to this man's life than a few rectangles sitting on a bubble hill? If so, how can that be reflected in his surroundings? A little bit of research can go a long way.

Thanks for the advice!

You'd be right about saying I draw environments off of my head. I'll occasionally use reference when there's an object that's a bit more in focus (like the campfire one) but in general, I tend to just go off the cuff. Probably not a good habit to be in admittedly.

I think I'll try to approach it a bit more like you mentioned. I've got a piece I'm working on currently that I'm actually thinking of redoing with a new background, so I'll probably take the opportunity to really focus on that. Once again, thanks for the feedback!

Been working on this piece on and off between coursework, hopefully I'll be able to get caught up soon so I can draw more.

I redrew this piece a couple of times, I wanted to try and get a more interesting background with this piece. I actually enjoyed it a lot more once I found a bit of structure to it and used more references. Still don't think it's my strong suit but maybe a step above the backgrounds I did before